Mubende gold row: NRM supporters demand meeting Museveni

Written by: 
CHRISTOPHER TUSIIME

Weeks after police enforced a directive by Museveni to have all artisanal miners evicted from Mubende, the supporters of the NRM party are seeking to meet the president over the matter.

Dubbed Kitumbu NRM volunteers, the supporters who are among those that were evicted argue that during the 2016 presidential campaigns they played a bigger role in ensuring Museveni wins the country's top seat and he shouldn't forget them.

"We wish to bring to your attention that during the presidential campaigns, the NRM enemies came up with a strategy of threatening the ASMS of eviction by government and went ahead to lay a strategy of setting ablaze the camp to create hatred for out dear party," partly reads the letter which The Observer has seen.

It adds: "We mobilized all ASM, together with the district security committee in order to restore peace and security and confidence among the ASMS in the party. This was successfully done and resulted into a landside victory for our areas and Mubende as a whole."

Now, the gold miners want Museveni to intervene in the situation over what they term as salient issues because they feel the eviction is going to create unrest and insecurity in the place since many of the evicted miners are having no source of livelihood.