Kampala, Uganda – In a shocking confession that has sent shockwaves across the political spectrum, defeated Nansana Municipality parliamentary aspirant Eng. Stephen Kaweesa—once proudly wearing the title NUP Commander 001—broke down on national television this week, alleging that he handed over a staggering Shs 600 million to National Unity Platform (NUP) leaders in exchange for the party flag ahead of the 2026 elections… only to be dumped.
The tearful meltdown, aired on Sanyuka TV, lays bare a truth many Ugandans have long suspected: NUP’s internal candidate selection has morphed into a cash-driven auction, where loyalty, service, and vision for the people mean little compared to what you can pay.
Kaweesa, visibly distraught, revealed how he mortgaged two buildings and sank deep into loans to raise the money, convinced it would secure him the official NUP ticket. Instead, the flag allegedly went to another aspirant—reportedly Zambali Bulasio Mukasa—leaving Kaweesa to contest as an independent. The result: a humiliating electoral defeat and debts now reportedly exceeding Shs 1 billion, with creditors circling his properties and forcing him into hiding.
“I was cheated,” Kaweesa said, tears streaming, as clips circulated online. In a dramatic twist, he publicly appealed for intervention from President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, vowing to defect to the NRM and promising to bring his former NUP “foot soldiers” with him—if only the President would rescue him from the financial ruin he blames on Bobi Wine’s camp.
This is not politics. This is daylight robbery in red berets.
NUP loyalists, unsurprisingly, dismissed Kaweesa’s claims as the tantrum of a failed opportunist seeking to blackmail the party. They insist party cards are “free” and awarded on merit—a convenient narrative given the growing number of disgruntled aspirants telling eerily similar stories of cash exchanging hands behind closed doors.
The pattern is now unmistakable. Ordinary Ugandans pour their savings, sell land, mortgage homes, and borrow from loan sharks—all in the name of “change”—only to be discarded when the envelopes are counted. The victims are left bankrupt, broken, and ironically begging the very regime they once opposed for relief.
Watchdog Uganda has consistently warned that blind hero-worship, and cult-like devotion do not build credible alternatives—they merely create new predators in different colors.
Kaweesa’s public breakdown should be the loudest alarm yet. If even self-proclaimed “Commanders” can be fleeced and discarded so mercilessly, what hope remains for the average mwananchi who believed in the gospel of liberation?
The question Ugandans now face is no longer whether NUP can defeat Museveni. The urgent question is: who will protect ordinary citizens from being looted by both sides?
We will keep watching. And we will keep naming names.
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