By Mulengera Reporters
The top leadership at Kavule remains committed to getting a Parliamentary constituency for Kampala lawyer Kenneth Paul Kakande, a veteran of the anti-Museveni struggle who has been contesting since 2001 but without ever being able to win anything significant for himself.
He was always DP and was actually party spokesperson, deputized by Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro, as of 2019 when Bobi Wine came up with his People Power Movement which later on morphed into NUP. He left DP, where he was a NEC member, and joined NUP. He vied for Nakawa West MP Seat but the party fronted Joel Ssenyonyi.
Kakande protested this apparent injustice by standing as a NUP-leaning independent and gratefully didn’t badmouth the party. He just moved on but remained loyal to both Bobi and SG Rubongoya.
Besides his private errands of being a lawyer, who occasionally defends foot soldiers in Court, Kakande has been one of the leading instructors and trainers or facilitators at NUP’s School of Leadership at Kamwokya where he has been doing all this for free without insisting on being paid for his time and services.
So, because of this the party top leadership feels obliged to reciprocate his great credentials, dedication, service and loyalty by getting for him a constituency where he can stand and win. Nakawa East is being considered in case Waiswa remains incarcerated as opposed to being released on bail.
There are also fears that the Electoral Commission might be directed to frustrate NUP and ensure that Waiswa doesn’t get nominated even when the law allows someone in Luzira to be nominated in absentia the way it happened with Dr. Kizza Besigye in 2006. So, Kavule has designated Kakande as a dangerous substitute in case the Waiswa candidature becomes untenable.
There is precedence because recently a young man Kavule had cleared to carry NUP flag for the position of Nakasero parish Councilor for Kampala Central was intercepted by security as he walked to Mawanda Road to be nominated and was falsely charged with participating in the military parade at Kavule yet he actually didn’t participate in the same. Up to this day, that young man (whose arrest enabled an NRM person to go through unopposed) remains in Luzira, just like Waiswa.
Kakande can be easy to sell in Nakawa because he has previously stood there and its home ground for him. The other constituency Kavule is considering for him is David Sserukenya’s Makindye Ssabagabo and Paul Nsubuga’s Busiro North.
But there is one other reason why Kavule badly wants Kakande to be rewarded. He is the man who handled the candidates’ harmonization process in Kampala Central. This paved way for Rubongoya to become unopposed as NUP flag bearer to replace Mohammed Nsereko.
There had been Charles Musoke Sserunjogi, the former Kampala Central Mayor, who had declared much earlier on. It was Kakande who convinced him to eat a humble pie and abandon it for Rubongoya and instead go for the position of Lord Councilor so that he becomes Deputy Mayor or Speaker once at City Hall in 2026.
He moved and instead initially went for Kampala Central Mayorship which he held prior before being defeated by Salim Uhuru in 2021. It was complex because even Hamdan Semugooma (who had carried NUP flag in 2021 when Sserunjogi stood as independent & thereby splitting the opposition vote) was still interested in trying again in 2026.
Kakande offered to help harmonize these two so that Rubongoya gets smooth sailing. KK was able to achieve that harmonization because these two are his old friends having closely worked together in DP and UYD. Sserunjogi eventually agreed and bowed out, leaving the thing for Semugooma.
Later on, KK was unleashed to convince Semugooma to express readiness to go away so that Lord Councilor Moses Katabu, who was the man Rubongoya was most scared of and was being instigated by the Mpuuga group, gets compromised. Katabu, who has been an elected leader in Kampala Central since the year 2001, had vowed to become the next area MP making it clear he had now come of age.
He demanded to run on NUP ticket and even appeared on CBS making it clear he wasn’t going to leave the thing for Rubongoya. The man from Sserwanga village is naturally belligerent and had threatened to cause chaos if the NUP ticket wasn’t given to him. And he was being manipulated and incited by the Mpuuga group who kept saying that being a Muganda, Katabu had no business leaving for Rubongoya.
Still, Kakande was the man Bobi Wine and Rubongoya leveraged to deliver the desired outcomes. He undertook to engage Katabu, a close old friend since their days in UYD. And gratefully, he managed to convince Katabu that much as he was right and sufficiently popular, there was a greater good to serve beyond personal interest.
He demonstrated to Katabu how stepping aside would strengthen NUP, himself as a person and Rubongoya as a person. He also told him time was still on his side especially since Rubongoya doesn’t intend to seek second term as Kampala Central MP.
His calculation is that he can use Kampala Central (where local residents have so far received his message with enthusiasm) as a platform to prepare and resource himself to be able to go to his home in Bunyoro and win a constituency in 2031.
“As of that time, Kampala Central will be yours to take and keep and this Lewis thing is an opportunity for you as Mayor to create a solid team which will make it hard for NRM to ever win anything in Kampala Central from 2031 onwards. You will clearly be the natural leader for that team,” well briefed insiders quoted Kakande as reasoning it out with Katabu.
The fact that Hamdan Semugooma was willing to give way, having already been prevailed over by Kakande, made it easier for Katabu to accept the deal. He bowed out and accepted to stand for Mayorship against Salim Uhuru, as Semugooma was re-deployed in Kawempe North where he is contesting now as Lord Councilor.
That’s how Rubongoya managed to defacto become the consensus opposition candidate for the slot of Kampala Central MP. And that successful mediation is something for which the NUP top leadership is determined to reward KK for by getting for him a constituency in either Kampala or Wakiso where the Principal’s capacity to influence who gets elected remains undiminished. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
