Odo Tayebwa, a former MP who until last month was officially a member of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), has spoken out on reports that he was appointed a commissioner weeks after he crossed to President Yoweri Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Odo Tayebwa was one of the most prominent opposition politicians known to have mobilized support for Dr Kizza Besigye in Bushenyi District of Western Uganda for many years. He rose through the ranks of opposition politics to become a member of parliament and one of the key politicians giving the NRM headache in the Ankole sub-region that largely supports the ruling party.
His first political position came after his election as the councilor representing Bushenyi-Ishaka Town Council in the Bushenyi District Council. With this position, he ran for the district speaker job and won.
In 2012, Odo Tayebwa cruised to victory in a by-election for the Ishaka-Bushenyi Municipality parliamentary seat after the Court of Appeal nullified the election of Nasser Basajjabalaba over voter bribery.
Tayebwa crossed to the NRM at a presidential rally held at Rwakitandara in Bitereko Sub County of Mitooma District. The rally happened after the launch of St Karoli Lwanga Kigarama Catholic Parish in Bitereko and a thanksgiving service for Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa’s father Daudi Bangirana.
In his words on that Sunday, July 28, Odo Tayebwa said he had “fully joined NRM,” become “yellow” and pledged he would work for the political party. Less than a fortnight since he was presented before NRM national chairman President Museveni as a new convert, the latest to “see the light of the Movement,” reports emerged that Odo Tayebwa had been appointed Commissioner in charge of Cooperative Development at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives.
Speaking with The Pearl Times, Odo Tayebwa broke silence on the matter of reports of his appointment. Per his conversation with this publication, he had received no formal communication on the alleged appointment.
“I just see it as rumors. Those [reports of appointment as commissioner] are fake news and it is not proper to write fake news. I am telling you I am not aware. People call me. So, I don’t know what is happening,” he told The Pearl Times.
Tayebwa declined to categorically confirm if he would take up a job from the NRM government, whose policies he has vehemently criticized for years. In his view he would rather discuss the matter when it gets “clarified.”
But with his recent pledge to work with the party, he was unlikely to turn down such an offer if it comes. What with being in the political cold for over a decade! He was also not comfortable discussing his political future even as the 2026 parliamentary elections draw closer.
In 2021, Odo Tayebwa, who was the Forum for Democratic Change candidate, garnered 5,898 votes but lost the election bid for the Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality to Derrick Kabura of the NRM who got 8,199 votes in a crowded race that attracted seven candidates. He had also lost the 2016 race in the same municipality to Gordon Arinda (RIP).
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