By Mulengera Reporters
Kawempe Mayor Emmanuel Sserunjogi Oweddembe (in office since 2016) is politically a very troubled man. He controversially got back his seat after fighting tooth and nail to overcome the NRM candidate who was determined to send him to the political Taiwan.
He was declared winner days after others had been proclaimed winners. It wasn’t easy and at some point, some nervous insiders proposed that he leverages his relationship with the wealthy Pastor Jackson Ssenyonga (his very good friend and mentor who employs his wife Maggie) to raise some Shs600m to wet the beaks of concerned officials to get himself declared.
In the end, Sserunjogi (who is yet to get his declaration form) was declared by EC officials who sources say were reluctant to do so as the idea was to give the thing to the NRM candidate who in actual sense wasn’t even capable of being number two if the process process had wholly been free and fair.
Even after being declared, Sserunjogi remains nervous in absence of the final declaration form, which the election officials are yet to hand over to him. This has created anxiety amongst his close supporters with some proposing that he pleads with Ssenyonga to help him raise Shs600m so as to permanently placate himself against a potential election petition from the NRM candidate.
Away from the final declaration form-related anxiety, Sserunjogi has also come under growing criticisms from NUP foot soldiers who have already petitioned Kavule claiming that he didn’t do enough to use his network and leverage as a long-serving elected leader in the area to help NUP Division councilors prevail against the NRM opponents.
In the end, out of the total 45 Councillors NRM ended up winning not less than 70%. Even Fred Nyanzi’s daughter who had stood for one of the Makerere wards didn’t survive the NRM ballot box massacre. This has left many NUP foot soldiers with swollen faces while nursing bruised political egos. Not more than 15 NUP candidates went through.
The lucky few included Wandegeya parish’s Vincent Kaggwa & Annet Musisi (mother to Bobi’s bodyguard Mbogo), Makerere Muluka III’s Martins Kato, Makerere III’s Vivian Setimba & Abdul Mutyaba; Bwaise 4’s Alex Kakooza, Bwaise III’s William Ssimbwa and a few others from Kawempe North. There are fears that NRM is determined to create PR problems for Bobi Wine by ensuring that the Kawempe backyard, which houses the Kavule NUP headquarters, is firmly in the hands of the ruling party.
Oweddembe, now an old man in his 60s, will be coming under growing pressure to lead the NUP’s pushing back against the NRM moves-and as such the foot soldiers will be expecting him to be very belligerent towards all elected NRM leaders in his Division, something which the ruling party won’t be prepared to tolerate. He himself as Mayor is certainly going to have his agenda frustrated by the NRM majority in his Council to whom he will have to surrender juicy positions such as Deputy Mayor, Speakership etc in order to find some common ground or else risk the Erias Lukwago-like impeachment.
Should NRM plans to frame and lock up or even bribe the few NUP councilors who managed to win succeed, Oweddembe will end up being very much isolated. And in frustration, this could push him into accepting to be compromised or total abdication of his seat.
As time goes by, he will find himself between a rock and hard place because the NUP political base will be expecting him to be very belligerent towards NRM yet strategists from Gen Museveni’s State House will also be out to get him, in case he refuses to be compromised to propagate the Musevenist agenda.
Oweddembe is also being blamed for not doing enough to deliver the Fred Nyanzi win to Kavule as he promised and he is also known not to be on very good terms with fellow NUP elected leaders in Kawempe such as Umaru Magala who is one of the few NUP Lord Councillors who made it to City Hall. There are also other NUPians in Kawempe who will never forgive Oweddembe for lying to Bobi Wine that many of them were against the election victory of his elder brother Fred Nyanzi.
Many foot soldiers also resent Oweddembe for generally being stingy with his cash and also for generally being uncomfortable with younger people getting the Kavule lucrative deployments to hold influential positions both in the party and in the national politics. There are also disgruntled NUPians led by Latif Sebaggala who have demanded that Kavule investigates extortionist claims against Oweddembe as one of the conditions for their return to the NUP mainstream.
Some of the defeated Councilor level candidates claim to have been cajoled into investing in Oweddembe’s campaign posters and the campaign eggaali he was using to canvass support for his own re-election. Some of these career and reputation-eroding claims, which no doubt will diminish Oweddembe beyond reproach.
There is also a group of diaspora-based NUP bloggers who are plotting to begin serializing Oweddembe’s alleged lucrative deals since 2016 when he first became Kawempe Mayor. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
