By Mulengera Reporters
Innocent Tegusulwa aka Toli Mwavu is a well-known activist from the National Unity Platform party which he joined after ceasing his consequential broadcasting role at Vision Group-owned Bukedde TV.
In 2021, he fluked the politics of Nakawa, riding on the Kyagulanyi wave, and became a Lord Councillor sitting at City Hall where KCCA is headquartered. He is on the card of the NUP party at whose Kamwokya-based School of Leadership he has a part time job as a facilitator or trainer. He is one of the most senior lecturers at that School; the other being lawyer Kenneth Paul Kakande.
Upon becoming Lord Councillor, Tegusulwa began putting together resources to put up a house for himself in the Nansana neighbourhood so that he would graduate from rented Mizigos into a landlord. This home construction project kept Tegusulwa busy and away from his Nakawa electorates.
As can be predicted, the electorates grumbled and started complaining to Tegusulwa’s supervisors and colleagues inside NUP. Instead of wasting time explaining himself all the time, Tegusulwa reacted by turning his back on the people of Nakawa. He actually developed interest and indicated to party leaders at Kavule that he wanted to vie for the position of Nansana Municipality MP.
He carried on testing the fence by trying to popularize himself to determine where the incumbent Nsereko Wakayima was weakest himself, among Nansana residents but his bid failed to gather momentum.
Tegusulwa then chicken out of that and considered bouncing back to his Nakawa Lord Councillor job but by that time, other NUP cadres had stepped forward to fill the vacuum which they imagined existed following Tegusulwa’s long absence.
Those cadres of NUP had managed to popularise themselves with Nakawa voters and this explains why the party’s harmonization process resulted into Tegusulwa being demoted to the lower position of Parish Councillor from being Lord Councillor. In EMC’s assessment, the KCCA Lord Councillor position was no longer available for Tegusulwa even in the hearts of the electorate.
“By the time he confirmed he had hit a dead end in Nansana and went back to Nakawa, the ground was reading something different because someone else has taken over and won over people’s hearts. The party was stuck. That’s why Tegusulwa was deployed to become parish councillor from the high seat of being Lord Councillor at City Hall,” says a knowledgeable Kavule insider.
As he campaigns for the lower seat of Parish Councillor, Tegusulwa is hopeful to leverage his seniority, connections and experience to become either Deputy Nakawa Mayor under Nubian Li or Speaker for the Division. The party is grateful for his humility and kingmakers at Kavule are determined to ensure that he gets one of these two or at minimum becomes a member on incoming Mayor Nubia Li’s executive. Any of these could prove more lucrative and financially more rewarding than being Lord Councillor at City Hall. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
