THEN YOU WONDER WHY PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY AND THERE IS NO MEDICINE OR EQUIPMENT IN HOSPITALS. HERE YA GO!!! ---------------------------------- Museveni spends Shs 75bn to neutralise former premier The NRM and President Museveni have spent about Shs 75bn in the last 10 months, on a campaign to isolate and diminish the political stature of Amama Mbabazi, the former prime minister and party secretary general, a rough calculation by The Observer has found. To get to Shs 75bn, The Observer added up expenditures on publicly known ‘anti-Mbabazi’ meetings and interventions undertaken by President Museveni between February and December 2014 to counter Mbabazi’s alleged political mobilization schemes. But insider sources familiar with party activities, said the total cost could be much higher because our calculation did not factor in expenditure on the NRM parliamentary caucus meetings which were regular at the time, and on intelligence and other services, which may be classified. For instance, The Observer has learnt that money was spent on various delegations sent abroad (specifically, China, United Arab Emirates and to the UNAA convention), to counter Mbabazi’s growing influence and sever his networks with the political establishments of those countries. Besides the monetary cost, the Museveni-Mbabazi rift has had other intrinsic costs reflected in the splits among party supporters in various parts of the country and in the purging of people in security and other public institutions, assumed to be Mbabazi leaning. Sole candidature In the aftermath of the Kyankwanzi NRM MPs’ retreat that endorsed Museveni as the NRM sole candidate for the 2016, effectively sidelining Mbabazi, it was time for head of state to return the favour. So in March, some NRM MPs pleaded with Museveni to bail them out of their debts. Their pleas came amid claims that Mbabazi, working with a Chinese bank, was working to offer Shs 120m per MP in bail out cash. Fearing that Mbabazi would steal the thunder, Museveni later sanctioned a rescue plan where MPs were given between Shs 110m and Shs 130m. For this purpose, a fund worth about Shs 41.2 billion was set aside. Besides the debt bailout, at the start of April, the NRM gave each NRM MP Shs 4m per sub country to sell the sole candidate project in constituencies. Some 263 MPs (excluding Mbabazi), got this money. Assuming an average of four sub counties per constituency, it means each MP received at least Shs 16m. This means that the party spent at least Shs 4.2bn to facilitate all MPs, which is close to the widely quoted figure of Shs 6bn. Sate House meetings Yet the bulk of the Museveni expenditure on the anti-Mbabazi campaign was incurred during the various meetings Museveni held with different delegations at State House Entebbe between March and December. On seven occasions during this period, Museveni met the warring NRM youth league leaders, including three meetings with a group that had allied itself with Mbabazi. Later in May, Museveni held four meetings with NRM youths from four sub regions. With the exception of youths from western Uganda, who he met at Lake View hotel in Mbarara, all other meetings were held at State House Entebbe. We have been told that each of these meetings was usually attended by not less than 300 people who were given a transport refund of Shs 300,000 per person. So at the very minimum at least Shs 90m was spent in transport refund per meeting. This figure however excludes a myriad of costs such as transport to the meeting venue, lunch and other costs. We estimate that the total expenditure for all the four regional meetings came to about Shs 2bn. In one meeting at Rwakitura in May, Museveni agreed to give the youth leaders from Buganda heifers as part of his poverty alleviation campaign. In July, the youth leaders underwent a three-day residential training at Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo (MUARIK) and at Mukono Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute Ntaawo, just before the animals were delivered. This scheme cost at least Shs 600m, according to news reports. Ministerial tour Between October and November, four ministers, Rosemary Namayanja Nsereko (Information and National Guidance) Justine Kasule Lumumba (Chief Whip), Frank Tumwebaze (Presidency) and Richard Todwong (Mobilisation) embarked on a country-wide tour. The stated purpose of the meetings was to assess the performance of the NRM at the grassroots as far as service delivery is concerned. Unofficially however, the ministers had gone to the grassroots to destroy whatever network Mbabazi had built. The meetings, according to our sources, attracted at least 120 delegates per district and each was paid a transport refund of Shs 100,000. MPs who attended these meetings on the other hand were given Shs 300,000. This means that the party spent at least Shs 12m in allowances per district, making a total of at least Shs 1.3bn. This money however excludes other costs like facilitation for ministers. During the CEC meeting held on October 17, Jacqueline Mbabazi told Museveni that she was aware that at least Shs 2bn had been spent on the ministers’ countrywide tours to fight her husband. Just two weeks to the December 15 conference, Museveni again met NRM leaders from all the sub regions of the country. We reported the drama at State House when the president met leaders from western Uganda. Each district delegation averaged 40 people who according to sources were paid a transport refund of Shs 200,000 per person, meaning a minimum of Shs 8m was spent on allowances. So, for all the 112 districts in Uganda, the total comes to Shs 896m. We have been told that each bus, which transported delegates from their districts to State House was hired at Shs 3m per day. With a bus per district, the figure comes to Shs 336m. So at the very least Shs 1.2bn was spent on all the four meetings, although this figure excludes so many other costs like feeding. Delegates conference The climax of the anti-Mbabazi fight was the December 15 delegates’ conference and the meetings that preceded it (NEC and CEC) at State House, Entebbe. The delegates’ conference was the final nail in Mbabazi’s political coffin (or perhaps the last wound before he realizes he has to fight for his political life) because it adopted a proposal to give the party chairman power to appoint a secretary general, among other offices. A source close to the organisation of the event said the party had originally budgeted for Shs 10bn, including allowances for the more than 10,000 delegates and other expenses. However, the figure doubled to about Shs 21bn due to a number of factors. First, the number of delegates almost doubled, stretching the initial budget. Secondly, some of the sub committees (which were part of the national organising committees) started incorporating more activities than they had envisaged. Then, according to our source, more funds had to be released to double the security deployment in the city after reports emerged that the conference could be targeted by terrorists. Tamale Mirundi, the presidential press secretary told The Observer on Monday that some political decisions cannot be quantified in financial terms. “There are things that are not valued in monetary terms. Like politics. If you organise a meeting to strengthen your party, how do you value that? All parties are doing it,” he said. He said in any case Mbabazi was not a political threat to Museveni and therefore the president would not go out of his way to fight him. Mirundi said many of the meetings between Museveni and the various NRM leaders were aimed at pinpointing the problems affecting the country. Yet critics, such as Jacqueline Mbabazi and her sister Hope Mwesigye, could argue that Mbabazi was considered such a big problem that he caused a one-man reshuffle to kick him out of government, and a delegates’ conference to get him out of the leadership of the NRM. Month Activity Estimated cost March Museveni agrees to bail out indebted NRM MPs 41.2 bn April MPs sell Museveni’s sole candidature 6 bn April-May Museveni meets NRM youth leaders 2bn June-July Museveni meets various district delegations 2bn October-November Ministers embark on countrywide tour 2bn December Museveni meets district delegations 1.2 bn December 13-15 NEC, CEC, delegates conference 21 bn TOTAL COST 76.2 bn observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35679:the-cost-of-neutralising-mbabazi&catid=78:topstories&Itemid=116
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 18:26:12 +0000
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