By Aggrey Baba
The National Unity Platform (NUP) has secured a legal victory in Jinja after the High Court overturned the earlier declaration of the NRM’s Hajat Mariam Nalumansi, in the Jinja South West woman councillor race and declared Prossy Magoba the duly elected councillor, according to the court decision.
The decision represents a very important development in the increasingly contested political landscape of Jinja City, where the 2026 elections produced a sharp contrast between NUP’s strong performance in parliamentary elections and NRM’s continued influence over the city council leadership.
Magoba had challenged the election outcome through a petition after Nalumansi was declared winner of the councillor position.
Following the hearing of the petition, the court overturned the earlier declaration and instead recognized Magoba as the winner of the disputed seat.
The ruling effectively removes the NRM candidate, who has also been the Deputy City Mayor, from the position and gives NUP another seat within the Jinja City council.
The development is particularly significant because the NRM councillor whose victory was challenged had subsequently become part of the city’s executive leadership and served as Deputy Mayor.
The court decision comes at a politically sensitive moment for the NRM, which managed to retain important positions in the new Jinja City council despite NUP’s dominant performance in the parliamentary elections.
The 2026 elections saw NUP win all four parliamentary constituencies in Jinja City, with the opposition party retaining Jinja South East through Paul Mwiru, won Jinja South West with Dr Timothy Batuwa, captured the Jinja City Woman MP seat through Sarah Lwansasula and won Jinja Northern Division through Hussein Muyonjo a.k.a Swengere.
But when the new city council was sworn in, the political picture was more complicated.
NRM’s Juma Ssozi was elected City Speaker unopposed, while NRM’s Carol Namikenze defeated NUP’s Lovisa Nakirya in the Deputy Speaker contest by nine votes to five. Mayor Abdulhafidh Nagaya, who defeated NUP’s Mubaraka Kirunda in the January mayoral election, subsequently proposed an executive that included an NRM councillor as Deputy Mayor.
The Magoba ruling now changes the math inside council and adds another legal complication to the NRM’s hold on the city’s political administration.
The Magoba case is not the only election dispute involving NUP and NRM in Jinja.
NUP’s Mubaraka Kirunda challenged the election of NRM’s Abdulhafidh Nagaya as Jinja City Mayor.
The Electoral Commission declared Nagaya winner with 17,266 votes, while Kirunda polled 15,783. Independent candidate and former mayor Peter Okocha Kasolo received 6,850 votes.
Kirunda’s petition alleges voter irregularities and electoral malpractice. His lawyers called seven witnesses during the petitioner’s case before the matter proceeded to the respondents’ evidence.
New Vision reported that Kirunda closed his case on September 18 after seven witnesses had testified and been cross-examined. The respondents were then expected to present their remaining witnesses. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
