By Mulengera Reporters
Supported by hundreds of his supporters, Busiro North MP Paul Nsubuga has dared Bobi Wine as NUP President to allow party members to directly elect people to serve as flag bearers at all levels in the upcoming elections as opposed to sitting at Kavule and imposing candidates of his choice.
In Uganda, NUP currently is the only party where the headquarters determines flag bearers as opposed to all the other major parties which have known bottom-up approach through which flag bearers are selected. Whereas NRM exercises universal adult suffrage (imperfect as it is) because it’s a rich party with a lot of members and the logistical capacity to have everyone participate, other parties use electoral colleges whose members converge and elect the flag bearer.
In NUP, whose officials deceptively claim it to be the youngest party (even when it has the highest concentration of the most senior politicians from Buganda [people who have been in the regime change politics longer than even Kizza Besigye, Erias Lukwago & Semujju Nganda]) that authority to choose flag bearers remains centralized in the hands of a powerless cabal whose members Kyagulanyi and his wife directly control.
This epitomizes nothing but rudimentally and feudal Dictatorship which many Kyagulanyi supporters shamelessly defend in order to fit into the mantra of “Principlal tasobya” (loosely translated to mean the Principal is infallible & incapable of any wrongdoing). It’s something that is devoid of transparency, inclusive decision-making and it’s going to cause more harm than good.
There are more aspirants seeking to carry NUP flag in 2026 than was the case in 2021. Yet whoever fails to get the flag will blame Kyagulanyi and not electoral college members. This in the end is going to create multiple sources of headache for Kyagulanyi as the country counts down to 2026. Few people, if any, are going to be prepared to bow out in favor of the so-called flag bearer. In the end, you are going to have many NUP-leaning independents who will split the vote paving way for the NRM.
This exactly is what Kizza Besigye and his IPC faced in 2011 whereby NRM ended up having majority Councilors at City Hall even when Besigye-backed Erias Lukwago became Lord Mayor. It will be hard to coerce anyone out of the race at whatever level provided that the flag bearer is decided under curious circumstances. Only transparency, much more than what played out for Kawempe North, will save Bobi Wine this headache and possible splitting up and weakening of his NUP party that is eminent.
Transparency will mean credible party primaries through which party members and stakeholders in the constituency are permitted to determine the flag bearer whose selection the Secretariat and the party’s nation EC can only ratify. Short of that, claims of so & so was given the flag because he or she gave more groceries will only persist and become even harder to dispel.
This exact point is what NUP MP for Busiro North Paul Nsubuga made a few days ago during a consensus-building meeting that had been convened in Kakiri Town Council in his Constituency in Wakiso district.
Nsubuga, who is facing many formidable challengers, says that holding credible party primaries is the only way through which organic leadership for NUP will emerge in all constituencies as opposed to today when the rich just emerge out of nowhere and claim to have been sent by Kavule.
Nsubuga says that his Busiro North, just like many other constituencies in Buganda, is full of aspirants who come with a lot of money and keep moving around the constituency while claiming they are the ones Bobi Wine and other decision makers at Kavule want.
Over the weekend, Nsubuga convened a meeting in Kakiri to try to create consensus among NUP members but it ended in chaos and fist fights as several opponents of his ferried in goons from Kampala and Wakiso slums who came claiming that their respective aspirants are the ones Bobi Wine and Kavule want.
Nsubuga says that this sort of thing is dangerous and its the reason many NUP-leaning independents are going to run and in the end split the vote to the exclusive advantage of Gen Museveni and other candidates from his NRM party. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
