They had rehearsed their act so perfectly; if they had been in Hollywood, they might have gotten a movie shooting deal for a thriller.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The cast: A group of youths from the National Unity Platform (NUP). A minister. A batch of ticked ballot papers. A president eager to listen to the mouthwatering plot. A senior NRM official. A senior intelligence official. The EC chairperson.
This scene was reenacted at State House Entebbe sometime in late August this year.
But before the State House meeting with President Museveni, there had been other meetings.
In early July this year, young people, seven in number, had approached the minister of state for Kampala, Kyofatogabye Kabuye and told him they wanted to “spill some beans regarding the 2021 elections.”
He agreed to meet them.
The leader of the group, a close associate of Fred Nyanzi, NUP’s chief mobilizer and brother to Bobi Wine, did most of the talking.
He explained how in some areas in Kampala and Wakiso they had gotten hold of ballot papers allegedly with the help of some people in the EC and security circles, days to the elections.
“They gave us about two million ballot papers and our role was to tick them and then on election day cast them at some specific polling stations in Kampala and Wakiso where the election officials had been told of the plan,” the leader said according to multiple sources.
He claimed that the NUP leadership was in on the plan and had even mobilized some financial resources to help them. The leader said that they were able to execute this scheme while sheltering in various houses in Kampala and Wakiso.
He said because what they were doing was illegal and risky, this plan was only known by a few party leaders. He claimed that they had protection of some people in security.
To prove their case further, they displayed some of the pre-ticked ballot papers before the shocked minister.
“So why are you revealing this to me now?” the minister asked.
“Because we feel ashamed of what we did and we believe that the president can help us,” the leader said.
“We want to meet the president to reveal this plan in detail. We love this country and feel some of these things should be known,” another added.
The minister said he would try to secure them a meeting with Museveni but warned that this would not be easy since the president is not easily accessible even to ministers.
The meeting broke up but it was agreed that they stay in touch with the minister.
After several tries, Kyofatogabye managed to meet the president briefly in August after a cabinet meeting and he told him about what the NUP youth had revealed to him.
The president, sources said, asked one of his secretaries to quickly schedule a meeting in a few days.
A week later, the minister was informed that the president was ready to meet him with the group. The meeting, he was told, would happen late in the evening.
On the day of the meeting, the group arrived at State House to find Museveni in the company of Col Emmy Katabazi, the deputy director general of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO); Simon Byabakama, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission and Rose Namayanja, the deputy secretary general of the NRM.
As the president listened intently, the young men repeated what they had told the minister, this time giving more details.
They tabled the pre-ticked ballot papers as proof that they knew what they were talking about.
Sources said Museveni appeared shocked by the revelations and started shooting questions at Byabakama and Katabazi.
They did not have clear answers but Byabakama maintained that it was not possible for the youth to get hold of the ballot papers since they had put in place stringent measures to guard them.
Museveni, sources said, appeared convinced by the plot. He told them that he had been told that NUP had massively rigged in Kampala and Wakiso, two areas were the party heavily defeated the NRM.
Nonetheless, he instructed Katabazi and other intelligence agencies to investigate the matter further and furnish him with a report.
He then turned to the youth and asked them what he could do for them.
They said they wanted money and security since their revelations could put them in danger if found out.
Like how much?” Museveni reportedly asked.
“Like Shs 1 billion,” one of the youths promptly responded.
“Oh that is too much but we shall get you something reasonable,” the president reportedly assured them as he dismissed the meeting.
He also thanked them for being ‘patriots.’
Our sources said the youth were each given Shs 5 million (transport refund) after the meeting with a promise that they would be given more once their claims were verified.
However, with the investigations still underway, Museveni told the Kampala Defence and Security Expo at Munyonyo in September, that he had received evidence that NUP had cheated by one million votes in the 2021 elections.
“I have all the facts. NUP can take me to court and say Museveni has falsely accused them but this is what happened,” Museveni confidently said.
As it turned out, this was not true. The young men had hatched a sophisticated plan to try to get billions from the president. But it was nipped in the bud.
Sources told us that the president has since been briefed by intelligence that the paraded ballot papers were fake, most likely printed at one of the printers on Nasser Road.
We have been told that when the youths were separately interviewed by intelligence, they gave contradictory responses.
The president has since gone quiet about the matter and as for the youths, they have disappeared into oblivion.