By Our Online Team

18^th July 2011:

Mind the Gap: Mbabazi-Museveni shake hands

The “Okwalinga Scoop Team” has now established that the so called special relationship between General Yoweri Museveni, and his long time Lieutenant John Patrick Amama Mbabazi, has taken a sharp dive.

The president has now given Mbabazi an ultimatum on several issues in an attempt to curtail the clout of this NRM top dog who is now perceived as a threat to the president after their big fall out during the recent rigged elections.  It must be reported here that the two were not even talking during the period to the elections.

The conflict between the two escalated as a result of personal interest and intrigue during the NRM primaries in which Amama Mbabazi manipulated most of the exercise in order to bring in mostly the people who are closer to him.  In turn, Museveni, also using some anti-Mbabazi forces, made sure that some of Mbabazi’s closest confidants were defeated in their bid to come to parliament.

The situation became more fluid when Mbabazi tried in vain to convince Museveni to prevail upon the NRM leaning independent candidate for  Kabale district woman MP Ninsiima Rhona to stand down in favour of Hope Mwesigye who is Amama Mbabazi’s sister-in-law.  Mbabazi had also asked Museveni to promise Ninsiima a fat government job in exchange, something that Museveni flatly refused.

As if that was not enough, the First Lady Janet Museveni [allegedly] sponsored Ninsiima [with 300 million shillings] in a bid to defeat Hope Mwesigye who is a sworn enemy of the First Lady for reasons that we shall not go into at this time.

The deterioration of the relationship between the two men [Mbabazi and Museveni] went into high gear when Museveni decided to appoint Henry Banyenzaki Minister of State for Economic Monitoring; something that Mbabazi detested but could not stop.  Banyenzaki is not only a sharp critic of Mbabazi, but he also [allegedly] worked with First Lady to ensure Hope Mwesigye’s defeat.

After the rigged elections, Museveni decided to pitch camp at his country home of Rwakitura and refused to take any calls from Amama Mbabazi.  We understand Museveni appointed Mbabazi Prime Minister without consulting him as a way of kicking him out of the powerful posts of NRM Secretary General and Minister of Security.

It is also said that Museveni’s decision to appoint Muruli Mukasa as the new Minister of Security was deliberate because Muruli Mukasa has very bad blood towards Amama Mbabazi.  It is also alleged that while he was still Security Minister, Mbabazi, using his loyal staff in ISO, collected a lot of information illegally and tapped telephone calls of members of the First Family.

After these phone tapping allegations came to light, Museveni is believed to have sent a message to Mbabazi instructing him to respond to the development and also do whatever it takes to see that he leaves the post of NRM Secretary General before the end of August 2011.

According to impeccable sources, Museveni went further and informed Mbabazi that he was concerned that Mbabazi was interfering with the work of the acting IGG and demanded an answer on these allegations; something Mbabazi has refused to respond to.

Mbabazi questions Otafire’s competence

The other point of conflict was Mbabazi’s alleged decision to write to Museveni questioning Otafire’s competence as Minister of Justice.  Our sources say Mbabazi’s letter also met no response from Museveni.  It is an open secret that Museveni appointed Otafire to become Minister of Justice to counter Mbabazi’s influence.

There is now very high tension in the intelligence organisations regarding the reshuffles Museveni is about to make in which most of the officers Mbabazi recruited are expected to be replaced.  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.

The Okwalinga Scoop Team operates covertly by infiltrating the regime