Jose Chameleone clears air on reports that he quit Bobi Wine’s NUP for Muntu’s ANT

Kampala lord mayoral aspirant Joseph Mayanja aka Jose Chameleone has spoken out on reports that he left Bobi Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) and joined Mugisha Muntu’s Alliance for National Transformation (ANT).

A poster showing Chameleone, the singer-turned-politician, as the Kampala Mayoral candidate for the ANT has been making rounds on social media.

The campaign poster came after NUP, led by fellow singer Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine, chose Kawempe North MP Latif Ssebagala as flag bearer for the Kampala race, leaving Chameleone protesting the decision.

He vowed to defy the Mercy Walukamba Elections Management Committee by standing as an independent, insisting that Ssebagala had already announced quitting the race.

“Please recall that by close of September 18, your record indicates that I was unopposed by the fact that my fellow competitor All-Hajj Latif Ssebagala had withdrawn his candidature in a letter already in your possession and in the public domain,” Chameleone had written to the Walukamba Committee on September 20.

“By the foregoing, I am the unopposed NUP candidate for the position of Lord Mayor Kampala city.”

But in a shock announcement, Ssebagala told his supporters he had decided to quit the race “in the interest of the wider opposition.”

Incumbent Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago is the main opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) candidate for the city race.

Reacting to claims of his defection from NUP to ANT, Chameleone dismissed the allegations that he had ‘betrayed’ NUP.

“Don’t believe such Propaganda that is here to disturb our vision,” wrote Chameleone, a former mobiliser of the Democratic Party (DP). “This poster is fake.”

ANT is led by former army commander Maj Gen (Rtd) Muntu and ex-FDC president who some in the main opposition political party had labelled a mole for President Yoweri Museveni.

Chameleone, who sang for Museveni’s reelection in 2016, has switched parties from the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) to DP and NUP.