In March 2021, President Museveni reached out to the opposition Democratic Party (DP) President, Norbert Mao.
Museveni intended to work with Mao. The President was working on his new cabinet after securing the 2021 election victory.
The election exercise was not only intense and competitive but also very violent.
Hundreds died in violent riots against the government during the campaigns, attracting global condemnation and sanctions on military officers suspected of perpetrating human rights violations. Museveni’s government looked weaker and vulnerable.
Museveni was eager to bring as many prominent opposition figures as possible.
Mao stuck to his guns, saying he would not have any personal working relationship with Museveni and his ruling NRM party.
Museveni had brought on board FDC’s former chairperson Joyce Ssebugwawo.
Being a strategic political thinker, Museveni had realized that Mao was facing stiff internal resistance in DP.
Many DP stalwarts including Medard Ssegoona, Betty Nambooze and Mathius Mpuuga had given their party a break to join forces with the popular NUP to secure Parliamentary seats.
They didn’t see Mao as capable of rallying enough support for their reelection. As DP grew weaker, Museveni also was keen on assimilating the opposition political party just like he did with Uganda People’s Congress.
Museveni has for long used the tactic of luring top leaders of political parties to weaken the opposition.
Cabinet and top positions of the stage are filled with hundreds of ex opposition figures.
These include Speaker Anita Among and her deputy Thomas Tayebwa who came from FDC.
Ministers Ssebugwawo, Beti Kamya, Beti Among and Beatrice Anywar came from FDC.
Eventually, the party grew so weak that it eventually lost its position as the leading opposition party in Parliament. The FDC presidential candidate Patrick Amuriat put up a very poor performance in the 2021 polls.
Even the likes of Jacob Oulanya came from UPC.
The politically suave Museveni had realized that the bulk of leading opposition firebrand figures giving him headache in the 2021 elections originated from DP to NUP. It therefore was important to have control and assimilate the mainstream DP.
With Mao now officially an associate of NRM, DP is literally dead.
Any attempts to get Mao out of power will fuel more internal fights, leading to the disintegration of the party which works in favor of NRM. The same happened with UPC
“There is nothing Mao and group are going to add to make the situation better except to further weaken the position of Political Organizations in the eyes of the public,” says FDC’s Samuel Makokha.
Museveni calls
Museveni didn’t give up in his pursuit of Mao.
So when Museveni called Mao again, he asked him the type of working relationship the DP president wanted.
So they started discussions. Spearheading this engagement was Salim Saleh especially at the time the General was in Gulu.
In fact Mao’s name was suggested for Vice President. Jessica Alupo’s name came up after Mao failed to take a decision in time.
After Museveni reached out, Mao said it would be okay to have a working arrangement, but that more people had to be included in the discussions. Mao wanted to avoid being perceived as a dealer.
Mhseveni wanted Mao to immediately jump in but Mao dragged on, insisting that there was a need to put everything on paper.
What has surprised political observers is how Museveni accepted a written political arrangement which he doesn’t usually do when bringing on board other opposition figures.
Museveni is tactfully throwing a bait – some form of assurance that he’s now ready for more formalized political arrangements with opposition figures. Some top shots in NUP who are worried of losing their MP seats can now be assured of formal arrangements with the ruling party, including being appointed in juicy positions in state parastatal bodies.
“When Museveni and Mao took the discussions to a higher level, towards the end of last year, and the beginning of 2022, you recall Mao disappeared from Kampala and went to Gulu where he spent most of his time,” recalls a source who preferred anonymity to speak freely.
“In the North, Mao was mainly consulting religious leaders and elders. He undertook wide consultations as a matter of fact.”
When influential elders in northern Uganda gave Mao a green light, the deal was sealed.
Mao became more receptive to NRM’s ideas and publicly graced the party’s functions. He was openly hostile to the NUP camp and used social media to expose the new party’s internal contradictions.
Mao thinks DP can work with Museveni to come up with a national unity coalition, the kind of Kenya, that brings together different actors from different political groupings to chat a better way forward for a more united Uganda
“We are all Ugandans, and we should all find a creative way of living together. It’s very important that Ugandans talk with each other,” said Mao.
Mao’s close associates say he thinks that Museveni is now desperate, given the sad events that led to killings that the country witnessed in the last election and therefore thinks Museveni is interested in healing divisions through political coalitions.
On his part, Museveni has hit two birds with one stone.
In taking Mao, Museveni has further weakened public trust in the leadership of opposition while at the same time consolidated his political base especially in northern Uganda following the deaths of Speaker Jacob Oulanya and AIGP Paul Lokech.
The two powerful figures are said to have united Acholi and the greater north as the region emerged from decades of a bloody conflict to rally around President Museveni in the 2021 presidential elections.
Museveni, for the first time, won in 15 of the 23 districts in northern Uganda and also swept most of the parliamentary seats in the Acholi sub-region.
Mao is a popular and credible figure in northern Uganda. Tapping him for a Ministerial job would see a boost in NRM’s political fortunes.
Observers say the Mao-Museveni deal is a precursor to the planned mass demobilization of the opposition ahead of 2026 general elections.
