Dr. Frank Nabwiso, a former lawmaker from Kagoma, has pleaded with Dr. Besigye to save the party he fought so hard to create.
The Party’s Secretary General, Nandala Mafabi, and the current FDC President, Patrick Amuriat, have come under fire from Dr. Besigye for allegedly accepting funding from the NRM.
The once-dominant opposition party may become divided into factions as a result of the money scandal. Erias Lukwago, the Kampala Lord Mayor, and a number of MPS, including Ibrahim Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, among others, appear to be members of the Katonga group led by Dr. Kiiza Besigye and associated with the Najjanakumbi faction led by Nathan Nandala Mafabi and Patrick Oboi Amuriat.
The three hundred million shillings that Dr. Besigye said he received from Nandala Mafabi were the subject of an investigation by a six-person committee led by Dr. Nabwiso, who spoke at a press conference on Wednesday at the Party’s headquarters.
The Elders’ Reconciliation Committee report about the money, which the Katonga side continues to refer to as “dirty money,” was rejected by Dr. Besigye and others, and the press soon followed.
Dr. Besigye was urged by Nabwiso and other Elder’s Reconciliation Committee members to avoid undermining their own legacy. Nabwiso declared, “We want to implore him on our knees that he refrain from doing that.
The Nabwiso said that Nandala Mafabi informed his committee that a proposal for the party leadership to obtain a loan to finance the 2021 elections had been accepted by the FDC’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
However, Nabwiso and his committee didn’t indicate whether they looked into the borrower or source, how much was borrowed, or the terms and conditions of the loan.
Nandala allegedly removed the funds from his Stanbic Bank account, according to him.
The committee, lead by Nabwiso, was pleased with Nandala’s statement and decided not to look into it further.
On Monday, Dr. Besigye discredited the Nabwiso committee’s conclusions regarding the money’s origin. Mafabi Nandala. Nabwiso and other members of the committee appeared to be upset by Besigye’s position.
According to Besigye, the committee report was not worth the paper it was printed on.
He said that the committee’s appointment by the party president, who was also one of the recipients of the disputed funds, created a conflict of interest from the outset.
Besigye added that one of the committee members had resigned, citing things like the fact that Nandala Mafabi’s committee secretary wasn’t accurately recording the sessions’ proceedings.
Besigye further claimed that Nabwiso had compromised his objectivity in the situation by meeting with Nandala and Amuriat before the report was published.
However, Nabwiso discounted Dr. Besigye’s opinion of the report, claiming that even reports from significant organizations like the World Bank are debunked.
He claimed that Amuriat could not have had a conflict of interest when making the appointments because he was not under investigation at the time.
Nabwiso claimed that the member who resigned failed to inform the committee of his resignation and the reasons behind it.
He claimed that Twesigye Katembeya participated in creating the report’s first draft and attended committee meetings, but that when they learned of his resignation, they were shocked.
Nabwiso refuted claims that his encounter with Nandala and Amuriat was related to the investigations.
He clarified that the discussion was not in any way related to the investigations and was instead focused on the level of poverty in Busoga.
The FDC had intended to hold its internal elections notwithstanding the conflicts.
Some party members demanded that the elections be postponed until the issues are resolved and the Electoral Commission is more organized, including the party’s Deputy President in charge of Buganda Erias Lukwago, the spokesperson for the party Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, and others.
Nandala and Amuriat insisted on the polls, claiming they could not go against the party’s constitution.
Although there is strong opposition to the elections, supporters claim that on July 21, the party started holding them in Ugandan villages.
On July 28, at a special National Council meeting held in Najjanankumbi, it was decided that in the areas where polls were held, the results counted, and that supplementary elections would be held in the remaining areas.
John Kikonyogo, the deputy spokesperson for the party, reaffirmed the party’s position and asked other party members to vote.
According to him, those who are offended by any party members, especially leaders, have the ability to remove them from office if they take part in elections or to murder them if that is an option.
As it had the most elected members of parliament, the FDC held the top opposition political position in Uganda until the general elections of 2021.
Similar disputes have in the past caused the party to split, giving rise to the Alliance for National Transformation, which is now led by Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu, a former FDC party president.
Although it is unclear how the current dispute will be resolved, all indications point to the possibility of another party split.
The FDC whip in parliament, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, who represents the Kira municipality and serves as the party’s spokesperson, was fired.
Full Statement
PRESS RELEASE ON 9TH AUGUST 2023 FROM THE SPECIAL FDC ELDERS COMMITTEE (SEC).
This release is titled “Honorables Besigye, Amuriat and Mafabi will still be needed when rebuilding FDC”.
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Good morning Honourable Members of the Press. We salute you for the great struggles you are engaged in to become the fourth Estate in Uganda’s Governance system.
1.2 The purpose of this press release is fourfold:
(a) To remind you the press, of the Terms of Reference (TOR) which our SEC was requested to concentrate on during our investigations;
(b) To respond to some of the allegations which some of the Senior FDC Leaders have made against SEC;
(c) To reiterate some of the recommendations we proposed to make FDC stronger in the future, particularly in the next 30 months (September 2023 to December 2025) before the next fraudulent general elections in January 2026.
(d) To remind Ugandans that political liars and fraudsters are found in and political parties in Uganda.
1.3 This release is our clarion call and humble appeal to all FDC Leaders in different corners of Uganda to stop washing our political underwear in the public and confusing innocent members of the Party in Uganda’s 72,000 villages. It is based on the FDC’s motto. In other words, we should rise above our individual interests, religious beliefs and ethnic groups because we are one people who belong to one Country.
1.4 As is already known, on Friday 28th July 2023, five members of the SEC formally presented our 19 page Report to the FDC National Council Meeting here in the FDC Headquarters. We were Frank Nabwiso (the Chairperson, from Busoga Sub-Region), Tiko Martha Ondoga (from West Nile Sub-region), Emusu Joel Ediegu (from Teso Sub-Region) and Mukalazi Kibuka and Robinson Kasozi (from Buganda). The 6th member, Stanley Tugume Katembeya (from Ankole Sub-Reion and Vice-Chairperson of our Committee) resigned from the Committee after participating in the formulation of the first draft of the Report, while Charles Makaru (from Kanungu) did not attend any meeting for unknown reasons.
1.5 Hon. Amuriat (the Current FDC Party President) who officially appointed us revealed that our names were approved by the FDC National Executive Committee of the Party. We therefore, got the impression that we were appointed on merit, and not as sycophants to some of the current FDC Leaders.
2.0 Our Terms of Reference.
2.1 Please note the eight (8) TOR we were directed to focus on. In summary, we were asked to help in reconciling the aggrieved parties in FDC but not to create more divisions among them. TOR no.6 gave us 10 days to carry out our investigations and make appropriate recommendations to enable the party to move forward more peacefully and reasonably. So, those who believe that we did shoddy work can still ask for another Committee to satisfy their assertions.
2.2 We are also aware that even World Bank Reports have been criticized by different scholars and ordinary analysts. So, our Report is not perfect and none of us who wrote it is perfect.
3.0 Some allegations made against us.
3.1 The first one is that we doctored the Report in favour of Hon. Nathan James Nandala Mafabi or that he dictated to us what we should write about him. This allegation came from some newspapers, allegedly from Hon. Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, Hon. Erias Lukwago and Doreen Nyanjura (the MP for Kira Municipality,the Lord Mayor of Kampala and Deputy Lord Mayor of Kampala respectively). While they are entitled to their opinions about us, it is still their responsibility to prove why we don’t have independent minds.
3.2 Dr. Kizza Besigye the first President of the Party described our Report as “not being worth the paper it was written on”. He further asserted that:
(a) he gave us the serial numbers of the new money notes of shs 300,000,000/= which Hon. Mafabi asked him to keep in his house for FDC election agents;
(b) that “we did not resolve the unresolved dirty money issue”
( c) that we did not inquire into the current accounts and financial records using forensic methods;
(d) that in Hon. Mafabi’s statements to us, he never mentioned the shs 280,000,000/= which he gave to Hon. Amuriat.
(e ) that “we selectively and inaccurately recorded” what he told us.
3.3 In our response the TOR advised us not to engage in witch hunting games. If Hon. Mafabi had hidden the shs 300,000,000/= elsewhere, Dr. Besigye would not have known about it, so this saga would not have emerged. Additionally, Dr. Besigye never disclosed to us the name of his informer about the “dirty money” so we could not interrogate such a person whereas Hon. Amuriat admitted to us that he indeed obtained shs 280,000,000/= from Hon. Mafabi for election agents.
On the other hand, Hon. Mafabi was authorized to borrow money for the Party and he complied, he also tendered some bank papers which showed that he withdrew money from his own Bank account in Stanbic Kyambogo Branch to use in the Party elections while Dr. Besigye did not prove to us that that money came from Sate House. In any case, the serial numbers on the new notes which he recorded still did not confirm to us that the money was from State House and the notes which Dr. Besigye received was not the same he gave back to the FDC Headquarters. It should also be noted that new money notes given to State House can still end up in Commercial Banks when paying suppliers or other clients.
4.0 The other ills we identified.
We observed that Dr. Besigye’s refusal to campaign for Amuriat disadvantaged other FDC candidates but he did not comment on that matter. Nor did he respond to our observations on the need for the Party to continue participating in elections while simultaneously organizing activities to pressurize Government to make political and socio-economic reforms.
He also did not say anything about the growing disagreement between Katonga and Najjanankumbi.
5.0 Our Recommendations to make FDC Stronger.
We made 8 recommendations to help the Party grow. We focused on the need for reconciliation, tolerance, grooming young leaders, amendment of the FDC Constitution, development of party alliances in Uganda, writing a book on the history of FDC and the challenges of managing opposition parties in Africa and Uganda. On the other hand, Dr. Besigye’s only recommendation to the Party is carrying out a forensic investigation on money from hostile sources.
Signed
Dr. Frank Nabwiso
CHAIRPERSON OF THE SPECIAL ELDERS COMMITTEE (SEC)