By Mulengera Reporters
Having realised that politics of belligerence, vengeance and antagonism isn’t sustainable as it tends to break up (as opposed to strenghtening) things, NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu has lately been extending an olive branch in a bid to mend fences with some of the rebel MPs inside NUP who had considered departing with Mathias Mpuuga who served as Deputy President and LoP up to December 2023 when he was ousted and replaced with Joel Ssenyonyi.
Reliable souces say that, much as he considered fraternizing with Mpuuga to be a red line which no one would ever cross and be forgiven again, Mr. Wine has since had a change of hurt having realised that being at war with people holding elective public office weakens, as opposed to strenghtening, him as a Party President.
Sources say that, to circunvent hardliners inside his orbit who would like to see incumbent MPs go so as to get openings for their cronies to be fronted, Mr. Wine has been pursuing this reconciliation approach personally and largely by himself.
“When he gets a signal that so and so is remorseful and willing to engage, he encourages that former Mpuuga person to ring him personally so that a reconciliation deal can be worked out and a lot of progress has been registered that way,” says a knowledgeable Kavule insider.
That this is how Luwero Woman MP Brenda Nabukenya, who at some point was considered to be Mpuuga’s, was able to make out a reconciliation deal with Mr. Wine and has since been added onto the list of incumbent MPs who Kavule intends to retain for flagbearership so that they keep their positions going into 2026.
Impeccable sources say that except for those who have reached out and apologised to Mr. Wine, all MPs who refused to sign for Mpuuga censure aren’t supposed to get NUP ticket for reelection. That’s why Medard Segona remains out of that list though there are chances if he privately reaches out to Mr. Wine (before it gets too late), apologise and promise to stop making complementary public statements aimed at rationalising Mpuuga’s actions and antagonism towards the NUP top leadership.
In case Medard Ssegona (Busiro MP since 2011), and who never signed for Mpuuga censure, remains adamant as opposed to seeking out Mr. Wine and make out a deal of some sort with him, Kavule is considering fronting his fellow lawyer and senior orator Kenneth Paul Kakande to run and become the new Busiro East MP.
Kakande lives in Nakawa West and hails from Kyaggwe or Greater Mukono but has a very successful farming enterprise in Medard Ssegona’s Busiro East along the Kampala-Hoima Road neighborhood. This increases his suitability for the Busiro East MP Seat. This will be good news for Kakande, a veteran of the anti-Museveni struggle, who has been standing for elections and failing to win anything since the year 2001. He is NUP, having ditched DP, and in 2021 offered himself for Nakawa West which was given to Joel Ssenyonyi.
Mityana Woman MP Joyce Bagala is another Mpuuga adherent who Mr. Wine considers to be harmless and he is more than willing to make a deal with and subsequently be permitted to render an apology and once again carry the NUP flag.
“She has privately been in contact of some sort with the Principal who is enthused by the fact that she hasn’t been conspiceous in Mpuuga’s DA activities thus far. They are talking and the Principal is willing to give her a second chance on grounds that she was merely misled into the politics of Mpuuga-ism. There are high chances that a deal will be reached because the Principal isn’t asking for much beyond mere show of remorse and promising to sever ties with Mpuuga,” says a well briefed source.
“The Principal believes that reconciling with all these people will enable him to effectively isolate and subsequently annihilate Mathias Mpuuga once and for all going into the 2026 campaigns. He wants to ensure that Mpuuga stays with only Abed Bwanika and Juliet Kakande.”
Bukomansimbi Woman MP Veronica Nanyondo too has had some private communication with Mr. Wine via telephone link though sources say that her apology won’t easily be accepted because of huge personal war she has been and continues to have with the person of Joel Ssenyonyi, the LoP who Bobi Wine values and respects more than anyone else.
She famously withdrew her signature off the Mpuuga censure and went ahead to bad mouth Joel Ssenyonyi in Kampala before going ahead to openly clash with him face to face in her Bukomansimbi turf as Mr. Wine’s own grandmother was being buried.
It has further been revealed that the Masaka district woman MP Joan Namutaawe is another former ex-LoP ally who the Principal has effectively rescued from Mathias Mpuuga’s sphere of influence.
That through Bukoto East MP Ronald Evans Kanyike, Kyagulanyi has mamaged to gradually drive a wedge between Mathias Mpuuga and Joan Namutaawe, the NUP-leaning independent who floored NUP candidate Harriet Sebuwufu to become the Masaka district (not City) Woman MP in 2021. She has been closely working with Evans Kanyike, who eventually became her spouse, to hammer out some academic accomplishments at Makerere’s Faculty of Social Sciences. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
