By Mulengera Reporters
Because the EC program requires that the campaigns for Presidential Candidates commence on Monday 29th September, the NUP top leadership has decided to allocate cards and expedite the unveiling of the list of its flag bearers for the MP positions.
This is so because Bobi Wine would like to move with his flag bearers so that he campaigns for them as he canvasses for support in their respective districts and constituencies even before the EC conducts nominations for MP Slots towards the end of October.
The Presidential Candidates have to start early because there is limited time yet they have a full country of more than 145 districts and cities to campaign in. And because of that requirement by Bobi, the NUP EMC has been asked to put in more time and expeditiously have out the final list ready showing who the party’s flag bearers for MP positions are going to be.
Going into the weekend, intensive meetings have been commenced to put final touches to the lists to make sure that as of Monday as he goes out to campaign for himself, Mr. Wine doesn’t lose out on the opportunity to market his MP aspirants even before the national EC nominates them. He can be showing to the voters who his MP candidates are going to be under the umbrella. Knowledgeable sources say that the list might even be proclaimed, at least in part, during this coming weekend.
As all the white smoke relating to the NUP MP flag bearers list continues to be awaited, Mulengera News authoritatively shares some of the latest updates basing on what we have intercepted and obtained thus far. The following aspirants will need prayers because they don’t feature on the preliminary list that will soon be finalized following one or two more meetings party top decision-makers intend to have between now and the release of the list. Those who need urgent divine intervention include (but not limited to) the following:
The outgoing Wakiso governor/LC5 Chairman Matia Lwanga Bwanika expressed interest for the NUP flag for Busiro South MP Seat currently occupied by Charles Matovu who floored Peter Sematimba and took charge in 2021. Bwanika isn’t taking the ticket because decision-makers at Kavule consider him to be too proud and not adequately on the ground.
The factors that have sealed his fate include being the LC5 incumbent of 15 years yet he would struggle to point them out if anyone were to ask him for his achievements especially in Busiro South where his Namulanda home is situated. The other factor has to do with his hostility and contempt towards Wakiso district Speaker Nasif Najja who is a very close friend to Bobi. His young brother, another Najja, is actually Bobi’s Chief of Staff. Bwanika has openly been talking ill of Najja including inciting Ffumbe clan officials recently against him on grounds that their Baka hill clan headquarters land will be gone the day he takes oath as new governor.
As Speaker, Najja has been at loggerheads with Bwanika who one time narrowly survived being impeached by fellow NUP councilors who he believes had been incited by the Speaker. Bwanika’s preferred successor was Ssajalyabeene Sempala Kigozi who NUP disregarded on grounds he was elderly and not aggressive enough for today’s belligerent politics. He doesn’t fund party activities; say by-elections. Neither does he personally participate. He isn’t visible on social media, another key indicator Mr. Wine leverages to determine fellow leaders’ strength.
Bwanika isn’t getting the ticket the other reason being the feeling that he hasn’t adequately integrated with NUP structures leaders in Busiro South. Neither has been connected well with the leadership at Kavule. He is seen as a disposable politician who Bobi can afford to disappoint without getting into any trouble.
Bwanika has no chemistry with foot soldiers both at Kavule and in the constituency yet these are key power brokers in the NUP politics. There are fears he might go and embrace either PFF or Mpuuga’s DF but Bobi remains unbothered because he believes he can’t have much impact even if he chooses to declare the Mpuuga-like war on the party.
Kyagulanyi also believes that Bwanika doesn’t have the cards and that there is no way he can cause any sustained trouble for him and NUP. The principal’s calculation is that, without the NUP ticket, Bwanika won’t even get 3,000 votes. Decision makers at Kavule are convinced that without the Kyagulanyi wave, he would not have survived 2021. Gratefully, the indifference with which he has been speaking indicates that Bwanika has emotionally already prepared himself for what is coming.
In that Busiro South, Kavule is favoring Stephen Sekigozi, the wealthy flamboyant Kampala lawyer who hails from Busiro South too. His dad the late Patrick Musisi was area MP in the 2000s and was replaced by his son JB Balikuddembe, who these days is very active in NUP activities having quit DP in protest to the Mao betrayal.
Sekigozi is accepted for being a people person and generous funder of party activities. He is always available and promptly answers his phone whenever Bobi needs to speak to him. He has the ground and many of the local government leaders (councilors and LC3 Chairpersons) who got the NUP flag are members of his gaali/squad are his allies.
In contrast, Bwanika doesn’t have many allies among those who got the NUP flag. To Kyagulanyi this means there is no way such a leader can lead a winning team for NUP. He sees Bwanika as a flag bearer who will be quarreling with fellow flag bearers at lower levels, a thing that can diminish NUP’s win as opposed to amplifying joint mobilization for the umbrella.
Preference for Sekigozi, ahead of even Charles Matovu the incumbent, manifested recently when he skipped the joint vetting with his fellow aspirants and an arrangement was made for him to be vetted separately. Kyagulanyi sees the Sekigozi inclusion as an opportunity to isolate and finally obliterate the remaining DP remnants in Busiro South which actually was one time represented by PK Semogerere who was buried in Nkumba right there in the heart of Busiro South.
The PK Semogerere and Patrick Musisi families are very close and giving the flag to Sekigozi helps narrow the gap between Magere and PK’s lineage, as opposed to widening the same. Sekigozi in 2021 stood as a DP flag bearer and got 9,729 votes-and this was at the time the NUP wave was at its highest. Charles Matovu of NUP won with 35,391 votes beating Paul Owor (16,418), NRM’s Peter Sematimba (12,842), Charles Lwanga Ggongola, William Kagimu, Saul Kikomeko and Joseph Kayemba.
To Bobi Wine, getting over 9000 votes is indicative of the fact that Sekigozi has some personal strength he can build on and easily deliver a win for NUP unlike Charles Matovu who comes with the baggage of being an incumbent who failed to shine both in Parliament and in the constituency.
In Kalungu East, incumbent Francis Katabaazi (who in 2021 beat Minister Vincent Sempijja Kalungu East polling 12,198 vs 10,875 votes) isn’t being retained for the NUP ticket. The reasons are that there is growing resentment towards him in the constituency and Kavule has genuine fears that he doesn’t have the cards anymore to stop a resurgent Sempijja. That is why Yusuf Kiruluuta Nkeretanyi is being favored for the NUP ticket to take on Sempijja.
Katabazi isn’t popular with NUP structure leaders in the constituency and many of them have vowed to revolt by voting for Bobi for President and someone else for MP Seat should he be fronted for reelection. Kyagulanyi is very much afraid of losing even one seat out of the 55 MP Seats he has to defend in Buganda region alone. Katabazi is seen as someone who isn’t working that much well with the leadership at Kavule too and doesn’t participate in party activities, like by-elections, that much.
Also in comparison with Kalungu West’s Joseph Sewungu, who talks a lot in the committees of Parliament and plenary, Katabazi is rarely visible or outspoken once in the House. This is also inspiring foot soldiers to demand for someone else so that they too can have the privilege of being represented by outspoken leader like Sewungu. The Kalungu West MP is also very outspoken on the public media, unlike the reclusive Katabazi.
The Busiro South incumbent Charles Matovu is also not on the list of those being considered in the last minute discussions currently going on inside NUP apex leaders in consultation with EMC. He can only get the flag if Sekigozi is suddenly found unsuitable for some reason. “The thing is Sekigozi is Bobi’s man but the principal’s good will alone can’t deliver anyone anymore. There is a round table where people sit and make those final decisions before the EMC releases the list and even Bobi can be defeated by the majority view on that table. Each of the key decision makers has got his or her own dossier on each of these constituencies and they have been commissioning their inquiries and have dirty information on a lot of people. And once that is tabled, the principal will just coil however much he might have preferred that person,” says an insider.
Shamim Malende, the Kampala Woman MP, has equally been written off and actually some NUP top leaders have already sat her down to propose that she bows out and leaves the thing for Zahara Luyirika who has the backing of Bobi Wine, his wife Barbie, Joel Senyonyi, the SG Rubongoya, Nubian Li and all the other key decision-makers in NUP. “In her case, Malende is neither here nor there. She is not so much with foot soldiers; she isn’t so much with the elected leaders in the City Divisions. Not even with flag bearers, majority of whom are Zahara’s. The only indicator on which she beats Zahara is social media presence, visibility and amplification.”
The source adds that, whereas Shamim Malende thinks she got publicity by publicly quarreling with her husband, that marital feuding only alienated her and emboldened her haters inside the NUP top decision making orbit.
“She came off scandalized and the husband’s claim that she was feigning sickness to score political points only served to further embolden her haters in the top echelons of the party,” said another insider adding that the fact that she works well with key NUP pillars among Kampala’s elected leaders such as the Makindye, Rubaga and Kawempe Mayors plus the Lord Mayoral candidate Ronald Balimwezo Nsubuga is equally favoring Luyirika. “Yes Shamim may try causing trouble on social media in case she doesn’t get the ticket but that will be temporary because she doesn’t have the political infrastructure to sustain that demonization for even two weeks. She will shout for the first few days and eventually burn out on her own because she isn’t deeply rooted among NUP structures. She has no allies at the headquarters, in the Kunga structures and equally so among the foot soldiers except that she overshadows Zahara on social media.”
In contrast, the same source says that if Zahara were to cause trouble, she can cause real tidal waves because she has the necessary infrastructure among party leaders both at Kavule and in the community. Yet there is certainty that in the unlikely event that she doesn’t get the ticket, Zahara, who is also a close friend and funder of Barbie’s charity activities, can easily respect the party decision and doesn’t stand as an independent.
“She is naturally very ambitious but there are guard rails in place which can be leveraged to prevail on her not to come independent unlike Shamim Malende upon whom not many inside the party can have any effective influence. Zahara is more likely to look herself in the mirror and reflect on how many senior leaders she will have disappointed by standing as an independent unlike Shamim Malende who doesn’t have that much personal rapport with top party leaders.”
The source added that as of two weeks ago, Malende seemed to have upper hand and party bosses would have feared to antagonize many people by alienating him then than is the case right now. That the party is prepared to just ignore her in case she rants on social media and they aren’t prepared to keep talking to her anymore because that has been done for more than enough.
“The only way to account for her absence would be the sickness but which is now doubtable following the voluntary confessions her husband, who was provoked by her bad manners and indecency, has been making on social media,” says a Kavule insider. “The principal also believes the Women league, whose activities Zahara has been funding very generously, will benefit a lot once she lands that big lobbying platform that comes with being Kampala Woman MP.”
In Rubaga South the incumbent Aloysius Mukasa too has been written off in favor of Euginia Nassolo. The argument is that Mukasa has underperformed and hasn’t met voters’ expectations. That his performance in parliament and constituency has created a lot of resentment not just towards him only but against the party too. Whereas he can generously pour money into party activities whenever fundraising is declared in his presence, Kavule considers him to be elusive because he rarely takes his calls whenever the headquarters wants to speak to him.
“His phone will either be off or go unpicked in case it’s on. There aren’t many people at the top decision making table who will be standing up for him. He is also a spent force and weak on the ground implying the Principal can disappoint himself without there being any risk. He isn’t aggressive that he will command protests or even defiant press conferences to eloquently demonize the party. He is easily disposable and that’s why Euginia Nassolo has been chosen.”
The source added that in contrast, Nassolo not only has good organic connections with Mengo and Rubaga Cathedral whose leaders Kavule wants to keep mending fences with, but she is popular on the ground. The fact that she got 12,893 votes on DP ticket in 2021, when the NUP wave was at its highest, is also being considered as evidence of individual strength on which Nassolo can build to deliver a win for NUP which doesn’t want to lose any of the seats it won in 2021. Bobi Wine fears the PR disaster that will come from NUP failing to retain the 55 seats it got in Buganda in 2021. This is why he wants a win as opposed to just appeasing friends, cronies and relatives this time round.
In Busiro North, the debt-stricken incumbent Paul Nsubuga is being disregarded in favour of lawyer Kastar Bukenya who has been standing for the area MP seat since the days of VP Gilbert Bukenya. Kastar is an old DP who belonged to the old UYD of the Muwanga Kivumbi’s days. These are considered to be a well mentored generation of leaders. The only reservations Bobi Wine has about him is that Kastar was among those who initially despised his political acumen and took long to embrace his People Power which evolved into NUP.
Paul Nsubuga has flopped both in the constituency and in Parliament where voters blindly deployed him because as of that time it was all about the umbrella. Bobi realizes that voters this time round are going to be more sophisticated and having the NUP flag alone won’t be sufficient anymore.
The other option would be Ronald Semaganda whose only problem is that Busiro North voters haven’t accepted him that much because they see him as an outsider who just came to impose himself on them because he has a lot of money. He owns several schools which are doing well in Rubaga Division where he has been among NUP councilors.
When he was building his squad (eggaali), he stuffed it with henchmen and hangers on he has been working with in Rubaga, a thing that alienated many local NUPians in the Kunga structures of Busiro North. This has made Kavule realize it would be detrimental giving their ticket to such a political weakling at the time the NRM is also determined to recapture Busiro North.
For the Makindye Ssabagabo flag, the incumbent David Sserukenya’s chances are diminishing every passing day. With Ssajalyabeene, his predecessor imploding and ganging up with renegades like Matia Lwanga Bwanika, Sserukenya had managed to remain without any serious competitor for the NUP flag but Kavule’s eagerness to deploy Kampala lawyer Kenneth Paul Kakande somewhere so that he becomes an MP in 2026, has complicated things for Sserukenya, a lukewarm performer who hasn’t had impact in both the community and Parliament. That constituency used to have Issa Kikungwe who was a very outspoken legislator. This partly explains why Sserukenya has been found wanting by the voters. It’s also home to Kyagulanyi’s One Love Beach in Busabala.
Kakande is liked by Bobi because he is charismatic, eloquent and loyal to the NUP cause notwithstanding his DP background. In 2021, he expressed interest for Nakawa West but the ticket was given to Joel Ssenyonyi, which prompted Kakande to come as an independent but never went anywhere to abuse the party like his UYD contemporaries Mike Mabikke and Lubega Mukaku did-and this is something for which Bobi thinks he deserves to be rewarded and consoled with the NUP flag this time round.
If the Ssabagabo prospect doesn’t work out well, Bobi has prepared Kakande as the dangerous substitute for Nakawa East in case Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro remains incarcerated up to the nomination day. Some are suggesting that NUP engages in defiance by having Mufumbiro nominated in absentia and on the ballot paper even if he remains in Luzira and never gets to campaign nor vote for himself.
Kakande has been a Nakawa man for an eternity and first stood there in 2001 at a time Mufumbiro was still a little boy in lower secondary school. Bobi also believes that elevating Kakande to some lucrative MP position will demonstrate to the country that he doesn’t hate older politicians who the Mpuugas keep saying he wants to destroy especially in Buganda.
Busiro North, where KK has some farming activities, also remains a prospect for Kenneth Paul Kakande. “Consultations are internally ongoing and it will depend on what the majority are saying but the Principal remains a staunch admirer of Kakande’s eloquence, generosity, love for the foot soldiers and mobilization skills,” says a knowledgeable source.
In Luwero, Katikamu County’s Hassan Kirumira Lukalidde remains on probability because all reports coming from the ground indicate to Kavule that his ground isn’t that good and the only thing that is still saving him is the realization that any of the would-be alternatives are even worse-implying that not sticking on to Kirumira will only make things much easier for the NRM.
His Bamunanika County counterpart Robert Sekitoleko is equally vulnerable and the only thing still keeping him on the soon to be released list of NUP MP flag bearers is because all his rivals have so far turned out to be harder brands to sell to the electorate.
“We might end up being guided by the mantra that ‘a good general fights with the army he has and not one he wishes he had.’ That is the only reason we might end up retaining Sekitoleko and Hassan Kirumira on the list otherwise there is no certainty that they can beat their NRM opponents without the party taking certain affirmative action steps meant to emancipate mobilization in their areas,” says a well briefed Kavule insider.
In Mpigi, Sharon Mulungi Kaweesi (a very good friend of Rubongoya) has been rejected and struck off the preliminary list of potential NUP flag bearers because her political background has so far failed to become clear to key decision makers in NUP. She doesn’t have much history in the opposition politics of that area, which has favored the incumbent Teddy Nambooze.
“Yes Nambooze has her own cobwebs in her closet including readiness to ally with Amelia Kyambadde of the NRM but with her, there is more certainty that NUP can keep that seat than risking to gamble with a new comer like Sharon Mulungi who voters have rejected and doesn’t even have sufficient personal resources to mount a serious campaign in a big geographical territory like Mpigi. We rather stick with Teddy Nambooze, even when we aren’t very comfortable with her, than losing that Seat. The idea is we shouldn’t lose any of the 55 Seats we already hold in Buganda. We must build on them to get more seats and to achieve that ambitious objective, we have to work with our incumbents even when they are not angels. We can bruise them and have foot soldiers amplify their weaknesses later but we must rely on them for now to enable the party retain those positions first,” concluded one of the knowledgeable insiders our investigative team members spoke to for this news feature. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
