By Mulengera Reporters
When she learnt of the impeding Kawempe North by-election, Anifa Karadi (who lives in nearby Nansana) strategically acquired and rented a house in Kyebando’s Kisalosalo Zone in order to increase her eligibility for the Seat.
She hails from Mbarara where she has previously stood for the MP Seat only to trail badly upon getting rejected by voters. In fact, before she plunged into Kawempe, voters in Mbarara were beginning to get used to her campaign posters seeking their mandate to be their MP for 2026-2031.
She has always been NRM and her original objective was to carry the ruling party flag in Kawempe after the EC declared the seat vacant following the death and burial of Mohammed Segirinya. But even before the NRM EC, whose Tanga Odoi she has been demonising, began the candidate selection process, Karadi had been moving around Kawempe trying to recruit agents and support from among the ruling party structures members.
She put together a team of advisors mainly comprising of informal sector cadres of lukewarm and moderate committment inside the ruling party. But they were all from the different ghettos of Kawempe North; not high profile decision makers in the party’s Kawempe set up. These helped her to draw up a list of more senior/influential NRM cadres whose endorsement she badly needed if the Kyadondo-based NRM Secretariat was to consider her for the flag.
She started visiting the seniors in their respective homes one by one to officially ask for their endorsement and support. Many were seeing her for the first time even when she had kept claiming to have been a resident of Kisalosalo zone in Kyebando for 25 years.
These would subject her to their own scrutiny and unknown to her, some of them would even record audios. They were appalled to realize how Karadi had so limited knowledge of the area she wanted to represent as MP and was claiming to have been resident in for 25 years. One of these senior cadres contacted was Mr. Luwaga, who is chairman NRM in the area.
Luwaga asked her how many parishes Kawempe North has. She said 19 yet they are only 9. She was also asked to name some of the parishes and mentioned Makerere parish which actually is in Kawempe South! This made Luwaga and other NRM decision-makers to realize that she was inept and not measuring up.
In another engagement, a senior cadre hosted her at her home and asked her the zone where she says she has lived for 25 years doing great charity work in the community and the appalling discovery was that she didn’t even know the LC1 Chairman of that zone. The cadre hosting her said there is no way the LC1 Chairman of that zone would fail to know someone who has been so much charity work, as Karadi claimed, in his area for 25 years without him (chairman) ever getting to know about him or her.
Different cadres spoke to each other about their private engagements with Karadi and the common conclusion they kept coming to was that she wasn’t the best thing for NRM to front in the NUP stronghold of Kawempe. Their consensus was that she didn’t kmow the constituency enough.
Some senior NRM leaders and cadres in Kawempe also reflected on the fact that, possibly because they didn’t know the territory of the Constituency enough, her campaign agents and team members ended up putting her posters in Bwaise which is in Kawempe South. This is why they abandoned her and zeroed in on Faridah Nambi who clearly had some start up political capital including the more than 90,000 votes she polled in 2021 when she stood for Kampala Woman MP slot.
Some NRM leaders were also concerned that being a Westerner would make Karadi harder brand to sale to the voters in Kawempe North where not less than 80% are Baganda diehards. In comparison, Nambi was accepted as authentic, formidable and easier to sell to the electorate.
Even when that’s the case, Karadi’s continued stay in the race has raised concerns that she could create confusion especially among NRM voters some of whom have bought into her bid because her campaign is well oiled. Naturally, this diminishes Nambi’s victory chances. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
