By Our Reporters
Hamida Nassimbwa’s recruitment in FDC was prompted by circumstances she faced as a struggling business lady in Park Yard market’s shoes section. None of the party members went out of his or her way to recruit her into Uganda’s biggest opposition party. The year was 2014 when she approached an activist called Aisha Nalukalala who was then very active in the defiance activities. Nassimbwa, now the FDC Women league boss whose sexist fights with Nandala Mafabi have kicked a storm in the party, was trading in 2nd hand shoes in Park Yard market that was burnt twice in that same year 2014. The fires were always very suspicious and some traders considered that someone was out to financially cripple them to avenge their support for the opposition. Apparently Nassimbwa, the woman at the center of the raging sex scandal in the party, was among those who bought into this conspiracy that the market, which is full of opposition supporters, was being burnt politically. She became intrigued and her discussion with Aisha Nalukalala focused on whether joining a party like FDC would in any way impact on the situation and make the market safer. Nalukalala, then a diehard Besigye supporter, encouraged Hamida to join FDC. She is the young sister to troubled Boda-Boda 2010 supremo Abdul Kitata and she makes her decisions very fast just like her brother.
JOINING FDC:
Hamida joined the party and Aisha Nalukalala was even more excited that the lady who turned out to be a great fighter during demonstrations was even coming from Wakiso district just like herself. An admirer of Ingrid Turinawe (for her courage), Hamida instantly became very active and her fearlessness during demonstrations attracted quick attention of party leaders and most importantly the media. “She always led from the front because Ingrid used to tell us in planning meetings at Katonga that whoever wants to win media publicity and become a leader must be infront so that many more Ingrids emerge in the FDC women movement. Hamida strictly heeded this advice and was always leading from the front,” one of Hamidah’s best friends in FDC says of the mother of 4 kids aged between 7 and 10. She has thrice mothered twins but unfortunately some of them died. Hamidah’s dare devil approach, which prompted her to support radicals like Nandala Mafabi and closely work with Ingrid and KB, enabled Hamida to emerge a leader within the FDC women movement in a very short time. In 2015, barely a year into the party, Hamida overshadowed many FDC women leaders in Wakiso (who had been in the struggle since 2001) and was elected district women leader Wakiso. The 34 year old married Wakiso resident is a graduate of education from Kyambogo University and was therefore qualified to run for MP Seat. Thus in 2015/6, she positioned herself to carry the FDC flag for Busiro East of Medard Segona but was upstaged by city tycoon Emmanuel Matovu who the party leadership thought stood a better chance given his deep pockets and many more years of being pioneer FDC chairman Wakiso. Hamida petitioned FDC Secretariat claiming Matovu had unfairly been imposed on the party but she abandoned the petition after Besigye and SG Nandala, then a close ally to her, counseled her to let go.
WHY JOIN FDC:
There are many factors compelling one to believe Hamida would materially be happier in NRM where her brother Kitata, with whom they are very close, calls shots. That is one factor. The other is that Aisha Nalukalala, who brought her to FDC, has since defected to NRM through Gen Kale Kayihura. “I’m staying put because I joined opposition deliberately and not because anybody forced me. I was disappointed with NRM when our market burnt twice and we were promised air. The officials promised to help us rebuild our businesses and nothing came through and I couldn’t believe a leader can lie grieving mothers in the misery we were in. That is why I joined the struggle and I’m for charge,” Hamida told this news website in a phone interview. “The approach of Gen Muntu, about whom I was originally told a lot of crap only to see he was very good the moment I closely worked with him, is another source of inspiration for me to remain in this struggle. I’m not interested in the NRM issues and that’s why none of my detractors in FDC can ever accuse me of being a mole. My brother Kitata is the one who takes people to see the President but he is my witness I have always declined those things. I’m pro-change and that is the path I have chosen.” Hamida also says many people have been jailed, maimed or even killed in the struggle for change “and any defecting to NRM would be betrayal to my own self.” She has been to prison several times including three months in Luzira for joining the 9 other Jobless Youth Brotherhood members who dropped a coffin at the Independence monument behind Sheraton Hotel ostensibly to symbolize the death of Museveni. They were brutally arrested and Hamida was the only lady; the other 9 demonstrators were males. Her original mentor in FDC Aisha Nalukalala is these days doing very well as an influential mobilizer in Kale Kayihura’s office and was most likely connected to KK by Kitata, Hamidah’s brother. Aisha led the demonstration at Parliament of the guys who opposed Kayihura’s criminal prosecution for beating Besigye supporters, something for which Hamida criticized her. When still in FDC, Aisha Nalukalala actively participated in the demo that protested the brutality police occasioned to Besigye at Mulago round about. It’s believed that is the day Gen Kayihura took note of Aisha Nalukalala and sent Kitata to look for her. She eventually denounced walk to work and joined NRM.
BACK TO HAMIDA:
She is naturally very aggressive and ambitious like her brother Kitata and this manifested in 2015 when she competed in the FDC women league elections and defeated all the others to deputize Winnie Kiiza who is the overall leader of women league. Gratefully days before joining FDC, she had been very active in Norman Tumuhimbise’s Jobless Brotherhood which demonstrated to FDC electors that she was a woman of action. She was operations coordinator in the Brotherhood by the time she quit to join FDC. Once in the FDC, Hamida participated in a number of demonstrations demanding electoral reforms and was brutalized a lot by police including the day she led the FDC women to raid Parliament only to end up being undressed and her tummy dragged on tarmac by police.
RISING IN FDC RANKS:
As FDC women leader, she has benefited from Winnie Kiiza’s busy schedule (being LoP). Kiiza has many times been delegating her to attend very important party meetings including the very powerful management committee that meets twice a month to generate the agenda for all party business. While there, Hamidah’s fearless character caused other members to realize something they didn’t know about her. This committee is for the previledged few and being a member there greatly increased Hamidah’s clout in the party. It’s in these meetings that her wars with Nandala and Joyce Sebugwawo began. She always faulted Sebugwawo for communicating personal views in the management committee meetings and calling them views of FDC Buganda caucus which she chairs. Sebugwawo is much respected and all party leaders always refrain from opposing her even when she is wrong. Hamida said “no way,” a thing that won her friends and foes.
As for Nandala, trouble started when Hamida lobbied the committee to release Shs5m to treat one of the activists who was in Mulago nursing wounds arising from torture by Flying Squad. Nandala, who as SG controls funds, objected saying the activist was just acting. That is how the war started and only escalated when Nandala arbitrarily cut the monthly salary of FDC CAO Rose Nassanga from Shs4.5m to Shs2.5m. Nassimbwa brought the matter to management committee and accused Nandala of dictatorship and witch-hunt. She also accused Nandala of trying to recruit her into his personal wars with Patrick Baguma who was representing FDC in IPOD. She says Nandala tried to deploy her there well knowing it would annoy Baguma but she declined because he was setting many other conditions.
THE EALA FRACAS:
Yet there are other instances that showed Nassanga’s confrontational approach towards fellow party leaders including the EALA elections of last year. Her candidate was Ingrid Turinawe during the NEC meeting and other candidates were (Nandala’s PA) Gloria Paga, Ibi Florence etc. Fatuma Namusoga, another militant babe in FDC NEC, was for Paga and she shut up everybody during that NEC meeting. This prompted Hamida, who was marketing Ingrid Turinawe, to grab the much feared Fatuma by the neck. She dragged her out to the compound where the two babes thumped each other to the point of bleeding.
An ambulance had to be called after party officials feared that the badly thumped Fatuma was going to die. Hamida was unrepentant saying “she is the one who provoked me and today was my day to show that she isn’t the only mad person in NEC.” Critics say she beat Fatuma Namusoga because she was uncomfortable with her having a crush on Nandala Mafabi but Hamida vehemently denies this charge. “I have never been interested in Nandala at all. That is just propaganda of those people to divert me from the genuine cause I’m pursuing calling for reforms in my party,” Hamida told this news website. Being in FDC leadership has also exposed her to many opportunities including frequently traveling abroad for capacity building workshops and benchmarking on women leadership.
HER PARENTAGE:
Hamida, who is very critical of her brother Kitata for being a fanatic NRM supporter, denies reports that Kitata is an illegitimate child of her father. “That is not true. We are same mother and same father. Those saying our mother came to the marriage with him from Butambala are not being truthful.” Butambala is their maternal home and their mum is born there. Actually ex-Butambala MP Kaddunabi Lubega (now CEO Insurance Regulatory Authority) is their maternal uncle. He follows their mother who lives in Magere Kasangati where the Hamidas partly grew up from. Nakasajja in Mukono is where their father lives.
Apart from Kitata and Huzair Kiwalabye (both in detention), Hamidah’s other siblings include Birungi and Mariam the youngest. When Kitata and Huzair recently got arrested, Hamida rang their mum and said “you see I always told those boys this NRM of theirs is very bad; now they have been sacrificed in the wars of the Generals.” That notwithstanding, Hamida is the closest sibling who knows most of Kitata’s secrets regarding business, women and children. In FDC, Hamidah’s closest ally is Idi Ouma the chairman Youth league and this is largely because they have been fighting together to ensure SG Nandala increases funding to their respective leagues.
