By Our Reporters
Tuesday 7th May was a very busy day for President Yoweri Museveni. He opened a total of 7 gigantic factories both in Jinja and Buikwe districts. After the Buikwe investor-related engagements, Museveni addressed a public meeting during which Buikwe North/Njeru Municipality voters humiliated their MP Paul Musoke like never before.
The MP, who famously shunned the Presidential rally the last time Museveni was in the area prompting voters to report to him how their newly wed MPs (Judith Babirye & Paul Musoke) were too busy making love, this time round had guts to show up. Musoke, who used to hide from voters during Togikwatako, this time round came and was even given chance to greet the crowd. The voters were unhappy saying even the factories the big man commissioned had been lobbied for them by Jinja MP Grace Moses Balyeku clearly proving theirs was good for nothing.
As soon as Musoke came to the podium, the voters started heckling until he had to give up and resume his seat. In fact it took the intervention of Balyeku to prevent the voters from assaulting their own representative. As Musoke endured all this humiliation, the President was being killed with laughter because of the funny verbal insults (some of them obscene) that voters kept hurling at their own MP from the audience.
Museveni, speaking later, delivered his message of wealth creation and never responded to the way voters tormented their own MP but it was clear he got the message that the Babirye-Musoke couple easily ranks among the most unpopular legislators in the 10th Parliament. “The message was very clear but the dilemma for us as NRM is that we are still lacking strong enough candidates to prevent the party losing these two seats. We have more than 10 women vying for Babirye’s Buikwe woman MP Seat but none of them is strong enough to overcome the opposition this being one constituency that is rapidly urbanizing and becoming pro-opposition. In Musoke’s case, it’s even worse because people seem to be clearly afraid of carrying the NRM flag because majority of the youth here profess People Power and Besigye’s FDC,” worryingly says a leading NRM opinion leader in Buikwe.
“We have a big problem on our hands and we don’t know what Mzee’s plan B is about Buikwe North whose increasingly urbanizing voters are saying they are ready to kill Abbey Mukiibi [a manager at CBS radio] with votes and the only problem is he doesn’t seem to be prepared for early campaigns. Otherwise he [Mukiibi] is going to give us bloody nose here as NRM and the entire team of opposition-leaning candidates associated to Abbey’s camp are going to sweep votes.” It’s expected to be a smooth ride for Abbey Mukiibi Nkaga (whose father was Hajji Semogerere of Mbiko) because Buikwe north comprises of Njeru Municipality itself and the constituent Divisions of Mbiko, Wakisi and Nyenga. There is also central division and all these electoral areas are full of voters who are increasingly becoming angry and tired of NRM in the face of joblessness, extreme poverty and deprivation. In 2016, street-wise Paul Musoke (a married man who controversially married fellow MP Judith Babirye last year) was easily elected because voters saw attributes of a rebel MP in his rhetoric even when he was on NRM ticket. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
