The United Democratic Alliance (UDA), Kenya's ruling party, has commended the National Resistance Movement (NRM) on its ideological training.
During a visit to the National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi yesterday (February 5), Hassan Omar, the Secretary General of Kenya’s UDA, revealed that the visit was an honour for them.
“Coming to a place where the NRM party was born is a journey of discovery and this will illuminate our fantasies,” Omar said.
Having learnt of the knowledge and skills people attain from Kyankwanzi, Omar said Kenya would start a similar institute to groom their young leaders.
"We intend to build a similar institute in Kenya to enhance the ideological training of our UDA cadres to produce ideologically grounded leaders," Omar noted.
He revealed that he contested as a representative of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) because he thought that through regional assembly, they could set the basis for removing the borders that have divided and split the community.
Maj. Pollar Awich, the NRM’s director of external affairs, noted that as the NRM party, they were lucky to partner with Kenya’s ruling party. Awich revealed that during the EALA meeting that was held in Uganda last year, the leadership of UDA led by Omar came to the NRM party offices seeking to strengthen collaboration for the betterment of the two countries.
“As the NRM party, we welcomed our brothers from Kenya when they came to us seeking a collaboration. They are here because they want to learn from us and we also want to learn from them," he said.
"As a party, we believe that you cannot learn from NRM unless you see the facts that bring out the NRM,” Awich said adding that the NRM party has been in power for 40 years because they have the support of the people.
The official said their colleagues from Kenya wanted to know how the NRM managed to sustain its strength through 40 years.
“Kyankwanzi is a place that we admire and this is our museum as the NRM government. If you are to look closely, you realize that many of our leaders in the country have rubbed shoulders with Kyankwanzi,” Awich said.
The Director of NALI, Col. Okei Rukogota, welcomed the delegation of UDA, adding that Kyankwanzi was the continuation of Front for National Salvation (FRONASA).
Rukogota noted that once their foreleaders learnt that one could not acquire leadership skills from any university or school, this prompted them to set up the leadership school.
“Ideology is a package of ideas that guide actions. If you have wrong ideas or ideology, you will end up having the lost decades and a false start,” Rukogota said, adding that at Kyankwanzi, they train people to become leaders.