By Otim Nape
Last Sunday, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Busega Catholic Parish Church celebrated 50 years of existence, an event to which new Kampala Lord Mayor came with a large delegation which included his Executive Secretaries or Cabinet Ministers. Having recently made area Lord Councilor Faridah Nakabugo to be his deputy, Eng Ronald Balimwezo must have expected a rapturous reception from residents. This never happened. Instead, speakers alienated him and there was concern among his delegation members, including Nakabugo, that the Lord Mayor deserved better.
Being Kampala’s political head, Balimwezo delegation members believed he deserved to be the last one to speak. Organizers, who we separately learnt have vendetta on the new Lord Mayor because of the Shs500,000 pledge he made to them during the campaign time and remain undelivered up to this day, ensured that area MP Euginia Nassolo, also of the NUP party, speaks last. This created the impression that Nassolo, a mere MP, was more superior than Kampala’s political head, who even greatly contributed to her 15th January electoral victory.
After being reluctantly invited to say something during the fundraising segment, Balimwezo pledged between 50 and 100 bags of cement. But as he announced this, one of the organizers whispered to the Archbishop with: “There he goes again. We hope he delivers this time round.” One of the organizers confided in journalists present that they can’t forgive Balimwezo over the undelivered Shs500,000 pledge because they even endeavored to follow up on it via making phone calls but still nothing good materialized.
Balimwezo was so uncomfortable with the way he was treated to the extent that he left the event without even participating in the luncheon. But before leaving, he directly protested to Nassolo making it clear this wasn’t the appropriate way to treat a whole Lord Mayor of Kampala. He left along with his delegation members, a thing which enabled Euginia Nassolo camp members to loom even larger.
The Nassolo camp members are uncomfortable with Balimwezo because of proxy concerns. Nassolo and Nakabugo don’t see eye to eye and that has been the case for years. They feuded over supremacy in the NUP hierarchy for Rubaga South. They battled for NUP Women league leadership, which Nassolo won even when she had just defected from DP. This hurt Nakabugo and the vendetta remains up to this day.
So, when Balimwezo gave Nakabugo the big position of being deputy lord mayor for Kampala, people in the Nassolo universe didn’t feel exactly very good. They perceived him as elevating and resourcing their adversary. Yet there is much more. Rubaga area Mayor Zachary Mberaze, currently an ally of Nakabugo, is already mobilizing to upstage Nassolo and become the new Rubaga South MP on the NUP ticket come 2031. The Nassolo group has a candidate for the Rubaga Mayor position to replace him yet Nakabugo is already warming up to become the new Rubaga Mayor in 2031.
In the clearest indication that he hadn’t moved on from the Busega Church humiliation, Balimwezo once again casually confronted Nassolo the following Monday when they came face to face at Kavule for the NUP news conference. He confronted her demanding to know why she didn’t use her clout as area MP to prevent Kampala’s political head from being humiliated by the organizers of the Golden Jubilee celebrations. Courteous as always, Nassolo (who is already cracking and will struggle to get reelected in 2031) merely smiled and concentrated on her phone. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
