General Muhoozi Keinerugaba was at it again last week, pouncing on the opposition as he appeared to poach from our Kamwokya neighbours their prized asset in Njeru Municipality MP Jimmy Lwanga.
Even though the NUP Lawmaker has trashed reports he has defected to the highly embraced Muhoozi Movement, he does well insist on his admiration for General Muhoozi and the ideology of the project behind him. Referring to him as “my friend”, Lwanga unapologetically contends that he would back the former Lands Forces Commander should he seek to take part in the forthcoming presidential contest. In a race National Unity Platform (NUP) Supreme Leader, Robert Kyagulanyi is almost certain to take part in, Lwanga’s open admiration for Muhoozi sounds like a direct declaration of war against the man many consider his political benefactor.
Pushed harder for an explanation, the MP said that when he got a chance of meeting the President’s son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, he dashed for it, only for reports to suggest he was switching allegiance from his opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) yet it was only driven by a desperation to meet General Museven!
“No,” he said. “My sole aim was Gen Muhoozi to help me meet the President because the president made so many pledges to the people of Nejru Municipality, it is those people who told me to go and remind the president,” Lwanga said.
He said he had tried all tricks to meet the president but none had the glue to stick.
“I even brought the Prime Minister to Njeru and she promised to take our complaints to the President but never did. Our term is getting finished and this is when I got a chance to meet the First Son. He actually said he would help,” he added.
Rightly, Lwanga believes he does not owe the NUP any explanation because he met Gen Muhoozi as a “Ugandan and Friend”.
“I believe in a competition of ideology, not chicken fights of who met or talked to who, I represent over 180,000 people, they are from different parties,” all that seems not to align with his “Pulinsipo’s” brand of politics.
“We are no longer in an opposition where people climb disagree with the government and climb tables to cause chaos. We need to fit the modern era of politics, as advocated for by our Leader of Opposition in Parliament,’ he contends.
The development above begs the question, where does Lwanga’s loyalty fall between Bobi Wine and Muhoozi?
Yet Lwanga is not the first NUP to ideologically seek refuge from the Kamwokya sort of tyranny. In May, Busiro South MP, Dr Twaha Kagabo officially declared he had joined the first son’s push for the most coveted office currently occupied by his father, General Museveni for nearly four decades now. Castigating the top leadership at Kamwokya for their faulty direction of the party, Kagabo vowed to seek reelection as an independent, further lamenting about internal intrigue that has clandestinely led to the grooming of leaders to challenge incumbents for positions. Kawempe South Lawmaker, Hajji Bashir Mbazira Kazibwe is another whose fall out with the Pilinsipo is no longer a secret. The former scribe has variously been accused of being a secret servant of the man at State House. In fact, plans to frustrate his reelection come 2026 have been rumoured to exist by those that call the shots at Kamwokya.
Pr, Dr Abeid Bwanika, a three-time Presidential Candidate is another NUP MP who has not minced words in daring the leadership of the party over mediocre leadership. At one time, he faulted his bosses for seeming to be blunt to the concerns of party members as they choose partying and routine weddings at the expense of multiple supporters confined in detentions. Bwanika had vigorously advocated for dialogue with the government for the release of the prisoners which Kamwokya vehemently opposed.
Severally, an idealistic confrontation between the radical wing of the party and the ‘gentlemen’ in Mathias Mpuuga and Company has not helped the dire situation either. Party Deputy Spokesperson, Waiswa Mufumbiro laid these differences bare at the memorial mass of fallen Bobi Wine bodyguard, Frank Ssenteza in Wakiso last year. These have further continued to manifest to the point of leaving the once-upon-a-time promising group at the blink of extinction less than five years into existence.
In June 2016, President Museveni vowed to have no opposition by the following general election. Even though the five-year time frame he gave himself might have failed to materialise, one would easily look back and relate his remarks to the prevailing political situation in the country. Just within the same term, the ruling side entered a working relationship with Uganda People’s Congress(NUP)- It’s once upon a time worthwhile enemy, resulting in serving in one government. This was followed by the alliance between NRM and Democratic Party- the country’s oldest political party. This shook the country from all its corners. To date, DP President General, Nobert Mao remains the serving Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
Forum for Democratic Change has also been less confrontational of late and one would easily speculate another shocker, especially following the appointment of its Deputy President, Joyce Nabbosa Ssebugwaawo in government. There have also been reports of an ugly power struggle at Najjanankumbi driven towards ousting Dr Kizza Besigye from the grip of the party t potentially try the Mugisha Muntu Compliance model of politics in the place of the violence activism that had come to describe the group for the past many years.
With NUP disintegrating, things not being the same at Najjanakumbi, and DP and UPC embracing the doctrine of national unity, the dream of an opposition-free country envisioned by President Museveni could be before us to witness sooner than later, with Muhoozi as the vessel for it’s complete realisation.
As 2026 draws closer, we had better prepare ourselves for more shocks as an influx of opposition bigwigs could be out to join forces as General Muhoozi pushes forward to take the mantle after Museveni.
The Author is the Deputy RCC for Soroti East.
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