FDC’s Mafabi blasts Mwiru for defecting to Muntu’s ANT

Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Secretary General Nathan Nandala Mafabi has fired spoken out on the defection of MP Paul Mwiru to Mugisha Muntu’s Alliance for National Transformation (ANT).

On Monday, Mwiru, the Jinja Municipality East MP, officially joined ANT over a year since Maj Gen (Rtd) Muntu founded the party after quitting FDC.

Mwiru joined alongside Ntungamo Municipality’s Gerald Karuhanga.

The Parliamentary Elections Act bars MPs from crossing from one party to another before the end of term of office.

Mwiru said he joined ANT “by choice and will because I know the task ahead of us.”

“We need an organised group and that is why I join the Alliance,” the former FDC publicist added.

“I come here because I believe in the principle of putting people first. What defines me as a person is that what I say is what I do.”

But Mafabi, also Budadiri West MP, has told Mwiru he “will keep running [from one party to another] until you die.”

The SG added that Mwiru had abandoned FDC headquarters on the day Muntu lost to Patrick Oboi Amuriat in the party presidential election.

Muntu founded ANT after losing to Amuriat in November 2017.

However, the former army commander insisted he didn’t leave because of the shock loss, but due to wrangles over strategy.

While he rooted for the strengthening of party structures, another faction within the party hyped defiance as the surest way to dislodge Museveni.

He further noted that “FDC is not a prison” and has a ‘free exit and free entry’ policy.

Mafabi was however concerned that Muntu and his ANT was recruiting from the main opposition party instead of fishing from the ruling NRM party.

“Many people want FDC to die, but it won’t. We are still in the struggle.”

Nonetheless, he argued “it is better to remain two in the struggle than have eight people pretending to carry the stone.” 

“We want those in parties to be in parties. They shouldn’t be pedestrians and hawkers,” he said in a Thursday night NBS show.

Appearing on the same show, Mwiru said he had joined ANT “by choice and will.”

“The law allows me to move from one party to another. Political parties aren’t prisons,” he said.

“People join them at will and can leave. We enacted that law to allow people to move.”