By Mulengera Reporter
Barnabas Tinkasimire who is the coordinator for People Power in Bunyoro sub region has told Mulengera News that FDC’s Asinansi Kamanda Nyakato is the candidate they too are backing for the Hoima Woman MP Seat. Campaigns are starting soon and People Power is the latest to endorse Nyakato having previously been endorsed by Muntu’s ANT whose Bunyoro boss Jackson Wabyona says their teams are solidly behind Nyakato too.
It’s indeed not easy for the different opposition groups to easily get candidates in the NRM stronghold areas like Hoima where their candidates have at previous elections badly trailed behind the ruling party ones. “We aren’t having a candidate as People Power in Hoima having taken a decision to back FDC’s Nyakato. She is the one we are backing to make sure we frustrate NRM and get them out of that seat,” says Tinkasimire who ironically maintains he will be seeking Buyaga County reelection on the NRM ticket and not that of PP largely because the area too is an NRM bastion.
This unanimous backing by all opposition formations improves chances for Nyakato whose other selling point is the fact that she is so far the youngest in the race. A social worker, Nyakato (in her 30s) has also been regular on the ground combing villages for votes. She faces Hoima Mayor Mary Mugasha (independent) and NRM flag bearer in the names of Harriet Mugenyi Busingye. Busingye is formidable having popularly served as a very popular Education Affairs Minister in Bunyoro kingdom. She has narrowly lost twice and voters might give a sympathy vote this time round though even overcoming Mugasha (who also still confesses NRM) won’t be an easy task. Mugasha, who is yet to resign her Mayoral seat, opted to campaign as an independent after losing party primaries in NRM.
The Hoima seat fell vacant after incumbent MP Topace Kahwa opted to represent the new Kikuube district at the time it was curved out of larger Hoima district. Some say even if she doesn’t win this time round, Nyakato will all the same end up in Parliament in the near future as the new Hoima City is also destined to have a woman MP separate from the ones of Hoima and Kikuube.
