Former National Unity Platform (NUP) president Moses Nkonge Kibalama has said he wouldn’t hesitate to campaign for President Yoweri Museveni if he called on him to join his 2021 reelection team.
Kibalama, the man at the centre of the NUP acquisition controversy, insists he is disappointed with Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine for running the party like a pressure group.
He says Bobi Wine veered off the party constitution on top of sidelining him.
After almost two weeks of ‘disappearance,’ Kibalama appeared in the High Court in Kampala on September 25 for cross examination by NUP lawyers led by Medard Lubega Sseggona.
Later at Mosa Courts in Kampala, he contradicted himself on statements earlier made.
Whereas he had sought court’s intervention to regain his freedom after two weeks of detention by the security agencies, he later said he had sought protection from the army.
He also said Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen David Muhoozi had not summoned him for interrogation on links with Bobi Wine, but he had sought audience with the military commander.
Now, Kibalama says he is ready to join Museveni on his 2021 reelection campaign trail.
KIBALAMA: MUSEVENI A GENIUS, BLESSING TO UGANDA
He says Museveni is a genius who God granted the country as a blessing.
“The person who has run this country for 35 years is a genius. I can’t compare him to anything else because here we are. Uganda had a terrible history where a government lasted for [68] days, another one six months. You have the Binaisa of this world, Yusuf Lule came and left very shortly,” Kibalama told NBS on September 28.
“That was a problem for Uganda, but to find a president who still holds people for 30 years, that’s a blessing.”
Of Uganda’s presidents, Yusuf Kironde Lule served the shortest time of just 68 days (two months and eight days). He was president from April 13, 1979 to June 20, 1979.
Godfrey Lukongwa Binaisa succeeded Lule, ruling from June 20, 1979 to May 12, 1980.
Asked for a particular answer on if he would campaign for Museveni, he said ‘Yes.’
“Whoever invites me I will be free if I wish to campaign for any such individual,” he said.
“If he [Museveni] invites me on his campaign team, I am ready. In case Kyagulanyi invites me back, I will support him. Right now, I am a free man. I can support anybody.”
He says he has severally told Bobi Wine that it is unfair to sideline him. He also claims he has talked to Bobi Wine about running NUP like a pressure group.
He insists Bobi Wine and his team have veered off the party’s constitution.
On his relationship with Bobi Wine, Kibalama said he feels betrayed by the people he trusted.
“Kyagulanyi and I are not friends. We are related because I belong to the Ndiga clan. I am his uncle,” he added. “I mourn because I have been let down by the people I trusted.”
SECURITY
On his safety, Kibalama says NUP and Bobi Wine “did not help me.”
“I decided to connect to Gen David Muhoozi through friends, and I expressed fears of what was going on at my home,” he noted.
“They guard my home now. People [had] jumped into my fence. They were holding two guns. That was a threat that I aired out.”
On reports that he is still under detention, he confirmed that the military still guard his home in Buwambo but said he had regained his freedom.
“I am not in detention. I am at home. I just requested security officials to give me some security because there was some insecurity.”
