Kizza Besigye, Uganda’s all time opposition heavyweight whose popularity has since waned in the last three years has asked his counterpart Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine to reign in on his radical supporters.
Besigye said, he has since telephoned Kyagulanyi, the leader of National Unity Platform (NUP) over consistent attacks on the newly launched pressure group, the People’s Front for Transition- RED CARD.
Several opposition parties merged to unveil this campaign apart from NUP and DP.
Moments after the launch NUP supporters claimed that Besigye is moving to outwit Bobi Wine, a young opposition leader.
This group of radicalized supporters maintain that Kizza Besigye is a spent force, burnt out, faded and would do justice to the opposition if he retires to allow Bobi Wine political space as the new opposition leader.
Commenting on these claims, Besigye on Monday said he had personally felt concerned and reached out to Mr Kyagulanyi who expressed regrets, “I called him (Kyagulanyi) and he said he regrets the ongoing attacks on. Some people have been asking me why he has not done that publicly and I don’t know why but I leave that to him,”
At the launch of the Red Card campaign, political observers interrogated the absence of NUP.
“I personally engaged them in great detail and the leadership was very receptive of what we are doing, they showed enthusiasm to be part of this but later, I think they engaged their other colleagues and developed second thoughts,” Besigye added.
However, NUP is shocked that FDC is seeking a partnership yet they were unresponsive earlier this year.
“You remember that we sent letters to all parties and they all replied expect FDC. It is possible that they were busy,” Joel Ssenyonyi the NUP publicist said.