By Mulengera Reporters
Politically speaking, Mukono Municipality Betty Nambooze (who has continued to have relevancy inside her NUP party solely because of her weekly appearances on NBS’ Barometer program) is living on borrowed time.
The other card she has had to deliberately play in order to avoid being crashed is that of playing sycophancy to big man Bobi Wine, his wife, children and a few close cronies like Rubongoya.
Otherwise it’s increasingly becoming clear that Nambooze, who will soon find herself alone and frightened, doesn’t have many cards to play to remain formidable and desirable species inside the volatile NUP party.
Her vulnerability was recently laid bare when all the guys she had recommended to become NUP flag bearers for Councillorship and other Local Government positions in her Municipality were disregarded and party tickets were instead given to people she vigorously hates inside her own conclave of Mukono Municipality. The most notorious case that demonstrated the extent to which Nambooze would soon be purged from NUP, related to Richard Kabanda who was handed the flag of Mayor Mukono Municipality.
Currently the LC3 Chairman for Mukono Central Division, Kabanda has been at war with Betty Nambooze since 2021. They originally were close allies but quickly fell out as is always the case with all Nambooze’s political relationships. For some strange reason, she doesn’t keep friendships that long.
In Mukono, every political season of five years she gets people to use and subsequently dump. She immediately resented Kabanda the moment she suspected he was eyeing the Mukono Municipality Mayoral seat at the expense of her harmless ally the elderly Elisa Nkoyoyo, the old man from Goma Division.
On the flag bearers’ list, Nkoyoyo who is a veteran from DP was dropped in favour of Richard Kabanda who Nambooze had spent years badmouthing and deploying goats and other groceries against at Magere. Besides Kabanda, many other Nambooze rivals were made NUP flag bearers in Mukono Municipality while rejecting and disregarding Nambooze-recommended aspirants.
Knowledgeable insiders say that this was Kavule’s way of signaling out the fact that the days of blackmail-stricken Betty Nambooze having the last word on the NUP line up in Mukono Municipality are soon coming to an end. Whereas she stands high chances to get the card to keep her MP Seat for one more last time, Nambooze is increasingly feeling isolated and will struggle to have fellow NUP candidates to campaign with under her caravan (which these days is christened eggaali).
Majority of the people who got the NUP tickets are uncomfortable flocking with her because Nambooze has been fighting them for an eternity. She will most likely flock with independents, a thing that will only deepen the growing wedge between her and key decisions makers at Kavule.
She is already resented for being hostile to ex-Makerere Guild President Robert Masereka who the party is fronting for Mukono South MP Seat where Nambooze wanted her longtime ally Jackson Muyanja Senyonga to stand. Kavule has since forced Muyanja out and ordered him to run for the LC5 Seat.
So, having correctly read the writing on the wall, Nambooze (opportunistic as always) has lately been reaching out to old Ssuubi allies like Semujju Nganda, Erias Lukwago and Medard Segona. She has privately suggested that they must find a way of closely working together again going into 2026 campaigns.
This explains why she has openly been supporting Medard Segona’s re-election as Busiro East MP ahead of Mathias Walukagga and real estate tycoon Emmanuel Matovu Magoola.
Sources say that the channels of communication between Nambooze on one hand and PFF giants Erias Lukwago and Semujju Nganda on the other have been re-opened even when the trio belongs to two different political parties namely PFF and NUP.
Even when it’s the prudent thing to do, this mending of fences with especially Nganda and Lukwago will naturally complicate the political relationship between Kavule and the long-serving Mukono MP who actually is the longest serving opposition legislator in Buganda.
Kavule badly wants them out of political office and George Musisi and Eng Ronald Balimwezo Nsubuga have respectively been fielded against them. Kavule considers the two to be very unforgivable simply because they have consistently refused to bow before Bobi Wine by becoming NUP members.
They formed and joined PFF at the time foot soldiers were being used to blackmail and conscript them into NUP. Like Segona, Nganda is hated even more for refusing to endorse the demonization of Mathias Mpuuga who Mr. Wine hates more than he resents Gen YK Museveni.
It’s clear that Nambooze can’t mend fences with Moses Kasibante and Mathias Mpuuga even when they are her fellow Ssuubi alumni. She has been bitterly exchanging bitter words with them, inevitably, because, unlike Nganda and Lukwago who have always been veiled, the two DF diehards put their gloves off long time and have been throwing relentless verbal artillery at her boss Bobi Wine.
She had also desired to have the trio of Nganda, Segona and Lukwago at Nkoowe as her 92-year-old dad was being laid to rest on Tuesday but only Lukwago and Segona (being the area MP) managed to conspicuously make it there. Nganda either didn’t attend or opted to be incognito. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
