In the recent reshuffle for RDCs, youthful Faridah Mayanja Mpiima emerged the biggest beneficiary because she was given the post of Resident City Commissioner (RCC) Kampala district replacing Deborah Mbabazi. But who is this young lady that many Ugandans are continuing to curious about? Whereas she appears new to some people, Faridah Mayanja hails from a family that has significant history in the NRA struggle that brought Museveni to power in 1986. At the start of the anti-Obote war, her devout Muslim father was among the first volunteer drivers who used to chauffer then rebel leader Yoweri Museveni around each time he had clandestine missions to undertake in any of the districts surrounding Kampala. He offered his pickup truck to enable then very popular rebel leader move about easily. And Museveni linked up with the family much later on in the late 2000s.
Then in 2011, an enthused youthful Faridah offered herself to carry the NRM flag in Rubaga South against then very strong legislator John Ken Lukyamuzi. This was the period of unprecedented intrigue in the NRM as Peter Sematimba, who had beat the opposition in 2008 to become Rubaga Mayor, struggled, with the active backing of then powerful ruling party Secretary General Amama Mbabazi, to show Museveni he was the most effective mobilizer NRM had in Kampala at that time. So for Sematimba handlers, anybody who threatened to be an alternative good mobilizer to what he offered, had to be subdued and politically annihilated before Museveni noticed their prowess. That is how Faridah Mayanja, who had almost similar celebrity credentials like Sematimba being a fellow radio DJ, was identified for destruction. She became target for all the powerful Museveni assistants who were behind the Sematimba project including the legendary Moses Byaruhanga. The poor lady struggled to compete against Lukyamuzi but at the same time was being stabbed by colleagues within NRM. This was the time Capt Francis Babu protested the Sematimba chauvinism and offered to run as an NRM-leaning independent candidate for Mayorship. However, they both lost to Erias Lukwago. On losing the Rubaga MP Seat, narrowly to Lukyamuzi, Faridah Mayanja who Museveni had promised a deployment that never came, resumed her work as a radio presenter at Beat fm where she was among the most popular presenters.
At some point, she also worked with Ahmed Bogere Masembe’s Suubi fm. To become NRM constituency chairperson for Rubaga South and flag bearer, she had to first overcome Ken Male who was backed by the Sematimba group. In 2016, Faridah Mayanja returned in the hope that a sharply divided opposition (you had TJ’s Kato Lubwama, Ken Lukyamuzi, FX Sempiira and DP’s Xavier Katabalwa all running) would be an opportunity for her to get the seat for the NRM but still the intrigue and back-stabbing within NRM was too overwhelming and she still didn’t get the seat. Kato Lubwama took it and the much awaited Museveni deployment from State House still never came but Faridah kept hopeful as she reflected on old sayings such as “good things come to those who wait and he who laughs last laughs best.” As she endured the very agonizing waiting, another lady emerged and was identified coincidentally with similar names-Faridah Mayanja. An impression was created that Rubaga South’s Faridah Mayanja, who had for long waited for the Museveni promise, had finally been rewarded. In actual sense this wasn’t so. This was another Faridah who excelled doing political mobilization in Kampala under the State House political affairs department headed by Moses Byaruhanga.
All the groceries, this 2nd Faridah enjoyed were perceived as going to Rubaga South to counter the opposition ahead of 2016 whereas not. At one time, Faridah Mayanja finished 2nd to Ken Lukyamuzi as DP’s Vincent Mayanja trailed in number 3. Voters and grass root NRM supporters always believed that flamboyant Faridah Mayanja Mpiima was the best that could match Ken Lukyamuzi’s charisma. Faridah’s husband and father of her children is a corporate lawyer working with a city bank and the long political-suffering his wife endured had turned him into a Museveni critic on social media. The couple has strong Muslim backing and it’s hoped by kingmakers in State House that Rubaga South’s Faridah Mayanja finally has the political stage and the relevant logistics to put on display the mobilization skills she has always been reputed to have. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
