President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was overwhelmed and openly told angry traders to stop intimidating him but instead listen to him just like he also listened to them for more than two hours.
Museveni made the statement after some traders started shouting on top of their voices.
Some of them even started to move out of Kololo while he was still speaking.
However, they were stopped by Special Forces Command (SFC) Commandos from getting out of the Kololo Independence ground gates until the President finished speaking.
SFC Commandos told some of these angry traders that they had come to listen to the President and since he gave them time, they should also wait until he finishes. One by one they were forced to go back to their seats in the tent.
President Museveni’s 1981 war comrade and political competitor Dr. Kizza Besigye revealed that it is the first time in many years that he has seen Museveni being publicly embarrassed by civilians.
However, the mighty Grapevine has exclusively learnt that what happened at Kololo was not accidental but a planned move which was defused by SFC Commandos.
Highly placed sources within traders leadership revealed that on the fateful day of 7th May 2024, a section of traders leadership held a private meeting in the morning at the offices of the Kampala Acarders Traders Association (KATA) chaired by Godfrey Katongole.
Others in the attendance included; Moses Lwegaba on behalf of Katukazane shoe traders, John Kabanda who represented the Kampala New Generation Traders Association and also the Federation of Uganda Traders Association.
Sources divulged that the gist of the meeting was to strategise on how to counter the submissions of Dr. Thaddeus Musoke Nagenda the chairperson of Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) and his Secretary Isa Ssekito.
They suspected that KACITA had plans of diverting the President from addressing the real issues by resorting to praising him.
They alleged that they established that on several occasions, KACITA has held private meetings with the president without the knowledge of the traders.
Before the meeting openly started, Kabanda was grilled and placed on the spot to declare his secret relationship with Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) senior minister Hajjat Minsa Kabanda after his colleagues openly told him that he also might be working with their enemies.
Kabanda denied the allegations.
The traders leadership became suspicious of Kabanda when he supported Minister Minsa in one of the precursor heated meeting at Hotel African where she was trying to convince all traders not to bring the issue of landlords who are mistreating them before the president because it was not discussed in the previous meeting held in State House in April 2024.
They told Kabanda that what he did to support the Minister was an act of betrayal because he also knows very well that landlords harass them just like the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS).
They started accusing him of being bribed by landlords.
Traders disclosed that it seems the landlords who Kabanda wanted to save are the ones who supported his lavish wedding last week. The meeting ended in fighting and Minister Minsa was saved by his security.
In the Tuesday meeting, Kabanda assured fellow traders leadership that he is with them and a decision was taken to inform their respective members on their different WhatsApp groups to storm out of the meeting immediately once they discover that Museveni is not going to ban the use of EFRIS.,
This is what they tried to do but the move was fused by SFC Commandos.
However, before Museveni addressed the traders, some of their leaders had successfully executed their mission of exposing Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja Musafire and Junior Minster for investment Evelyn Anite who they declared a mafia who takes fake investors to President Museveni who give her incentives.
They accused the said investors of facilitating smuggling of goods into the country.
Minister Minsa, who feared that traders were going to embarrass her before her boss was forced off the microphone because they were shouting at her for not helping them.
Sources said that the ministers were embarrassed before their boss because some leaders of the traders have information that they are sealing deals with KACITA leadership which are costing the common trader.
Traders further sent a warning message to President Museveni, his ministers and Members of Parliament (MP) that if their issues are not solved they are ready to stand against them or support by financially facilitating their opponents in the coming elections.
Democratic Party’s Richard Ssebamala the Bukoto Central MP warned President Museveni to be very careful with traders issues because for a long time, they have not been involving themselves in political issues especially during elections but only concentrated on their businesses.
But now that they have issues, if these concerns are not properly resolved, it may be a spark for his downfall.
Some Ministers were shocked when angry traders praised fired trade minister Harriet Ntambazi telling Museveni that mafias in the Ministry of Finance and those in the Trade Ministry fought her and misled the President even though she always acted swiftly in resolving their problems.
theGrapevine established that Ntambazi always supported Kabanda’s leadership and she was a ground minister who attended traders meetings in Kikuubo and other places and one time she nearly survived being tear gassed by police in Kikuubo who accussed he of attending an illegal meeting.
However, former trade minister Amelia Kyambadde claims that people who make such statements before the president are always paid by the side which is fighting a certain government official who is embarrassed before the president.
Nabbanja denied the allegations that she is not responding to Kabanda’s letters and explained to the President that she has never seen any letter from Kabanda.
She wondered why Kabanda didn’t come to her country home in Kakumiro district since he is a son from the neighbouring Mubende district.
Sources disclosed that Kampala city junior minister Christopher Kabuye Kyofatogabye predicted that he was going to be embarrassed before the president because the traders accussed him of being very arrogant and using the divide and rule method to frustrate their fight against high taxation.
He decided not to attend the meeting but his car was cited at the premises of Kololo Independent ground.
Even though the traders were served drinks and food, with some claiming that over 20 cows were slaughtered for them, some have decided that they will not attend the next meeting with the President come 20th of June 2026.
Sources added that a section of traders’ leadership are buying the proposal that the 20th June meeting should only be attended by their leaders. But Kabanda insists that all traders should attend.
Other traders want to get an expert in tax laws to lead them during their negotiations with URA insisting that URA officials are exploiting their ignorance on tax issues to double tax them.
Sources among the traders disclosed that they have started engaging Kabanda not to politicize their fight against high taxation by threatening that if EFRIS is not banned, they will carry out a three months strike by closing their shops.
However, Dr. Besigye predicted that Museveni is going to use guerrilla war tactics to divide traders and very soon they are going to start fighting each other.
Joseph Tamale Mirundi the senior presidential advisor on media told theGrapevine that Museveni will not ban EFRIS because banning it will attract other people including policemen and women, teachers, doctors to strike because they will have established that he fears strike.
He added that traders lack serious knowledgeable leaders who can compromise Museveni to side with them.
He insisted that Museveni clearly know that people like Ssekito are dealers who are always used by his opponents and government mafias to pressurize him on traders’ issues, which is why he does not respect them.
He questioned the expertise of URA and Ministry of Finance when it comes to traders and tax issues because instead of widening the tax base they are harassing the poor traders.
He however challenged Museveni on the issue of stopping traders from importing goods from abroad revealing that much of the products which they would have exported with additional value are monopolised by members of his family so the traders don’t want to enter open competition.
By Sengooba Alirabaki
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