By Mulengera Reporters
In a viral video, veteran politician Latif Sebaggala unleashed on Bobi Wine’s elder brother Fred Nyanzi like never before. In his social media rant, Latif Sebaggala (who wants to become Kawempe Division Mayor on the NUP ticket having served out and exhausted 25 years as Kawempe North MP) accuses Nyanzi of hijacking the work and candidates’ vetting processes of the party’s Election Management Committee.
He says that Nyanzi, who is supposed to be at the mercy of the same EMC since he too is an aspirant for Kawempe South MP Seat, has been conducting meetings at his Kyebando home during which aspirants are manipulated, blackmailed and cajoled to denounce their political ambitions and bow out in favor of people Nyanzi favors.
Latif claims Nyanzi is holding these meetings on a daily basis and that many aspirants have been cowed and forced out of their respective races in Kawempe Division. Many of these are councilor level aspirants with whom Latif or whoever becomes Mayor will have to serve. He makes it clear that he and his supporters are more than ready to fight back and frustrate Nyanzi’s political conspiracies.
Latif, sounding unusually militant, claims that Nyanzi has been working with incumbent Mayor Dr. Emmanuel Sserunjogi Oweddembe who is seeking reelection and with Hamdan Semugooma, another NUP activist who is now relocating from Kampala Central where he stood for Mayoral seat in 2021 only to lose to NRM’s Salim Uhuru (Semugooma now wants Lord Councilorship from Kawempe). Latif says the trio is all aspirants too who have to wait for the EMC to decide their fate as opposed to using meetings at Nyanzi’s home to declare NUP candidates before the EMC process fully plays out.
But why is the usually laid back Latif Sebaggala revolting and becoming militant all of a sudden? It has to do with fear that Fred Nyanzi is leveraging his biological relationship with Bobi Wine to create undue advantage for his opponent Serunjogi who Magere can’t disregard because of his well demonstrated sycophancy. And like Serunjogi, Latif has lived off groceries that come with occupying elective office all his adult life and can’t imagine life outside of that arena.
He started out as youth councilor for Kawempe Division whereafter he rode on the Besigye wave to become Kawempe North MP in 2001. He displaced NRM’s Jamada Luzinda and he stayed put as area MP up to 2021 when he was floored by Mohammed Segirinya. He hails from the powerful Sebaggala family of Kisaasi from which hailed Seya Nasser Sebaggala.
Faruk Ntege, who is disrupting NUP processes for Makindye West MP slot, too hails from there and is Latif’s young brother. It’s a family of the politically very greedy. His sister-in-law Nabillah Nagayi, originally married to Latif’s young brother Isaac Sempala, has also not ruled out seeking Bobi’s blessing to run for Kampala Lord Mayorship.
Latif, who can’t imagine life outside occupation of public office, is resentful of Nyanzi. Each time he faces resistance from voters and key opinion shapers in Kawempe, he attributes this to Nyanzi. He believes the Kyebando meetings have been used to intimidate and cow hundreds of NUP foot soldiers not to embrace him. He believes Nyanzi has chosen Serunjogi to carry the NUP flag for Kawempe Mayorship. Nyanzi sees Serunjogi, being the incumbent Mayor, as more helpful to his bid to become Kawempe South MP.
He originally didn’t have much personal differences with Latif but his calculation was that Serunjogi had more political cards to aid his victory than Latif whose influence is more concentrated in Kawempe North. In contrast, the very calculative Serunjogi has influence in the two Kawempes having been Mayor for the entire Division since Mubarak Munyagwa’s exit in 2016.
When foot soldier Umar Magala was cajoled to quit the race during one of the Kyebando meetings, Latif got angry that this was a Nyanzi project aimed at bolstering Serunjogi. This was Latif’s conclusion even before Magala declared support for Serunjogi. He believes Nyanzi wanted Magala, a very popular foot soldier, out so that he runs for Lord Councilorship, so as to relieve Serunjogi so that he gets more time to concentrate on popularizing his bid for Kawempe South MP slot. Indeed, many of the foot soldiers who had been Magala’s embraced Serunjogi while intensifying attacks on Latif who has lately distinguished himself as a leading tik-talker in Kawempe Division.
Latif was to hurt even more about his vulnerability a few days ago when he met face to face with his mentee MP Erias Nalukoola. He demanded to know why Nalukoola, who he mentored for many years ago when still in DP, wasn’t being outspoken in his favor against Serunjogi. He reminded Nalukoola that they are both from Kawempe North and demanded to know why he was being ambivalent in favor of Serunjogi who is from Kawempe South.
In his response, Nalukoola made it clear that he was being cautious for fear of antagonizing Fred Nyanzi who is a key king maker inside the NUP palace. He also told Latif that Serunjogi did a lot, as area Mayor, to positively impact his victory and win over NRM’s Faridah Nyanzi. That not being there for him now would amount to betrayal of the highest degree.
This explanation greatly deflated Latif and those close to him knew it was a matter of time before he exploded in Fred Nyanzi’s face. Yet the bitter truth is that by speaking out against such a key member of the NUP First Family, Latif has complicated as opposed to making his political case any easier.
The foot soldiers are going to gang up more against him and in the end, he will regret why he chose such a belligerent path at the time the Magere State House is focusing on de-escalation to avoid bad publicity coming out of the candidates’ selection exercise. And his choice to use social media, as opposed to privately reaching out, proves the extent to which Latif is on his own and to which channels of communication between him and Rubongoya, Senyonyi or Bobi Wine have become blocked.
Whereas there is a high possibility he will end up drowning into Museveni’s NRM (since Gen Museveni has always desired to have him in his Cabinet), his immediate path will be taking on Serunjogi as a NUP-leaning independent or even taking on the flag of DF or even PFF in the immediate term. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
