
Today the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) published the Special Elders Committee Report, which was discussed and addressed at the horrific National Council meeting at Najjanankumbi headquarters yesterday. Therefore, I don’t have high hope or look forward to be reading and assessing it. Since I know it won’t be much and what it does say, is predetermined anyway. Especially, regarding several key leaders and their actions.
This here report does shed a light on a few things, but also show how the FDC has fallen. It has fallen from it’s mission and become settled. That’s why certain parts of it where they are trying to malign Dr. Kizza Besigye. They are instead undermining the ideals of the FDC and what it has stood for over the years.
Just read this paragraph: “Dr. Besigye also stated that around the same period within which he received money from Hon. Mafabi, a colleague visited him and reminded him of how they had suffered together, and how many FDC members are becoming desperate. In turn, Dr. Besigye asked him what could be done about the matter. The colleague advised Dr. Besigye to cause a formal agreement with NRM to establish a Government of National Unity. He asked the colleague whether he was advocating for terms of surrendering, and he answered in the affirmative. The colleague also told him that there were already some contacts with Museveni, and also requested Dr. Besigye to keep the information confidential” (…) “Dr. Besigye further informed the Committee that after getting the information from a person working in State House, he reached out to President Amuriat and asked him whether he had received any money from Hon. Mafabi. President Amuriat admitted having received some money from Hon. Mafabi to the tune of Uganda Shillings 280 million which was intended to help the Party during the electoral process. Dr. Besigye added that that is when the bad blood between him and Hon. Mafabi began to emerge” (FDC Special Elders Report, 13.07.2023).
Here the FDC is just showing it’s face and how it betrayed it’s core ideals. They were already in talks with Museveni and the State House. There was communication and even thoughts of a Government of National Unity (GNU). That’s copying Zimbabwe and what ZANU-PF did with MDC back-in-the-day. Therefore, this just shows how compromised the party has become.
The nail in the coffin: “Dr.Besigye concluded his submission by asserting that the FDC which is supposed to be the vanguard of challenging the NRM dictatorship has remained inactive in the last two and a quarter years” (FDC Special Elders Report, 13.07.2023).
We are seeing how Nandala-Mafabi tries to malign Besigye by just this quote alone: “Hon. Mafabi concluded with another allegation that Dr. Kizza Besigye wanted to micro manage the Party, yet during his tenure a lot of funds were mobilized from both covert and overt sources without being questioned about them” (FDC Special Elders Report, 13.07.2023).
The key paragraph about the money is this one: “The Committee found this issue a sensitive one and responsible for the dispute between Dr. Besigye and Hon. Mafabi as already highlighted. The disagreement stemmed from the fact that Hon. Mafabi asked Dr. Besigye to keep for him Uganda Shillings 300 million for the agents. In turn Dr. Besigye was allegedly contacted by a source from State House saying there was some money received by some FDC Party leaders from State House. This made Dr. Besigye to cause a meeting with some of the leaders who were directly concerned about the matter but that meeting and other subsequent meetings did not yield results. Dr. Besigye stated before the Committee that money released from Bank of Uganda is dispatched to three entities i.e. commercial banks, security agencies and State House. He further averred that he also took the initiative to find out and the serial numbers on the new notes he received pointed to State House” (FDC Special Elders Report, 13.07.2023).
While this report was a travesty and a lot of knowledge of it was already in public. There is little new substance here. There was no shocking or revealing factors. The defence of Nathan Nandala-Mafabi was the lacklustre one. It lacked the potential and the documentation to seem worthwhile. While Besigye just stood his ground. Alas, the party and the ones writing the report tried to make him look like a villain. That is obvious for anyone. They are totally going against him and everything he has worked for over the years. Therefore, the FDC is trying to dislodge Besigye now…
The only new info to me was the final paragraph that I highlighted, as it states that Besigye knew the source of the money and could even know so by the serial numbers on the banknotes. Meaning the source that Besigye had in the State House told him exactly what cash that was at play and the FDC had received it. Therefore, Nandala-Mafabi and the inner-circle of the FDC wasn’t honest about the “dirty money”.
The leadership of the FDC is tainted and this report only amplifies it. It is a shoddy and like minutes of a meeting written report. This doesn’t show any new perspective. The only thing it does… is showing how the leadership of FDC is disregarding the public and they are trying to keep things hidden. As they don’t want the truth out. Peace
















