Former Ugandan VP says he rejected Museveni’s offer

Former Ugandan Vice President Prof Gilbert Bukenya campaigns for DP’s Brenda Nabukenya in the just concluded Luweero Woman MP by-elections. PHOTO | NMG 

By Richard Wanambwa ,The Citizen Correspondent

In Summary

In his latest book, Prof Bukenya comes off less inhibited and makes some startling revelations about his interactions with his boss, President Museveni.

Kampala. President Yoweri Museveni asked Gilbert Bukenya to quit the 2011 race for the NRM Secretary General slot or lose his position as vice president.

Prof Bukenya reveals this in his new book titled “In the Corridors to Power” which Sunday Monitor has a pre-release copy.

The former vice president on Tuesday shocked the ruling NRM party establishment when he climbed the podium and campaigned for Opposition DP candidate Brenda Nabukenya in the Luweero Woman MP by-election instead of rooting for his party’s candidate Rebecca Nalwanga. The opposition candidate won the seat by a landslide. This is the second book in which the former vice president is documenting his political journey. The first, titled Through the Intricate Corridors to Power was published in 2008 by Fountain Publishers and largely dwelt on his humble beginnings as a peasant child and skirted around the political controversies understandably because he was still a member of the executive.

In his latest book, Prof Bukenya comes off less inhibited and makes some startling revelations about his interactions with his boss, President Museveni.

One incident he dwells on is the events in 2009 which he describes as “perhaps the most formative” one for his political life at the vice presidency. He says, that year, he made a decision to run for the slot of Secretary General of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party that many scoffed at or at the very least, were puzzled by.

Prof Bukenya says at one time, he felt stuck as vice president because the office of the vice presidency is to a large extent a ceremonial one and as months and years went on, he found himself increasingly limited to roles that were of less value and useless to the nation.