DP Woes Escalate as Mao Sacks Kidandala’s Successor

Five months after he sacked Sulaiman Kidandala as DP’s organising secretary, Norbert Mao has dropped Shafiq Dembe, the man he had appointed to handle the docket.

At the party’s weekly press conference, Mao announced that the party leadership had resolved to suspend Dembe and Didas Lukyamuzi, the party’s representative from Ankole region to forge membership cards.  

“I understand that the man we appointed as acting organizing secretary, and the regional representative for Ankole, have forged membership cards. As you know, that is criminal,” Mao said.

According to Mao,  the genuine DP membership cards have the signature of the acting Secretary General, the ones issued by  Dembe and Lukyamuzi lack the signature.   

He said, the duties of the two suspended officials will now be performed by the secretary general.   

The development comes weeks after Dembe accused Mao and the acting secretary general, Gerald Siranda of hijacking his duties.

While the DP constitution mandates the organizing secretary to manage the party’s internal elections, Dembe said, Siranda had taken over the role, overseeing a parallel electoral program.

“Article 33 of the DP Constitution mandates the organizing secretary to be in-charge of the elections in the party, not the secretary general,” Dembe said.

Dembe claims to have written several protest letters to Mao which all went unanswered which gave a suggestion that Mao approved of Siranda’s activities.

Last month, Kidandala sued the DP leadership for irregularly suspending him as DP organizing secretary, an action that he said violated his constitutional right to a fair hearing, civil rights and freedom guaranteed under the Constitution.

The suit, filed through Lukwago and Company Advocates, accuses the DP NEC members of turning themselves into the disciplinary committee and complainants at the same time which is not only unfair, but also in total breach of the Constitution.