Prior to his sacking on September 18 last year, prime minister Amama Mbabazi had been placed under a strict watch by security agencies particularly ISO headed by Brig. Ronnie Barya.

Ex Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi
Ex Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi

The main area of focus was on the way Mbabazi had tried to entrench himself in cabinet where he had reportedly started recruiting ministers.

The ministers however, didn’t know about his plans according to sources though they always followed his orders.

According to sources, ISO at one moment approached Museveni with shocking information of how Mbabazi was trying to build a power base but particularly in cabinet and parliament.

ISO informed the president that the prime minister had crafted three ways to entrench himself.

One was that, he would ensure that he always chaired cabinet meetings.

The intelligence gurus were alarmed to learn that at one occasion, something strange occurred in cabinet.

Mbabazi arrived earlier than vice president Edward Ssekandi.

He started chairing the meeting. However, when Ssekandi turned up, Mbabazi carried on with the meeting. Ssekandi chose to sit among ministers fearing to pull ropes.

All this information kept reaching the president but he doubted whether his man was really up to this game.

To show how powerful he was, Mbabazi would even summon cabinet meetings and make ministers sit up to late hours in the evening.

He even ordered all ministers and state ministers to file weekly reports to him showing their performance in the previous week. The ministers religiously did this!

In fact, one of the ministers from western Uganda a few days ago confirmed this when he confided in MPs sitting on the parliamentary committee on physical infrastructure that;  “Mbabazi had turned himself into a small god in cabinet. Everyone feared him. He would walk as if the whole country belonged to him. All along we didn’t know that he was a baby being supported by his mother. Now that the mother has dumped him, he cannot crawl,” the minister remarked.

Our sources stated that; “The ministers had never experienced this situation. Those who used to sit in cabinet during Apolo Nsibambi reign saw a total change in matters of running cabinet. Mbabazi would make ministers sit from morning to late evening. This made many ministers to fear him and viewed him as a powerful minister. The ministers couldn’t leave for fear of being reported to the president because Mbabazi was ever seen as his chief spy in cabinet.”

According to sources, another strategy Mbabazi allegedly used on ministers was on issuance of orders.

He would allegedly tell ministers to implement particular decisions and supplemented the directive with a statement suggesting that he had already talked to the president.

“He would tell ministers to do certain things and tell them that he had already talked to the president. Most ministers couldn’t question this and also didn’t bother establishing facts from the president. They would just do as per the directive. This is how he managed to hoodwink most of them,” sources stated.

The third front was in parliament. During the prime minister’s question time, Mbabazi never entertained ambush questions.

Members were told to always forward their questions to the prime minister in advance.

This enabled him to make research on those questions before coming to parliament.

However, according to intelligence, Mbabazi after getting those questions, he would at times pick his phone and called those particular members.

During such interactions, the members would feel that actually they were talking to the final man in this land.

Where need arose, Mbabazi would allegedly also promise such a member that he would talk to the president on some of the issues raised by the member.

This is how several members feared him. Those who like turning up late in parliament, they would either choose not to come or would turn up and apologize for their actions.

And at the time of voting in parliament, no member would dare vote AYE or NAYE unless Mbabazi showed which side he falls!

Upon ISO knowing all these, sources stated, it examined and analyzed his actions and concluded that Mbabazi was actually up to something sinister.

ISO immediately advised the president against allowing Mbabazi to chair cabinet meetings all the time.

In case he was to chair, cabinet was supposed to end by 1pm. In fact, the president was advised to start holding cabinet meetings in statehouse and chairs them himself.

As all this went on, Museveni finally knifed Mbabazi and went public on how the man was mobilizing to kick him out of NRM chairmanship and state house jobs.

Sources now tell us that Mbabazi allegedly wants to stand as NRM party boss with a view of causing factions within NRM.