NUP CENTERS OF POWER
A former spy in President Yoweri Museveni’s government has revealed what looks like a family affair, listing members of the Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine’s family and his close associates running things at the main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP).
Acquiring a little known National Unity, Reconciliation and Development Party (NURDP) in 2019 and officially renaming it the National Unity Platform (NUP) months before the 2021 general elections, Bobi Wine has become a key figure in Uganda’s opposition politics.
But show exactly runs affairs at the Makerere-Kavule-based political party? While NUP has clear leadership structures, former spy Charles Rwomushana thinks the people who matter at the opposition organization are Bobi Wine’s close relatives and associates.
Rwomushana, a former Internal Security Organization (ISO) chief of political intelligence, says Bobi Wine, his wife Barbie and brother Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu run NUP alongside party secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya and treasurer Benjamin Katana.
“Society has to interest itself in who rules because there are three layers of decision making. The first one is Mrs Kyagulanyi [Bobi Wine’s wife Barbra – or Barbie – Itungo]. The second is Nyanzi [Fred Ssentamu]. Then you have Lewis Rubongoya and Benjamin Katana at operational level. The question is who influences Mrs Kyagulanyi? Who influences Rubongoya and Benjamin Katana?” Rwomushana told NBS.
“That’s why you see there is this crisis that leads to the proliferation of [Joel] Ssenyonyi, while cutting off some people from critical committees.”
Bobi Wine’s NUP eclipsed the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) to become the main opposition party. Ahead of Christmas, Bobi Wine made his party’s first reshuffle for the leadership in parliament, shaking up his shadow cabinet and shuffling committee chairpersons. Bobi Wine replaced leader of opposition in parliament Mathias Mpuuga with political novice Joel Ssenyonyi.
Rwomushana, a former spy giving political commentary on various TV and radio stations, has previously claimed that Bobi Wine works Museveni. (Read Rwomushana’s views Here).
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