By Aggrey Baba
Busoga’s Bugiri District is fast turning into a battlefield where yellow loyalists now trade fire among themselves, leaving the opposition watching from a safe distance with wide smiles.
For a party that once moved as a single file behind President YK Museveni’s banner, Bugiri’s politics has become like a house where the walls have begun to whisper and the roof leaks from within.
At the heart of this quiet chaos are former Woman MP Justine Lumumba Kasule and Bukooli Central MP Solomon Silwany. The two were once close political allies, with sources saying that Selwany’s 2016 campaign, which led him to Parliament was funded by Kasule, but today, they lead rival camps pulling in different directions.
In Bugiri’s political corridors, people whisper that Lumumba fights her wars from the curtains, silent but strategic, while Silwany prefers the open field, swinging hard where everyone can see him.
The division started showing cracks during the July 2025 NRM primaries when Woman MP Agnes Taaka (who also fell out with Selwany, over reasons, to be revealed in our next stories) lost to Eunice Namatende, the former FDC stalwart who had for years been knocking on Parliament’s doors with Besigye’s blue ticket but in vain. Her entry into the yellow bus came through Silwany, who personally convinced her to switch sides and carry the yellow flag, according to trusted sources.
That move, however, also brought friction and suspicion, especially after word spread that Silwany had been too close to Namatende, politically and otherwise (details to follow).
Insiders trace their friendship back to the Bugiri-Bugweri swamp saga, where the government wanted to take over land for development but met stiff resistance from local rice farmers. Namatende, then in FDC, took the side of the peasants, earning herself praise and sympathy.
Silwany reportedly admired her boldness and later reached out to her, later deepening their bond when they both got involved in funeral arrangements of a district councillor known to us, only as Sarah. Since then, the two have moved in tandem politically, and their friendship has fueled both gossip and mistrust within the NRM structure.
When the recent NRM CEC elections came, the camps drew their swords more openly, with Silwany standing with Speaker Anita Among for the second national vice-chairperson (female), while Lumumba, still loyal to her longtime friend Rebecca Kadaga, chose the opposite corner.
Kadaga’s defeat was a bitter pill, and it tore through Busoga like a windstorm. Local mobilizers aligned themselves according to who their masters followed in Kololo, making what was once a Busoga united under yellow became a mosaic of factions and grudges.
Even the LC5 chairperson seat has not been spared. In 2021, Silwany supported John Mulumba, who later became chairman. But when Mulumba resisted alleged pressure to offer jobs and favors to Silwany’s people, the friendship ended. It’s reported that at one time, Silwany sent a lady from Mayuge district to Mulumba for placement, but Mulumba insisted that the lady goes through the right procedure, something which didn’t sit well with Silwany. In fact he took it for disrespect.
In this year’s primaries, Silwany backed former District LC5 chairman Hajji Azaalwa Malijan, while Lumumba quietly supported Mulumba, who won. The result was another layer of division, each camp now working to undermine the other, even when both carry the same party color.
The situation in Bugiri Municipality looks equally slippery, with Hon. Asuman Basalirwa of JEEMA remains strong, partly because the NRM side has lost rhythm. John Francis Okecho, who used to give Basalirwa sleepless nights, is now politically weak after his open support for Anita Among in the CEC elections. Even with his yellow shirt on, Okecho’s political light now flickers.
For the Woman MP race, NRM’s Eunice Namatende seems to be walking on political thorns, and her flag might be yellow, but her support base looks blue with cold. Many in her new party (NRM) see her as an opportunist, while her former FDC colleagues brand her a traitor. In some villages, residents now call her “the politician who sold her soul for a yellow ticket.”
All this has opened a wide door for NUP’s Rebecca Namumbya, who is steadily emerging as the people’s favourite. Her campaign style, humble, relatable, and consistent, has made her the darling of market women and youth. If elections were held today, many say Namumbya would easily snatch the seat, leaving Namatende and the NRM licking their wounds.
Even within the ruling party, Namatende’s woes seem to be growing. Word circulating in both Busoga and Kyadondo corridors suggests that some of the NRM’s top figures are quietly diverting their support to another woman, an independent candidate (name withheld). Insiders claim that the lady is now seen as a safer bet for maintaining the party’s face in Bugiri, even if it means letting the official flag bearer sink quietly.
With Lumumba operating from the curtains, quietly fixing alliances, and Silwany fighting openly on the frontlines, Bugiri has become a district of double agents and divided loyalties. Every handshake now hides suspicion, every meeting carries coded messages, and every campaign poster tells a story of betrayal.
In the end, NRM’s biggest enemy in Bugiri may not be Bobi Wine’s NUP or Basalirwa’s JEEMA, but its own internal quarrels. Like a house divided against itself, Museveni’s party risks watching the opposition walk through the front door in 2026, not because the red wave is too strong, but because the yellow soldiers keep shooting each other in the back. Watch out for part two. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
