By Mulengera Reporters
As PFF Deputy Chairman for Buganda region Lulume Bayiga unveiled him to a large crowd at Katonga on Tuesday, Kira Municipality Mayor Julius Mutebi Nsubuga explained why he was feeling at home flocking with Semujju Nganda and Erias Lukwago at Freedom Party headquarters than at Kavule.
Mutebi, who dug into history and explained working with Nganda and Lukwago for many years to accomplish big political tasks, said that he was emotionally feeling a lot of peace at Katonga than he had ever felt at Kavule where NUP headquarters is sheltered. That at Katonga he feels he is dealing with decent colleagues, comrades and gentlemen who mean what they say and are not treacherous.
He made reference to extortion and agreed with other fellow defectors who had spoken earlier making it clear that they couldn’t believe there still existed a party in Kampala whose compound you can drive into and enter without being confronted by extortionists who are out to black mail you into giving them money before you can be allocated a good seat in the tents.
Mutebi said he felt betrayed that NUP would pay him back by denying him the ticket yet he has been an incumbent for 10 years in Kira whose voters he said are grateful with the excellent job he and his team of councilors and other elected leaders like Semujju Nganda have done. He said he was actually the incumbent overall Kunga coordinator in Kira and was shocked to the marrow when he was denied the party card and sacrificed in favour of Peter Maiso.
He came with several other councilors from Kira who defected along with him from NUP to PFF whose Erias Lukwago he saluted to always standing on a high moral ground when it comes to resisting dirty deals and fighting for pro-poor people’s social justice causes.
Almost shedding tears, Mutebi recalled being the most beaten of all Nalukoola agents during the Kawempe North by-elections and was utterly shocked to realize that all the fractures and scars he contracted as a result of that torture by soldiers, didn’t amount to anything among the key decision-makers in NUP. He implied the Kavule party ought to have appreciated and treated him with more respect.
He indicated that he expected that the risks he took and the sacrifice and humiliation he endured in Kawempe would cause the NUP decision-makers to appreciate and reciprocate by allowing him carry on since he was already a well-performing incumbent. “I couldn’t afford living alone like a political orphan when I have my colleagues under whose PFF platform I’m now comfortable belonging,” explained Mutebi who spoke on behalf of fellow defectors.
Some of the defectors, whose decision to switch sides the leadership at Katonga didn’t seem comfortable over playing during the Tuesday event that was largely convened to unveil Erias Lukwago as PFF’s candidate for Kampala Lord Mayorship, are incumbent NUP Councillors from Kampala and Wakiso plus Mukono who have since decamped citing lack of internal democracy and clear processes through which one becomes a flag bearer.
Some of these (especially those Makindye Ssabagabo) this Wednesday morning appeared on Kabaka’s CBS radio claiming that their decision to join Katonga frightened decision makers at Kavule who have since been calling them to rejoin NUP and be given the flag. One Ssabagabo Councilor said on CBS that he had rejected the NUP flag and drove to Wakiso district headquarters to be nominated on the PFF flag on Wednesday. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
