NRM divided, opposition contests Kayunga election results

Jennifer Namutebi, alias ‘Full Figure’, seen with President Yoweri Museveni (above) blamed the NRM for stealing Kayunga elections.

The Kayunga LC5 by-elections that were contested mainly between the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) candidates ended with NRM candidate Andrew Muwonge declared winner by the electoral commission. The opposition protested the results saying there was vote rigging.

It appeared as a do or die election for the ruling NRM party. It is rare that Museveni, as the Chairman of NRM, personally goes to campaign for local leaders. But this time, he went to Kayunga to drum support for the NRM candidate.

When Museveni arrived at Kayonza Primary School, in Kayunga district on December 14 to campaign for Muwonge, he was shocked to find that there were no crowds to welcome him. Kayunga town was empty! This was a clear message that the people of Kayunga were not for Museveni’s candidate.

It should be recalled that in the January general elections, NUP candidate Ffefeka Sserubugo smoothly won the LC5 elections. Barely five months after, was Sserubogo’s lifeless body found hanging in a jack tree.  Locals claimed that the deceased could have been murdered because he was a very vocal character on matters of corruption and land grabbing.

The suspects, as usual, were ‘the pigs.’

The people of Kayunga were perplexed when NRM’s Muwonge was declared winner by the Kayunga District returning officer, Jennifer Kyobutungi, with 31,830 votes, while NUP’s Harriet Nakweede Kafeero came second with 31,380 votes.

Other candidates were: Musisi Boniface Bandikubi (Independent):470, Kamoga Jamilu (Independent):279, Waddimba Anthony (DP): 158 and Nyanzi Majid (Independent): 1.297.

Kayunga is known to be an NUP stronghold.

NUP’s Nakweende voted with a bandaged head after being clobbered by armed security men. The NUP leader, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine, rejected the by-election outcomes, blaming Museveni for the loss.

“In broad day light, Museveni robs the victory of the people, and declares his candidate in Kayunga! Despite the stuffing and all manner of rigging, the signed DR forms give us a 15,000 votes lead. Ugandans will have to decide the next course of actions,” the NUP leader lamented.

Pushing the people of Uganda to the limits

Even among NRM supporters, some rejected the results saying that the elections were marred by vote rigging, bribery and beating members of NUP by security agencies. The vocal NRM mobiliser in the central region, and musician, Jennifer Namutebi Nakangubi, alias ‘Full Figure’, complained in a recorded video about how NRM is dead and doing things that embarrass Museveni.

“NRM is dead, people import crowds in buses to accompany the president wherever he goes (to give an impression that he has support of majority citizens in the area), and the president doesn’t know this! Let’s work for the people, let’s work for Ugandans, this is our country. They have stolen the election…,”Full Figure complained.   

Opposition political parties plan to make a joint petition to court requesting it to nullify the Kayunga LC5 by-election results.  The president of the Democratic Party, Nobert Mao, accused the electoral commission for mismanaging the recent LC5 by-elections in Kayunga and announced that his party will go to court to challenge the results.  Mao also blamed the low turnout of voters on polling day to heavy deployment of police and the army. Mao said this when he was addressing journalists at the DP Headquarters in Kampala on December 21. Mao called on the opposition to come together and stop fighting each other.

Museveni is becoming unpopular not only in the central region but also in the whole country. His NRM performed poorly in the January presidential and parliamentary polls in the central region. Many of the incumbent MPs including ministers were defeated by the opposition.  The NRM big wigs who lost their seats include  Vice President Edward Ssekandi, Haruna Kasolo, Amelia Kyambadde, Ruth Nankabirwa, Judith Nabakooba, Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo, and Rosemary Seninde. The list is long.

The NRM has resorted to transporting people in buses to accompany Museveni in areas dominated by the opposition, to hoodwink Ugandans that NRM is still popular. Museveni is using force and the brutality of security agencies to keep himself in power, regardless of the signs that Ugandans are tired of him, according to political analysts.

 Museveni has appointed his family members in all sensitive positions, including his son as the commander of the army to entrench his grip on power, analysts say.

The NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi who is also a celebrated musician, resorted to his music to send clear messages to Museveni that he must go. In his recently released Luganda song “Ogenda” loosely translated as “You are going,” Bobi Wine says that the song is made directly for the sitting president’s ears who he blames for turning back on his word to bring democracy to the country. “My new song #Ogenda sent directly to Museveni,” Bobi Wine said in a tweet.

In a Facebook post, Kyagulanyi wrote: “We need to have an honest conversation about the direction of the struggle against dictatorship in this country. It is the oppressor and not the oppressed who defines the course of the struggle…. it seems clear that Museveni is pushing the people of Uganda to the limits.”