By Mulengera ReportersNasif Najja is the Wakiso district Speaker and despite belonging to the same political party (NUP), he isn’t exactly on good terms with outgoing Wakiso LC5 District Chairman Matia Lwanga Bwanika.
Having served since 2011, Bwanika is relocating to go for Busiro South MP Seat and says he has learnt there isn’t much that can be achieved for as long as Gen Museveni refuses to sufficiently fund Wakiso Local Government to enable it serve its people. Bwanika believes that Museveni does this deliberately to punish Wakiso voters because they have always flocked with opposition.
Najja blames Bwanika for some of Wakiso’s problems because to him, the diplomatic approach of going to the finance and local government Ministries’ boardrooms for meetings can’t result into money coming to Wakiso. Najja faults Bwanika for being reluctant to engage in activism to pressurize Museveni’s bureaucrats into funding public infrastructure programs in Wakiso.
Uncomfortable with Najja, who has always incited Councilors against him in the Wakiso district Council, Bwanika has refused to endorse him for his successor. Instead, Bwanika is backing renegade NUP member Ssempala Kigozi Ssajjalyabeene who is vying for the same LC5 Seat. Like Bwanika, Ssajja belonged to DP before joining NUP in 2020.
Sajja was MP for Makindye Ssabagabo but was in 2021 upstaged by NUP EC which fronted then little-known David Sserukenya who went on to win as Sajja, an independent with NUP colors, trailed. His refusal to bow out and instead stand as an independent strained Sajja’s relationship with NUP leader Bobi Wine Kyagulanyi for whom Nasif Najja is a darling and blue-eyed boy.
By backing Sajja against Nasif Najja for the LC5 slot, Bwanika risks diminishing his chances at acquiring the NUP ticket for Busiro South. Recently, he appeased the NUP kingmakers like Fred Nyanzi and SG Rubongoya during the funeral rites of Dr. PK Semogerere at Nkumba along Entebbe Road where he led others in ensuring that NUP was the most visible political brand at the politically-charged gathering.
Even when the opposition is increasingly getting split, the NRM party doesn’t seem prepared to effectively take advantage of the chaos to reclaim the Wakiso LC5 Seat. So scared is the ruling party that its cadres are all fearing to throw their hat in the ring for Wakiso which they know is full of disgruntled young men and women who can never accept anything synonymous with Musevenism.
Planning NRM meetings have been held to have officials from party Secretariat to plead with ex-Kyengera Mayor Hajji Abdul Kiyimba and ex-Malulita Town Council LC3 chairperson Moses Mayanja to run in vain. Mayanja says he doesn’t want to waste his personal resources flogging a dead horse. Instead, he wants to run for Paul Nsubuga’s Busiro North MP Seat which he considers easier and less costly. Kiyimba too is reluctant, fearing to be rejected by voters at the district level. He has his eyes on Medard Segona’s Busiro East which is smaller and less costly to run in.
This has left NRM with only Eng Ian Kyeyune who is the only cadre with a little bit of appetite to go for Wakiso LC5 Seat. But Ian Kyeyune too has put a condition. He can only help Gen Museveni’s party carry their flag at that level only and only if he is assured of becoming the flag bearer without having to compete for it with anyone.
He suffers from political fatigue having endured numerous defeats since the year 2011 when Bwanika first floored him out of the LC5 Chair which he had occupied since 2000 when the district had just been created and curved off from Mpigi district. In 2015, Kyeyune competed for the NRM flag and was defeated by veteran educationist Yona Nsubuga who had always been backed by his archrival ex-VP Gilbert Bukenya.
In 2020, Ian Kyeyune still tried the NRM flag only to be humiliated by then Masulita LC3 Chairman Moses Mayanja who ended up being devored in general elections by NUP-sponsored Matia Lwanga Bwanika who beat him with a vote difference of more than 142,498! Mayanja had beaten Kyeyune for the NRM flag with more than 77,000 votes. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
