By Mulengera ReportersLatest information coming in indicates that there were growing fears that Hon Jackson Muyanja Ssenyonga would cause chaos for NUP bosses who received his Shs70m, if he wasn’t handled cautiously by those who were stampeding him out of the MP seat race for Mukono South.
The position, which Muyanja held before when still in NRM up to 2021, has since been gifted to ex-Makerere Guild President Robert Maseruka who is being pushed by one of the rich Diaspora groups whose adherents have been sinking lots of money in Bobi Wine. They have decreed that he is the one who must carry the NUP flag there.
Sources say that these funders demanded that their boy Maseruka gets the ticket to join Parliament so that there is hope of their money being gradually recovered.
That’s how Muyanja had to be relegated and was going to get away empty-handed but desire to prevent from imploding caused the party to persuade him to accept the position of Mukono district chairman. It’s a position that requires vast resources and its one for which Muyanja hadn’t been emotionally prepared for.
The imposition of Maseruka, who voters haven’t easily accepted because of his age and inexperience, has inconvenienced not only Muyanja but other NUP aspirants like Male, Ms Nalumu and Dr. Kikulwe who had started much earlier on and had their posters everywhere, just like those of Muyanja.
Many of their supporters are wondering how Muyanja, who had concentrated on Mukono South, is going to get the 60% in the whole district as part of the EMC vetting which the party says derives 60% of the candidate’s strength from constituency feedback and people’s views about an aspirant.
Sources say that as he defected from NRM, Muyanja was assured of the Mukono South MP card and he reciprocated this good will gesture by investing his hard-earned Shs70m to support party activities.
The other Mukono South aspirants are angry and want answers on how the Kavule party harmonized and zeroed in on Maseruka without themselves being consulted or talked to as key stakeholders in the constituency.
The supporters of the incumbent LC5 Chairman Rev Peter Bakaluba Mukasa are also wondering how such a consequential decision was reached to give the ticket to Muyanja without their man being consulted at all yet it was him, and not Muyanja, who had picked expression of interest forms from Kavule for that position at the time Muyanja was still focussing on Mukono South.
In Nakifuma County, where Muyanja’s LC5 candidature was recently unveiled to the total detriment of Bakaluba, the area MP Fred Ssimbwa Kaggwa faces Suleiman Kiwanuka who has a lot of support on the ground even though Betty Nambooze is against him and favours the incumbent.
It were the supporters of Suleiman Kiwanuka who caused chaos at the Muyanja unveiling event and there are fears that this group won’t relent even after Nambooze-backed Ssimbwa landing the NUP card for Nakifuma.
They have prepared to fight on to the very bitter end, which will diminish, as opposed to increasing, the NUP support in Nakifuma.
There is also Amanio Drale, a recent defector from NRM, who is being fronted by the Nambooze camp to get the NUP ticket for Mukono Woman MP seat, currently held by Anifa Nabukeera.
Feeling unwanted and sidelined by Kavule simply because they don’t appear on Betty Nambooze’s list, many of these NUP figures like Nabukeera, Suleiman Kiwanuka and others are already coalescing around LC5 Chairman Bakaluba Mukasa and are most likely going to run as Bobi Wine-leaning independents.
This will create confusion among voters and could advantage NRM should their cadres remain united and avoid independents. There are reports that actually Bakaluba might run as an independent for Mukono North, whic he used to represent before the Municipality was created in 2011.
That will mean antagonizing Abdullah Kiwanuka who is already facing a resurging Ronald Kibule. Supporters of NUP figures who don’t feature on the Nambooze list now believe that the vetting process was just for public relations, otherwise flag bearers for most positions were decided long time ago.
Some of the anti-Nambooze camp members are of the view that Muyanja Senyonga should be fought for the LC5 slot because they claim he hails from Mutukula in Kyotera and doesn’t have much roots in Mukono Kyaggwe in whose Bukunja area she was raised from by someone who wasn’t his biological parent.
There are also concerns that party tickets for lower level positions are destined to be given to people who appear on lists submitted by Betty Nambooze, Fred Ssimbwa and Abdullah Kiwanuka.
Already Christine Chemutai’s EMC has many petitions from such aggrieved aspirants in Mukono district who claimed to have been assured that whoever doesn’t appear on the lists submitted by the three incumbent MPs, referenced above, won’t be given the party ticket and its something that Chemutai fears has already eroded credibility of her Elections Management Committee. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
