By Aggrey Baba
Jinja City Mayor Alton Peter Kasolo has declared that he will bounce back as an independent candidate in the 2026 elections, after the National Unity Platform (NUP) this afternoon denied him the party ticket.
Speaking to our reporter in a phone call, Kasolo said he is not shaken by the decision and is confident that the people of Jinja will entrust him with another term because his works speak louder than Kyagulanyi’s party flag.
Since 2021, Kasolo has built his reputation as a mayor who takes matters head-on, having led battles against land grabbers in the stone city as its dwellers call it, pushed for the acquisition of road construction equipment, and left a visible imprint on Jinja’s infrastructure. Kasolo now believes that such achievements form a strong backbone for his re-election bid, whether or not he carries the NUP flag, making the old saying that “a tree is known by its fruits” sound real.
NUP handed its ticket instead to Mubarak Kirunda, a seasoned figure in Jinja politics, who previously served as LCII Chairman of Jinja Central Division (before Jinja became a city) for three terms under the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC). After a fallout in 2021 when FDC refused him a mayoral flag, handing the blueflag to late Frank Nabwiso, Kirunda contested as an independent but lost. He later joined NUP in 2023, offering his four-storey building in Jinja City as a regional office before the party shifted to new headquarters in Iganga, where Kyagulanyi commissioned the new party headquarters earlier this week.
Kirunda’s selection has been seen as a strategic move by NUP, rewarding him for his resources and organizational role. Yet for Kasolo, the choice of flag bearer does not erase his bond with voters. He argues that the electorate will weigh his track record above party maneuvering, bringing us to another proverb that “when the sun rises, every rooster crows, but the people know which one wakes them daily.”
Jinja is now set for a heated mayoral race that will pit party structures against the popularity of a sitting leader. And for Kasolo, he remains determined to serve, with or without party colors. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
