On August 7, 2023, Dr. Kizza Besigye held a press conference at Katonga to respond to the Special Elders’ report. The 19-page report was released on July 28, 2023, at Najjanakumbi party offices amidst chaos and bickering.
The elders’ committee had been set up to inquire into the allegations of party Secretary General Hon.Nandala Mafabi, Party President Patrick Amuriat, Geoffrey Ekanya, and Jack Sabiiti receiving huge sums of money from the State House and President Museveni. The same report by the elders’ did not receive any evidence to pin the implicated persons after meeting both parties and recommending reconciliation.
Dr. Kiiza Besigye accepted meeting with the elders’ committee in his response, but alleges the same committee was picked and inaugurated by someone who was supposed to appear before it.
“It would be imprudent for the same people to set up a team to inquire into their activities,” he said.
Dr. Besigye did not comment on the recommended reconciliation process; he only said he had never had any issues with Hon. Nandala for the many years they had worked together. He said their disagreement only came in on the issue of “dirty money”.
On the issue of what he calls ‘dirty money’, he repeated how he got the information from the State House and Bank of Uganda about the source of the money and the party leaders who picked the money. As usual, there was no evidence to prove his allegations. The same scenario happened when Mugisha Muntu was branded a mole, harassed by the Katonga group until he decided to quit the party; there was no evidence against him.
With such high-level allegations against senior party members, it would be prudent for incriminating evidence to be presented to avoid doubt since it has happened before where allegations have been put against some senior party leaders without evidence and they have been forced to leave the party. Instead of choosing reconciliation as the trashed elders’ report recommended, Dr. Besigye and his Katonga group are adamant about seeing Nandala and the group leave the party.
As an elder and founding father of the FDC, Dr. Kizza Besigye would have been expected to champion reconciliation and cohesion for the strength of the party, but unfortunately, he took sides and created factions that have automatically divided and weakened the once strongest opposition party in the country. The future of FDC seems, by all standards, not to be growing stronger.
It is evident that there is something both the Katonga and Najjanankumbi factions are not telling the public, but whatever it is, the accusations and counter-accusations within the FDC will definitely not strengthen it.
Dr. Besigye’s crocodile tears on television are insufficient to establish his charges, since they are a sympathy act designed to frame people who disagree with his modus operandi. Others will not be mistaken in believing that he is acting to prepare for his political comeback. What he is doing to Nandala is not new and many FDC members have left the party after being accused of being moles and colluding with the ruling party, but no evidence has ever been given to back up the accusations.
