KYANKWANZI – The approval of President Museveni as NRM’s sole presidential candidate for the 2021 elections will be top on the agenda as MPs from the ruling party descend on the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi District for their retreat.
The retreat will last eight days and whereas the ruling party has already issued an agenda for the retreat that includes presentation of papers by different party leaders, sources have told this website that a cross-section of MPs who want Museveni to stand unopposed in NRM are prepared to sneak in the sole candidature proposal.
According to sources, the MPs have already mobilised their colleagues behind the scenes and that the “plan is already complete”.
In 2015, NRM Parliamentary Caucus ahead of the 2016 elections, Evelyn Anite, the State Minister for Investment, surprised many NRM leaders, including the then Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, when she moved a resolution that declared Mr Museveni the official party flag bearer.
The party members are said to be planning a similar stint. However, when contacted, Government Chief Whip Ruth Nakabirwa denied the plan.
“I am the one who organised this programme and what I have read for you is what everyone else has,” Ms Nankabirwa said on Wednesday.
According to the official retreat agenda, there will be several presentations by several party leaders, among them NRM Secretary General Kasule Lumumba and President Museveni.
Lumumba will present a paper titled ‘Towards 2021-Milestones and Challenges’ while Mr Museveni will present a paper on ‘Building blocks of regional and African integration’.
The Ministers of Health, Energy and Works will also present papers on the progress and challenges on the implementation of the NRM Manifesto.
State Minister for Finance (Planning) David Bahati and Dr Joseph Muvawala, the executive director of the National Planning Authority, will also present papers on NDP 1 and II.
On Wednesday, NRM MPs donned in the yellow colours and army fatigues were seen packing their bags and boarding the Uganda Wildlife Authority buses on their way to Kyankwanzi.
The Central Executive Committee (CEC) that convened at Chobe Safari Lodge on February 19th resolved to have Mr Museveni as the party’s presidential sole candidate for the 2021 elections.
Manjiya County MP John Baptist Nambeshe, a rebel MPs who has been blocked from the retreat, threatened to storm the venue.
“If by voting against the removal of age limits we committed a crime, they should go through the right procedures and punish us. They cannot just go to the Media Centre and say that they have suspended us. They claim to be promoting constitutionalism but they are the very ones that are against constitutionalism,” Mr Nambeshe said.
