Minister for East African Affairs Gen Kahinda Otafiire pictured at St Kaggwa primary school grounds in Bushenyi District where president Museveni who is also the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party presidential candidate was Tuesday meeting party members as he canvasses for votes in Greater Bushenyi ahead of 2021 general election. PHOTO/ KELVIN ATUHAIRE
By Kelvin Atuhaire & By Job Bwire
The Minister for East African Affairs, Gen Kahinda Otafiire has urged National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi to continue “singing and dancing” adding that he did not fight in the bush (1980-86) for the musician turned politician to lead Uganda.
According to the Minister, the presidency is not an entertainment contest but a presidential race.
“I like Kyagulanyi’s songs, but Kyagulanyi can’t lead me. I did not fight in Luweero for Kyagulanyi to lead me. We went to Luweero and fought, then now you tell me to be ruled by Kyagulanyi! No! Can he take us anywhere?” the NRM’s Ruhinda County MP flag bearer made the remarks at St Kaggwa primary school grounds in Bushenyi District where president Museveni who is also the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party presidential candidate was Tuesday meeting party members as he canvasses for votes in Greater Bushenyi ahead of 2021 general election.
“We will not hand over power to anyone threatening violence,” Gen Otafiire added.

President Museveni on December 8, 2020 commissioned the Kashenyi-Mitooma (11.52km) and Kitabi Seminary Access Road(0.8KM) . PHOTO/ UNRA
Museveni commissions road
As
part of his campaign trail, Mr Museveni commissioned the
Kashenyi-Mitooma (11.52km) and Kitabi Seminary Access Road (0.8KM) which
was fully funded by Government of Uganda to a tune of Shs49.199
billion.
Mr Museveni in his address to NRM leaders blamed some of the challenges faced by his 35-year-old government on corruption.
Museveni on corruption
“You find when they
(MPs) have diverted money to other things, to go to London that they are
going to see how they do it there. These roads we are now commissioning
we are using our money. This is because I have advised them to do it
like that. If we serve well, nothing can fail. Another problem is eating
the package from the way and by the time it reaches here it’s not
enough. If we can work on corruption all things will be better,” Mr
Museveni told NRM leaders whom he was addressing at St Kaggwa primary
school in Bushenyi.
“Where we have reached now, nothing can fail. We now have money. But the most important thing is how to serve? Is it good or bad?” Mr Museveni added.
Museveni on his retirement
About
his retirement, Mr Museveni said: “Those People who shout you go you
go, do you think I don’t know where to go? They are not serious. I
sometimes wonder Why they are making noise; for food or noise for war?
If people come to work for the stomach what do we do! Already our market
is full and as NRM we are looking at EastAfrica.”
Mr Museveni’s
35-year-old grip on power, however, faces a serious challenge from the
Kyadondo East MP, popularly known as Bobi Wine who has become a popular
figure among the youth in a country where the median age is less than
16.
Since
becoming an MP in 2017, he has been routinely arrested and put under
house arrest, his concerts banned and public rallies dispersed with
teargas.
After more than 30 years in power, the 76-year-old Museveni is the only president most have known.
Museveni,
one of Africa’s longest-serving rulers, had the constitution amended
for a second time to allow him to run a sixth time in 2021.

President Museveni addressing NRM leaders in Greater Bushenyi on December 8, 2020
Otafiire remarks
However, this is not the first Gen Otafiire is making such statements.
In
October last year, Gen Otafiire, then minister of Justice and
Constitutional Affairs, said the army was ready to crash whoever was
misusing and misrepresenting people’s power for selfish interests.
“I
have heard all this noise about People Power (a political pressure
group led by Kyagulanyai before it morphed into NUP); which power do you
represent, where are these people? The one we know is the LCI
chairperson, people power is exercised by the LCI chairperson through
the ballot box,” Gen. Otafiire said at a meeting held in Kashenshero
Town Council.
“We will guard this power using the army and air force.
Whoever tries to disrupt this power, you are welcome but what will come
next, don’t regret,” he added then.
Who’s Otafiire
Otafiire
joined Mr Museveni in the National Resistance Army (NRA) guerrilla
organization in 1981, where he served as the Chief Political Commissar
from 1981 until 1984, having worked previously as a Foreign Service
Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1976 to 1980). Just prior to
the NRA capturing power from the military junta in Kampala in 1986, he
served as Commissioner, Internal Affairs Interim Administration, in the
areas under NRA administration from 1985 until 1986.

Between 1986 and 1988, he served as Minister of State for
Internal Affairs but had to resign this because he brandished a pistol
at a woman in a Kampala bar. From 1988 until 1992, he served as the
Presidential Assistant for Security. He then served as the Director
General of the External Security Organization (ESO) from 1992 until
1994.
From 1994 until 1995, he served as a delegate to the
Constituent Assembly which drafted the 1995 Uganda Constitution. He then
served as Minister of State for Security from 1994 until 1995. From
1996 until 2001, Kahinda Otafiire served as Minister of State for Local
Government. He was elected to Parliament in 1996.
Between 1998 and 2001, he served as the political head of the Uganda Military Expedition into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2001, he was appointed Minister of State for Regional Cooperation, a position he served in until 2003. In that year he was appointed Minister of Land, Water and the Environment. He served in that capacity until 2006. Otafiire has also served as Minister for Local Government, prior to becoming Minister of Trade and Industry in February 2009. He served in that capacity until he was appointed Uganda’s Justice Minister in May 2011 and later appointed Minister for East African Affairs in latest reshuffle.