Bobi Wine warned

In Makindye-Sabagabo Municipality, the incumbent MP Ssempala Mulyanyama is nursing the pain that resulted from being denied the NUP flag in favour of David Sserukenya, a political debutante.

Mulyanyama who is the incumbent MP for Makindye-Sabagabo on DP ticket was among the 10 DP legislators who crossed to NUP. But to his surprise he was denied the NUP flag. “I joined NUP to continue the struggle for better democratic governance in this country,” says Mulyanyama. “There is nothing that will discourage me from participating in this struggle, and I am confident the people in my constituency will decide in my favour. There is a precedent set by Bobi Wine when he was denied a party ticket when he was running for Kyadondo East MP but that did not deter him from winning the hearts and minds of the voters. There are other people who have been denied party tickets like Tony Ssempebwa yet we are the ones who led this People Power revolution,” he said.

Ssempebwa is the Mayor of Kasangati Town Council and was hopeful he would succeed his boss. But the NUP flag for Kyadondo East was given to Muwudda Nkunyinyi who was formerly FDC. Muwada in 2017 ran as an Independent in the Kyadondo East race that Bobi Wine won. Sempala like others has declared he will run as an independent.

Dissatisfied supporters of Mulyanyama mobilised signatures to force NUP vetting committee to recall David Sserukenya who was given the NUP flag, claiming he is unknown in the area. Mulyanyama bragged that out of the 180 NUP councilor candidates in his constituency 175 he single-handedly mobilised. “So how can that NUP vetting committee drop me?” he wondered. “I am still so much in this struggle and my president is Bobi Wine,” Mulyanyama said.

Others that did not get the NUP ticket include Samuel Walter Lubega, a former presidential candidate in the 2011 elections who wants the Rubaga South parliamentary seat, and Sulaiman Kidandala a former deputy Lord Mayor of Kampala in 2012 who wants Kawempe North, Joseph Mayanja aka Chameleone for Kampala Lord Mayor, among others. These and others are contesting the manner in which the NUP electoral committee vetted candidates. They argue that there was foul play and have vowed to run as independents although they pay allegiance to NUP strongman Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine.

For now it appears NUP leadership is unsure on how to respond to these given that it is their own vetting committee that selected the perceived suitable candidates. The disgruntled candidates have appealed to Bobi Wine to rein in electoral committee. By press time, Bobi Wine was still tight lipped over the matter.

According to some sources the independents headache in the NUP palace is occasioned by the mentality that they contributed a lot to the People Power movement and others were citing how they heavily campaigned for Bobi Wine in 2017 to win the Kyadondo East Constancy. So for that they felt entitled and were only shocked when the NUP vetting committee threw them under the bus.

Fire brand Michael Mabike, who keeps hobnobbing from one political party to another was sad that himself lost the Makindye East constuency to one Derrick Nyeko.  Mabike has gone ahead to ask Bobi Wine to investigate the vetting committee for corruption and other electoral malpractices.

It is not just in Kampala that the some politicians who wanted the NUP flag are complaining. In Greater Masaka there are complaints that little-known candidates were given the flag leaving out well-known politicians who subscribe to the party. In Kasese Municipality, the supporters had to force NUP to recall a candidate who party supporters said they did not know. On Oct.06 NUP kicked out Amina Kahindo who had been selected by the vetting committee as the official candidate for the party and handed the flag to party diehard and coordinator Sam Baluku.

Asuman Basalirwa, the president of the Justice Forum Party (JEEMA) says for NUP to avoid these complaints they needed to publicise the criteria they used to select flag bearers. ‘This would have minimised on the number of complaints and now independents,” he reasons.

NUP spokesman Joel Ssenyonyi who was also chosen as a flag bearer for Nakawa West urged NUP members who did not get successful in getting the party flag to desist from contesting as independents to avoid dividing the vote and therefore increasing chances of losing. “It would be nice if members who have not got the NUP flag rally behind our flag bearers so that the NRM candidates don’t take advantage of this to defeat us,” says Ssenyonyi.

According to NUP vetting committee 380 candidates were vetted by the party in the last three weeks in an exercise that attracted 653 candidates. NUP failed to get candidates for some constituencies in greater North and West of the country.