By Samuel Opio
President Museveni is set to meet leaders of the ruling NRM party in Kampala in a bid to resolve their grievances.
Last week, NRM leaders led by Salim Uhuru of Kampala Central held a meeting in which they accused the senior party leadership of sidelining them. This was after President Museveni, who is the national party chairman, toured downtown Kampala and donated millions of shillings to traders.
However, NRM deputy secretary general Richard Todwong said the President promised to meet the traders and iron out the differences.
“They asked me to meet the President which I did and he has promised to meet them so that their burning issues are discussed,” said Todwong.
However, the real date for the meeting was not revealed.
During their meeting last week, the NRM leaders said they are tired of being sidelined by the party.
“We are tired of being neglected. This habit of bypassing party structures must stop. We know Kampala and all the groups that work within the city. Why do you rely on State House officials who don’t even know anything about the people of Kampala and leave out the NRM leaders?” angry Uhuru said.
During the tour of downtown Kampala, the President promised to address traders’ concerns of high power tariffs, high rental charges and exorbitant charges for sanitary facilities.
“Rich people should not interfere in the ownership of markets. Previous bad leadership in the city caused the sale of markets to rich people who have inconvenienced the poor and driven them out of these facilities,” he said.
