By Mulengera Reporters
The few days Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja has been on the campaign trail have greatly boosted chances for NRM candidate Faridah Nambi to get the win over NUP’s Erias Nalukoola Luyimbazi.
Herself a resident of Kawempe (though South & not North), Nabbanja has used her Majegere hands-on approach to move mountains for the NRM candidate. For instance, bedbugs have for years been a big problem menacing residents in almost all ghettos of Kawempe. And it’s something that voters have been raising to the NRM candidate Nambi; demanding government intervention.
When this was raised at one of the rallies where Nabbanja (who is in the area to do curtain raising ahead of the President’s Tuesday visit) was, she immediately rang people at the Ministry of Health. There was immediate response and the indiscriminate spraying of the bedbugs began immediately.
In the process, millions of bedbugs were sprayed and sent to their creator during the weekend. This has brought significant relief to area residents and in the process incressed Faridah Nambi’s acceptability.
Yet this isn’t the only problem Nabbanja has deescalated using similar pragmatic approach. When she campaigned at a place called Roko and the area residents raised water-related concerns, Nabbanja immediately rang NWSC and KCCA bosses and caused prompt intervention.
She told residents this is why they should support the NRM candidate because, unlike opposition MPs who want problems to campaign on, the ruling party leadership is about prompt solving of problems.
She sarcastically told voters not to be angry at their MPs and other elected leaders who have failed to solve many of these problems for years because they have no mechamism to access decision-makers like herself.
She came with several ruling NRM MPs who told voters about the NRM caucus from where things to do with budgeting and resources allocation are appropriated from. The MPs gave the example of the recent caucus meeting from where priorities to go into the FY2025/2026 budget were discussed and agreed upon.
The voters were told at the rally that such meetings are used for MPs to lobby for key service delivery interventions for people in their respective areas. They were advised to vote for Nambi so as to increase their chances to partake of the national cake whose allocation is largely decided by Gen Museveni and his NRM MPs.
Kawempe is Baganda-dominated but it has a significant number of people who are non-Bagandas especially those from the northern part of Uganda. Desire to sway such voters has prompted the NRM camp to bring in such MPs from such areas to talk to their co-ethnics.
Nabbanja has also demonstrated unexpected levels of flexibility to the extent that she takes to the dance floor and dances squeeze with even smelly boys from the ghettos of Kawempe North. All this has increased the acceptability for the NRM candidate Faridah Nambi. She has also rallied senior NRM leaders to camp in Kawempe including Rose Namayanja, Rosemary Seninde, Lydia Wanyoto, Godfrey Kiwanda and others.
The NRM camp is also trying to take advantage of the slight anger there is amongst NUP supporters especially foot soldiers some of whom haven’t yet accepted Nalukoola who they liken to Mathias Mpuuga’s elite politics. They see him as a musiba-ttayi (tie wearer) who isn’t one of them.
Some have gone as far allying with some DP remnants whose view is that Nalukoola is a traitor who was the party legal advisor at the time DP President Norbert Mao signed a cooperation MoU with the NRM government.
The NRM camp is also leveraging on the anger among some of the Umar Magala supporters who have been reluctant to accept Nalukoola even after Bobi Wine has been driving around calling on them to rally behind him (Nalukoola) on grounds that he is more suitable for the assignment at hand. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
