Why Mbabazi Deserted Museveni

Prior to his sacking on September 18 last year, ex-premier Amama Mbabazi held a personal secret meeting in respect to his future at his home in Kololo.

His wife Jackie didn’t attend this meeting but she knew about it only that she chose not to attend so as to test Mbabazi’s seriousness in responding to situations.

Mbabazi allegedly had a tendency of over trusting president Museveni to the extent that when briefs suggesting contrary information about Museveni but targeting Mbabazi were brought to him, he usually played them off.

“Are you sure? I don’t think so” he would allegedly respond before adding that ‘anyway, I will talk to him (Museveni) about it’

But this time round, something unusual was brought to him which he interpreted as a plot to eliminate him.

The meeting was prompted by a message which president Museveni allegedly told one of the lawyers representing then renegade general David Sejusa.

Museveni told this Muganda lawyer to deliver the verbal message to Mbabazi.

This was at the time when Gen. David Sejusa was still a political threat and was blasting Museveni’s regime while away in self imposed exile.

We were told that Museveni at one time summoned this Sejusa lawyer to state house Entebbe to ask him about Sejusa and whether he was willing to return to the country.

In that meeting however, sources told us that the lawyer was shocked when the president allegedly told him to go and deliver a message to his then Prime Minister Mbabazi.

The message was to the effect that Museveni had gotten hard hitting intelligence information pinning Mbabazi on being part of Sejusa project.

Indeed, this message reached Mbabazi though it wasn’t this lawyer who personally delivered it but through one of Mbabazi aides then.

The boy who delivered the message first briefed his wife Jackie on the whole message and Jackie asked him to deliver the message directly to the big man.

The big man at the time was in his bedroom.

The boy was asked to climb the steps to meet Mbabazi upstairs.

Mbabazi appeared wearing shorts and couldn’t believe the kind of message allegedly coming from Museveni.

After this briefing to him, Mbabazi allegedly responded by thanking the boy but also said that “So, he (Museveni) thinks I am part of Sejusa? That means I can die any time. It means they can kill me?” sources quoted him as saying with concerned eyes while moving around his house.

In fact, our sources told us that since then, Mbabazi’s attitude towards Museveni changed though he remained in government serving.

According to insiders, Mbabazi was also being accused of allegedly being behind a botched attempt in which members of parliament wanted to impeach the president.

This was a few months after former Libyan leader Muammer Qaddafi had been toppled.

The MPs led by Odonga Otto and Ibrahim Semujju Nganda stunned the nation when on May16/2012 just one year into 4th term, penned a letter asking Museveni to quit power within 60 days.

The letter was titled as ‘CALL FOR RESIGNATION PRIOR TO IMPEACHMENT FROM OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA’.

In this letter, the plotters raised several issues.

One of them was that Museveni needed to pack up after the public accounts committee [PAC] indicted him on the shoddy award of shs142bn to city tycoon Basajjabalaba.

He was accused by PAC of penning numerous letters directing that this cash be paid.

The same Museveni was accused of disregarding parliament resolution passed on October 11/2011 stopping government not to proceed with signing of any oil contract without necessary oil laws, but he went ahead and did so.

He was also accused of running a sectarian government where key government positions are held by his patronage cronies contrary to the National objectives III, VI and VII of the constitution.

The same MPs took issues with Museveni’s age which they claimed that it was too advanced for him to continue running government.

They advised him that in case they went ahead with their impeachment project, whatever Museveni had done was going to be washed under the carpet in case he was pushed to resign within 60 days.

“It is our prayer that you take our submission seriously and urgently. However, should you decide to do otherwise, you will suffer the wrath and humiliation of impeachment,” they summed up their letter a copy of which we obtained.

Now, according to insiders in NRM, the two MPs were reportedly working on Mbabazi’s behalf but indirectly.

It was however, unclear how they got into contact with him because the duo belongs to opposition FDC.

Interestingly, whatever matter they raised in this letter, has now been raised by Mbabazi after declaring his presidential bid.

“Mbabazi never leaves any footmarks. He is a very clever man. Whatever was raised in this impeachment letter is what he is saying right now. He is in court over Museveni’s age; he is now talking about corruption and misuse of public funds by Museveni. The whole plot started long ago,” sources stated.