KAMPALA – President Museveni on Tuesday met NRM Kampala leaders in a bid to diffuse growing tensions over claims that they are being sidelined by the party leadership in the face of appointing artiste Catherine Kusasira as presidential special advisor for Kampala.
The meeting took place at State House Entebbe and was attended by, among others, Mr Salim Uhuru, Mr Godfrey Nyakana and Kampala Affairs minister Beti Kamya. Ms Kusasira, however, did not attend the meeting as she was heading to the US.
Sources that attended the meeting said the leaders tasked the President to explain why he was holding mobilization meetings in their areas of jurisdiction without involving them.
In October, Mr Museveni met the people in the city slums commonly known as ghetto and appointed singer Mark Bugembe, aka Buchaman, and Ms Kusasira as his special presidential envoys for Kampala and the ghetto, respectively.
The President in the Tuesday meeting urged the warring NRM leaders in Kampala to stop their quarrels, accommodate each other in their different leadership roles and concentrate on their mobilisation work for the ruling party.
“The President talked to us and we shall find a way of handling them internally,” a source that preferred anonymity said.
Mr Uhuru confirmed attending the meeting and said they have addressed their wrangles. “We cannot allow someone who doesn’t know the issues of Kampala to just come and try to pose as if we are not working and yet we have won immense support for the NRM all these years. We have addressed them.”
When contacted, Ms Kamya downplayed the presence of NRM internal fights.
“There are no fights. We just ask that these people settle down and work because that is something small. I refer you to the secretary general of the party and the chairman of the party, they will tell you the truth,” she said.
