The NRM Vice Chairman, Eastern Uganda, Capt. Mike Mukula has threatened to step down from the position if the Vice President, Jessica Alupo continues dividing members of the party in his area of jurisdiction.
This emanates from the recently concluded Soroti East Division Constituency by-elections in Soroti City won by the NRM’s Herbert Edmund Ariko who garnered 9,407 votes, ahead of Moses Okia Attan of the FDC with 8,771 and Pascal Amuriat of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) with 115 votes.
From the onset, the organization and later campaigns, were fully manned jointly by the party’s Secretariat and the region’s Vice Chairman, Mike Mukula until days to polling when Alupo traveled to the area and singlehandedly ‘reorganized’ the NRM team canvassing votes for Herbert Ariko without engaging team on ground.
Alupo is said to have been deployed personally by the President in Soroti to among others handle individuals who had willingly pulled out of the race, and also work with team on ground to ensure NRM’s victory.
Her changes saw former Tororo MP Sanjay Tana deployed deployed in the Central Ward as part of the team headed by General Jeje Odongo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
She would later on July 25, hold a closed-door meeting with leaders in Soroti still without the involvement of both the Secretariat and regional party leadership, causing concerns about what her actual intentions were, thus sparking confusion among the members on which direction to take.
According to Kasambya County MP, David Kabanda, the chaos were caused by Vice President Alupo who advised against fielding an NRM Candidate.
“On June 28th 2022 in a meeting at President Museveni’s home in Ntungamo, HE Jesica Alupo advised that NRM shouldn’t front a candidate in the Soroti Byelection in favour of FDC’s Moses Attan. This was rejected by the President,” Kabanda posted on Twitter.
Nile Post, a local news publication, reported that at the beginning of the campaigns, a section of NRM members was swayed by speaker Anita Among to appoint blue-eyed boy Herbert Ariko as flagbearer, this was however not a popular candidate within the ranks.
Mukula was one of the people who insisted against Ariko, urging that in any case, one Samuel Egunyu stood a better chance at upstaging the FDC candidate.
The matter was presented to President Museveni who indeed, agreed with Mukula that Egunyu was by far a better candidate and stood more ground.
However, Anita Among was not willing to cede ground, further insisting that Ariko would be supported all the way to victory. Members in Among’s camp then set out to negotiate deals with Ariko’s competitors in the yellow camp, according to Nile Post.
Mukula was convinced on the side and he crossed, while Egunyu would later be presented to Museveni in Ntungamo where he accepted to stand down in an undisclosed deal. Three other people were convinced to follow Egunyu, leaving Ariko with an empty track to sprint home.
Indeed, on the ground, Alupo’s works didn’t involve the leadership of the party in the region but instead worked with Gen Jeje Odongo, Musa Ecweru, Hellen Adoa, Sidronius Okaasai and Robinah Nabbanja. She did not at any single moment reach out to Mukula, at least by phone.
Questions then rose on whether by this, she intended to undermine the structure of the party or to frustrate Ariko’s victory for purposes of political dominance in the Teso Sub region since his win would usher in another ‘pro Anita Among’ legislator.
Nevertheless, Ariko the NRM candidate won with a difference of over 600 votes. The expected obvious would be that NRM members especially leaders who were on ground, reach out to Ariko to congratulate him upon the victory but alas, it is said that the VP has up to today not personally called Ariko to congratulate him, creating more questions of whether she actually wished him victory.
Mukula speaks out
Meanwhile, whereas all that transpired, the Mukula camp remained tight-lipped about the same despite our constant requests for a comment.
However, a day from elections, a furious Mike Mukula addressed the media revealing that the Vice President had caused more harm to the party in Teso by dividing the members and as well, working with the opposition.
“I want to emphasize what some of you (reporters) have picked the internal contradictions in the party which I noted, and I am very concerned as the Chairman of the region that the NRM is a very strong party very strong, it is a mass party but it is being drawn into personal attacks and wars something we must avoid at any cost if we have got to stand a test of time,” Mukula said.
“I noticed in these campaigns that people and groups were working in avoidance of the structures of the party, working in silos – a party can not work like this, it must remain cohesive. I must say without mincing my words that I noted that even during this time, my sister, the Vice President, H.E Jessica Alupo was working in isolation in silos, camped in another area, avoided getting in contact with the Secretary General, Chairman of the region not even one call”
“She did not even get in touch with Chairman of the City where the activity was taking place, she was some times even working with the opposition. This is very unfortunate. The Ministers were divided, she has caused such internal contradictions in the Teso Sub-region that you will now have Ministers who are loyal to her and others who are loyal to another camp. You have MPs who are loyal to her and others who are not working for her, this is very unfortunate, you don’t do this, it is not the way the party works,” he added.
Mukula who described the behavior of the Vice President in Soroti as very unfortunate, noted that people are either for NRM or you are on the other side, revealing that contractions if not addressed will weaken the party.
“You recall at one time during Tito Okello’s time – the uncoordinated troop movement. It caused a lot of distortions. Some of must have seen how working with those who have been rejected by people here and you could the reaction of the people in Madela and Morapesu where they actually embarrassed the VP – people rejecting association. So to me, without mincing my words, I want to say, and some of them I will deepen internally, that some of these internal contradictions are alive,” he said.
“I am very concerned that some people play the cards of intrigue, scheming, manipulation and they need to brought out to the open. They region should never be divided. During our time, we have never had two Parliamentary groups with one on one side and the other on another side. How do you work like that? I have been a member of parliament for a long time, how do you have two Parliamentary groups in Teso as it was in Busoga where MP paid allegiance to certain people.”
“It is important that for us we reject that position, I reject this position. I rather step aside from being the NRM Vice Chairman, Eastern region than to divide my people, that I will not accept, I will not accept confusion in the party,” he further explained.
She ferried-in people from from outside Teso that they are going to organize elections in the Soroti City East, what are talking about? You bring Sanjay Tana from Tororo, you bring him here to reorganise campaigns, what are these people doing here? Why import people from far away – are you trying to say that the people of Teso don’t have the capacity to mobilise, this is ironical, it is unacceptable, I reject that position, Mukula stressed.
He notes that if they are to build a strong party, they need to ensure that they focus on issues not trivialities.
“My sister Alupo likes going into petty quarrels, she wants to fight every one, it is the reason the politics of Katakwi is full of confusion. Once you are appointed as the Vice President of the Country, you are a mother of a country, embrace everybody. I encourage my sister to learn to work luke President Museveni who works with everybody, he can even talk to Joseph Kony and those fights against him. He embraces everybody. But, these trivialities, petty wars will not help this region and the country, ” he said.
“We are now talking about East African political integration, NRM’s ideological point number two is pan-Africanism. We are looking at bigger picture yet some people are looking at smaller pictures, that is not the way to go and now how we build the country,” he added.
He said he will expound more on this at what he called an appropriate time and before imploring the President, who also doubles as the party’s National Chairman, to address these issues because they caused a lot of problems to them on ground.
“Now that the election is behind it, we can unpack these matters and I want to state very clearly that we are now going to consolidate the strength of the party in the region, we are going to work hard to ensure that internal cohesion is maintained. At an appropriate time, we are going to call a much wider workshop to walk people through revolutionary methods of work because the NRM is a revolutionary party and we want to ensure that I move aside, the youth who are coming in know exactly big picture and focus on it,” said Mukula.
He reiterated that he has been in politics for some longer time than most of the politicians trying to undermine the party but has never in his time of politics come out to raise such issues.
“I have come out purely because I am seeing a problem beginning to crip-in in Teso and it is getting very very critical. At one point we had differences between the Kumam and the Iteso which the President resolved. I want to tell you that that matter is now behind us but divisions in the region are beginning to come again, we want to avoid them.
He said the President has given the region number 2 in the country something they should be proud of.
“The moment we start fighting as leaders, we embarrass the President, the people and putting the region into a very difficult situation and this will be very difficult to cure because it will live as long as those divisions exist,” said Mukula.