Tales from Prison: Why Kassiano Wadri is disappointed with Bobi Wine

Months ago, Arua Municipality MP Kassiano Ezati Wadri joined Maj Gen Gregg Mugisha Muntu’s Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) yet most people expected him to remain in Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine’s camp.

In 2018, Bobi Wine threw his weight behind Wadri in the Arua Municipality by-election to replace slain legislator Col Ibrahim Abiriga.

In fact, the chaos that ensued in Wadri’s campaign wrap up is what many pundits point to as a turning point in Bobi Wine’s political career.

Yet Wadri, a former member of main opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), choose Muntu’s ANT.

At the weekend, Wadri explained that Bobi Wine, the Kyadondo East legislator, had declined to pick his calls, making it hard for unity between ANT and People Power in Arua difficult.

“I tried calling the honorable Kyagulanyi on phone three times; I tried calling Joel Ssenyonyi, the phone was going through but he could not pick, so what would I do?” Wadri told NBS.

“I wanted to tell these people what is on ground but they never picked my calls.”

“I was calling to follow up on the resolutions we made while in jail and he refused to take my calls. I rang him thrice as you can see but he never picked. He kept muting my calls and I equally rang Joel Senyonyi several times seeking to be updated on what was going on but he too never picked.

They avoided me which denied me a chance to participate in what they were doing preceding the unveiling of NUP. What was I supposed to do? Go look for them and keep tying myself around Bobi Wine? I couldn’t do that and that is how I ended up joining ANT.”

The former Terego MP also revealed that the original plan was for Bobi Wine to join existing political parties.

“While we were in prison, we shared a lot. We shared a lot about what we should do as members of the opposition. We said that when we come out, we need to work closely with existing parties,” he narrated.

“When we reached June this year, we expected Kyagulanyi to either join DP, FDC, Alliance or JEEMA because People Power was not a party.”

“That prison time gave us an opportunity to soberly discuss many things including the future role my brother Bobi Wine was to play.

We had structured discussions where Gerald Karuhanga was the minute secretary and those things are there.

We agreed Kyagulanyi would join one of the existing opposition political parties which had to be either DP, FDC, JEEMA or even ANT but to my dismay, he went and started his own party yet the thinking was that People Power wasn’t a party.”

Wadri now believes the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and its presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni are now on the right path to a landslide victory.

“I believed in the idea called united forces of change but we have already lost an opportunity to have one presidential candidate against the NRM. The population is now confused and the NRM is going to win very easily and that is very sad.”