Kawempe North Member of Parliament Al Haj Latif Sebagala Sengendo has revealed that he will not stand as a candidate in the Kampala Lord Mayor race.
Months ago, Sebagala had announced that he will no longer contest in the race for Kawempe North Parliamentary seat but will instead seek to unseat Erias Lukwago, the Kampala Lord Mayor, from office in 2021. Sebagala currently subscribes to Bobi Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP, a political wing of People Power movement.
The current Lord Mayor Lukwago is an ally of opposition strongman Dr Kizza Besigye who many like Sebagala thought would become irrelevant because of Bobi Wine’s popularity. Political observers argue that Sebagala thought that Bobi Wine would rise above Besigye and make Lukwago (who is Besigye’s deputy president at the People’s Government as well as a new member of Forum for Democratic Change) less popular among Kampala voters, something he thought would give him a chance in the 2021 mayoral election.
However, Sebagala seems to have realised that in case Lukwago stands again, he may not be as easy to defeat as he had thought and that his ally Dr Besigye was not as weak as some had been made to believe, political observers further argue that it is this realisation that made Sebagala change his mind and eat his own words, deciding to go back and fight for his seat in Kawempe North instead of risking to be embarrassed in a mayoral election.
In a recent media interview, Ssebagala announced that he has decided to stand for another term as Kawempe North MP. His previous announcement that he will stand for mayor had brought politicians like Councillor Muhammad Segirinya and former deputy lord mayor Sulaiman Kidandala among others, into the race to replace him. It was even said that he had endorsed Kidandala as his best successor.
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