The media has been awash with stories of a suspected fall out between the Leader of Opposition, Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba, also Nyendo – Mukungwe Member of Parliament and the President of the National Unity Platform, Mr. Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu.
Mpuuga who also deputizes Kyagulanyi in the Central (Buganda) region in the Party joined the National Unity Platform at the very inception of the Party, being a pillar in the securing of the party legislators within the area.
His charisma and leadership, together with his network in the most renowned lobbyists in both the church and the Buganda Kingdom Mpuuga appointed as the Leader of Opposition in Parliament.
Mpuuga who leads a team that includes his contemporaries such as Medard Ssegona Lubega (Busiro East), Muhammad Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala), Betty Namboozi (Mukono Municipality) among others, upon appointment started off with the laying of strategies including the institution of a legislative agenda that outlines what would be business for the minority in the house.
However, voices started raising on the divergence of the Leader of Opposition from what was supposed to be the official position of the party on how to engage government on a number of issues, including protests, defying what was termed as an “illegal” Presidency in the country.
Mpuuga said, well as the party was keen to regime change, legal methods including dialogue would be used to ensure that government of Uganda which angered several of the diehards who thought, the Leader of Opposition would lead a violent protest that would oust President Museveni.
Reports months later started indicating that the Kassanda Woman Member of Parliament, Flavia Nabagabe Kalule was being fronted by the same party that introduced Mpuuga to be the next leader of opposition.
“The pundits of pessimism also claimed, Flavia Kalule had turned into Kyagulanyi’s blued eyed person who reported to the NUP President what Mpuuga and the members of NUP in Parliament were doing. All this was hogwash,” a highly placed source at Parliament told this website.
The source also indicated that “Flavia Kalule was later vindicated only because there was nothing tangible to validate the rumors at Parliament.”
At the time, the Group of 20 (G 20), an NUP group formulated to engage in savings and engagement of communities across the different constituencies within which they represent was put in place.
The group which includes Mawokota North MP Hillary Kiyaga, also known as Hilderman, Godfrey Kayemba Solo, Geoffrey Lutaaya who are all tight buddies of the NUP President started facing serious lashing from different sections of the NUP foot soldiers claiming the G 20 was meant to fight Kyagulanyi through a Parliamentary front.
“We tried as much as we can to engage whoever cares, telling them that we are not fighting the party but instead, promoting it. We would engage all our communities and tell them that we all belong to the National Unity Platform, with Kyagulanyi as our President. However, people choose to character assassinate the group because of selfish reasons,” a member of the group told this website.
Well as several members of the group have labored to explain to the principal of innocence in the engagement and caucusing against the NUP President, the Group of 20 MPs has become a launch pad for attacking the Leader of Opposition, who is also not a member of the group, trying to lure him into disbanding what he never started or engaged in.
“It is actually foolhardy for anyone to think the Group of 20 is bad. It is actually helping NUP in improving awareness of the party activities and interacting with our people,” another MP says.
On the periphery, several MPs started alleging that the Secretariat is against Mpuuga and would want to replace him with a host of MPs including Joyce Bagala, the Mityana Woman MP and Joel Ssenyonyi, the flamboyant chairperson of the Committee on Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises. “Such rumors have also come to pass,” a senior parliamentary staff told this website.
At the height of the tensions, Parliament was thrown into outbursts between the Speaker of Parliament, Annet Anitah Among and the Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake who at the time was commissioner of Parliament representing the opposition.
The outbursts resulted into a resolution of Parliament that led to the ouster of Zaake as a commissioner. Despite attempts by the opposition to block the move, Zaake refused to apologize to the Speaker and was removed from the leadership of Parliament.
It is alleged, Zaake remained angered with the fact that the Leader of Opposition not being able to help in mitigating in the situation hence launching an attack against several leaders of the party and Mpuuga’s Loyalists.
It is alleged that at the height of the disagreement, with Ugx 40 million deliberated by Parliament to the different MPs against the will of the NUP leadership, Zaake lured MP Twaha Kagabo into declaring that he had received money and decided to return it.
“Kagabo was working with Zaake. And on the day he said he was returning the money, he wanted to leave the Leader of Opposition in shame. Zaake mobilized the money and orchestrated plans that would see the Leader of Opposition ashamed. However, Hon Mpuuga was smarter than them. Instead Kagabo is now facing dire consequences in both the party and Parliament for receiving a bribe,” another source who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter told this website.
No sooner had Kagabo’s debacle rested than a narrative being shared amongst the top leadership of the party that the Principal had shifted goal posts and now wanted Zaake to replace Mpuuga as leader of opposition.
Well as it has since been named as an unfounded rumor, the rumor has been linked Zaake’s orchestration who is said to have engaged several media personalities to bring the name of the Leader of Opposition in disrepute.
“Zaake is facing a big challenge of trying to inspire the principal, just like all other leaders are and in the event, he moves into fights with different leaders including the top administrators of the party and those of the opposition at Parliament.” an loyalist at the party head quarters told this website.
He (Zaake) is said to have engaged in all media personalities to have a glaring outburst against the Leader of opposition, which outburst the Party Spokesperson Mr. Joel Ssenyonyi says, it is not true.
“We always caucus to help our party move forward and we shall not be thrown apart by the increasing attacks by those who believe they should disorganize our team,” says Joel Ssenyonyi.
The MP has severally been accused of engaging in cyber bullying, ridiculing all those he disagrees with a claim Zaake has not disputed. This website tried to contact the MP who also acts as the secretary for youths in the party but efforts to find a comment from the MP remained futile as calls remained up picked.
However, it has also been established that the rift within the National Unity Platform is part of the ploy by the different stakeholders to impress the Principal, Robert Kyagulanyi who they believe is still the most influential opposition politician in this tenure.
The rift however has left different groupings within the party with those who engaged in the DP block prior to joining the National Unity Platform remain uncertain on where to pay allegiance.
A highly placed source within all camps at the National Unity Platform indicated that Kyagulanyi has not yet made up his mind on sacking Mpuuga and replacing him with any other opposition politician.
Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro who is a re-known inside friend to many of NRM staunch members including former Minister for water Ronald Kibuule and former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, he has been in so many political parties than any casual observer would believe. The flamboyant politician from Jinja has been to FDC (in the late 2000s), DP until 2019 and more recently joined NUP where he heads training and capacity building programs.
Under NUP, Waiswa Mufumbiro, who used to be a protégé of renowned deal-maker Fred Mukasa Mbidde (who Mpuuga deflated in 2021 elections), was fronted to stand for Jinja City South Division West where he managed only 1,964 votes against NRM’s Grace Balyeku (3,102 votes) and eventual winner Timothy Batuwa Lusala of FDC who polled 4,801 votes.
“We have also heard some people alleging that the Principal wants to replace Mpuuga with Nambeshe. They are all guessing. there are many factors to be considered if that decision is to be made for which the Principal ought not to disrespect,” the source said
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