By Mulengera Reporters
In a Monday evening interview with Mulengera news crew at her Kololo residence, ex-Minister Joy Kafura Kabatsi proposed what must be done to mitigate against the impending political bloodshed in Ssembabule district as the country counts down to the 2026 elections cycle-and more so the NRM primaries.
It remains a hotspot district and one of the most chaotic ones as Gen Emmanuel Rwashande plunges into Rwemiyaga to force out the long-serving area MP Theodore Ssekikubo (has reigned for 25 years) and as President Museveni’s young brother Sodo Kaguta Aine takes on Gen MK father-in-law Sam Kutesa’s daughter Shartsi Musherure for Mawogola County North.
In Rwemiyaga, it’s already getting bloody as many Ssekikubo’s armed supporters are preparing to take on the equally or even more armed camp of Gen Rwashande, who Kabatsi faults for crossing over from nearby Kiruhura district to come and seek to become an MP in Rwemiyaga where she says he doesn’t have roots. Both camps are threatening to go down fighting.
For Mawogola South, Sodo has equally vowed not to quit because he believes now is his chance having bowed out last time for Musherure even when he had more support. Musherure was coming to take over from her now ailing father Sam Kutesa who had been MP for more than 30 years. Sodo says the gentleman’s agreement agreed upon as he exited was that Musherure would give way to him after doing 5 years.
Yet the Ssembabule-wide political tensions go beyond Mawogola North and Rwemiyaga. In Mawogola West, you have Minister Anifa Kawooya Bangirana who has been in Parliament since the CA time in 1994. She is being challenged by businessman Wilber Begumisha who is husband to Ssembabule Woman MP Pastor Mary Begumisha. Their fight is equally intense and they have to face off in NRM primaries first before meeting in general elections. Here’s the video version of the full Kabatsi interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYbYo5RFDuo
KABATSI’S WAY FORWARD: In her proposal, ex-Minister Joy Kafura Kabatsi (who also one time served as the Director Legal Affairs in State House) wants Ssembabule to be treated as a special case by the President and the ruling NRM party because of the chaotic nature of its politics.
She is proposing the splitting of the district the way it was recently resolved for Tororo district. She says that Ssembabule is an old and very big district geographically. That splitting it would satisfy the contending political tendencies in a way that brings a win-win situation and enables the President to adequately accommodate everybody.
That one part can remain Ssembabule and the other becomes Rwemiyaga. Kabatsi, who is standing for Rwemiyaga and has been a victim of electoral injustices for the last 25 years, says that Rwemiyaga district becomes the place she represents so that her supporters, who she says are very many and are organic, stop feeling alienated.
That this reconciles them and atones the grievances they have accumulated for the last 25 years. She says she defeated Kawooya several times for the Woman MP Seat only to end up cheated and marginalized by the Kutesa machinery. She says her supporters are genuine supporters of NRM who are in thousands and shouldn’t remain aggrieved forever.
That many of them have been victims of political persecution at the hands of Kawooya, Sam Kutesa and more recently Theodore Ssekikubo, a former ally against whom she stood in 2021 after they fell out. She says Ssekikubo has been excellent in publicizing Rwemiyaga and putting it on map in Kampala but has been very poor at lobbying services and addressing the bread and butter issues of Rwemiyaga, where she too has her country home.
Currently, she is aggrieved against both Ssekikubo and Rwashande whose decision to stand in Rwemiyaga she says is an act of betrayal to her. That until two months ago, Rwashande was her chief promoter and was part of the larger group that had allowed her to be the sole candidate against Ssekikubo for the position of NRM flag bearer for Rwemiyaga. Kabatsi says she is even the one who sold land to Rwashande thinking he was a genuine General who was looking for where to graze from.
She says that to her surprise, he has used that as staging ground to fight her for the NRM flag. She says Rwashande, against whom the President ought to prevail, is unpopular and doesn’t have support to defeat Ssekikubo because he is an alien from nearby Kiruhura. She says he is naturally a very unlikeable character who Rwemiyaga voters will never accept.
She says Rwashande believes that to defeat Ssekikubo, you need to have a military man who can out gun him and even have capacity to rig him out where necessary. Kabatsi says this shows that Rwashande didn’t appreciate that it was the lack of free and fair elections that Generals of his generation joined NRA and went to the bush. Asked who of the two would be the lesser evil, Kabatsi says Rwashande would be more acceptable to her than Ssekikubo who she resents for doing 25 years and wanting to be the Rwemiyaga MP for life.
She equally said that she is disappointed with President Museveni, who made a phone call persuading her to leave the Woman MP after Kawooya quit in 2021 and insisted she goes to liberate Rwemiyaga from Ssekikubo who she says the President told her wasn’t good for that area anymore because he overlooks government programs meant to uplift people from poverty, hasn’t done enough to protect her against the Rwashande chauvinism.
She says that Museveni instigated her to go for Rwemiyaga in 2021 yet he never actively helped her de-campaign and overcome Ssekikubo. She admits that Ssekikubo remains very popular among a small fraction of Rwemiyaga population, mainly his fellow Baganda co-ethnics, who comprise of 25% of the Rwemiyaga population. In 2021, she stood against him as an independent and got slightly more than 5,000 votes.
She says that she had genuine support which Rwashande should back her to harness into a win against Ssekikubo as opposed to investing military means and planning to pour billions of shillings in the constituency. She wants the President to get involved in convincing his fellow General to leave the Ssekikubo race to her.
SHARTSHI FOR WOMAN MP TOO: Kabatsi says the alternative would be Rwemiyaga district for which she becomes Woman MP as Rwashande battles Ssekikubo.
The other option is for Musherure, who she says has done pretty well and even much better than her father SK, to become the Woman MP for what remains of Ssembabule (minus Rwemiyaga), which leaves Mawogola North for Sodo.
Kabatsi says that this too would de-escalate the impending bloody fight between Sodo and the Kutesa family, whose other daughter Charlotte is the wife to President Museveni’s son, Gen MK. Kabatsi says that much as Shartsi has done well, she may not be able to overcome an effective mobiliser like Sodo in the ballot box.
Kabatsi says it would be prudently for the Movement to sacrifice and led Mary Begumisha go since her husband is already battling for Mawogola West against Kawooya.
Secondly, she says Begumisha doesn’t have a large team of constituents to appease or reconcile since she hasn’t suffered or been in the Ssembabule chaos for that long. She is easily disposable because she doesn’t have a lot of organic support in Ssembabule.
Kabatsi has already been to Kyadondo to formally tender her proposal to the NRM Secretary General Richard Todwong who welcomed it recently and promised to discuss with and consult the President about it. However, Museveni hasn’t yet found time to adequately discuss this with Todwong and other key decision makers inside the NRM.
Kabatsi says there is nothing strange about her proposal because it’s timed to coincide with the precedence of Tororo district whose decades of political wrangling the President last week brought to an end through granting the split of the original Tororo into three administrative political units namely Tororo City, Mulanda and Mukuju districts.
Kabatsi says that this would be good for the peace and effective governance of Ssembabule as one of the political hotspot districts of Uganda. She wonders why Ssembabule can’t be split the way nearby Kiruhura was, not very long ago, split up too to create Kazo. As plan B, Kabatsi says she is ready for battle with both Ssekikubo and Gen Rwashande for the position of Rwemiyaga County MP. And she is optimistic of a win. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
