By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential contender Dr. Kizza Besigye has teamed up with People Power pressure group leader Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, who is the Kyadondo East Member of Parliament.
The coalition between Besigye’s People’s Government and Bobi Wine’s People Power was announced at a joint press conference that was held this afternoon at Fairway hotel in Kampala. Betty Nambooze, the speaker of People’s Government issued a statement to that effect
According to a statement, the two sides agreed during a meeting that they are on the same mission and had no reason to fight each other.
“We agreed that despite belonging to different formations/fronts, we must all work together as partners on the same mission,” reads the statement. The two leaders call on their supporters, members and leaders to focus their energy and resources towards expediting the end of president, Museveni’s rule and building a free and democratic society.
“We agreed and commit ourselves not to engage in conduct, which creates disharmony and undue to collision among the forces of change, and to always act in a manner that reflects togetherness and comradeship,” the statement read. However, Political analysts contend that the Besigye- Bobi Wine coalition is aimed at making the DP Bloc of Norbert Mao, Abed Bwanika’s Social Democratic Party (SDP), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Truth for Justice (TJ) lose popularity. It should be noted that the Democratic Party President Mao, Bwanika and other politicians formed the DP Bloc a few months back, claiming it is their only strategy to take over power. Now with Besigye and Bobi Wine uniting camps, chances are high that the masses who were supporting the Mao camp will all shift to the People Power camp, thereby making DP Bloc useless.
The meeting also took note of the human rights violations that have continuously been occasioned on their leaders and others Ugandan attempting to organise and against the brutal regime. The statement singles out violations including unlawful arrests, detention and torture and unlawful blocking of legitimate activities, violently breaking up of meetings and functions and blocking media engagements.
“To this end, we agreed to jointly resist all violations against our freedoms of speech, assembly, movement and conscious.” There has been a heated exchange between the supporters of the People’s Government and People Power Movement especially on social media.
