On October 03, Rubaga North MP Moses Kasibante called a press conference to declare that he would stand as an independent candidate to retain his parliamentary seat.
Kasibante is one of the Democratic Party (DP) block members who joined the National Unity Platform (NUP) about three months ago.
But NUP denied him its flag, telling him to stand down for Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) speaker Abubaker Kawalya.
Kasibante claimed Kawalya was a member of President Yoweri Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).
“Hajj Kawalya enjoys a political marriage with the NRM and his bid to become speaker was morally and financially supported by the state: everybody knows this,” said Kasibante.
“Kawalya works for NRM and this was evidenced when he was overwhelmingly supported and voted by NRM councilors to become KCCA speaker. He dined with NRM for six months before being elected speaker.”
He also talked of devils that have infiltrated NUP.
“Today as I speak, we have infiltrators, agents of the devil as candidates of NUP and this may not be limited to NUP but to also other political parties opposed to the devil of the dictator in Uganda,” he alleged.
“So we cannot just sit back and sanitize some processes when the devil is entering agents within our mighty opposition forces.”
Kawalya also said he was better than the man NUP chose.
“Kawalya is on record for hiding food from the people during the lockdown. If you compare me with him, I have done more than enough for the people and the struggle.”
He also complained on the criteria used by the Kamwokya-based party to pick flag bearers.
“The Elections Management committee based on the time one has spent in NUP, not in the struggle,” he said.
“NUP limited us to a process called vetting in determining candidates of various positions of leadership. The challenges are enormous but the solutions are not there, what it has done is what it would do.”
In the end, Kasibante declared he will stand as an independent with the slogan ‘Rubaga North is not for sale.”
“I’m coming as independent but I’m still a member of NUP and strong support of Robert Kyagulanyi. I will not be standing against a NUP candidate called Kawalya but against an intruder,” he said.
NUP ON NRM MOLES
But NUP spokesperson defended Kawalya, saying many party members had come from other parties.
“It is not true that the flag was given to an NRM member, we just unveiled NUP to the public three months ago, so even Hon Kasibante just joined from wherever he came from,” noted Ssenyonyi.
“We have people that joined from NRM, DP, FDC and even those that were not belonging anywhere who joined us and we welcomed everyone to join us.”
On September 24, Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya says the party is aware of moles spying on it and its principal Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, but it’s not bothered.
In recent months, some people that were close to Bobi Wine and his People Power pressure group defected to NRM.
One of these was Ashburg Katto, a social media manager of Bobi’s Facebook Ghetto TV.
The Facebook page was hacked into weeks after Ashburg crossed to NRM.
Talk of moles in NUP, People Power and Bobi Wine’s camp is not new.
In fact, even Rubongoya himself has had some People Power supporters label him a mole.
But at the start of August, NUP leader and Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine defended him, and his brother Fred Nyanzi.
According to Bobi Wine, he met Rubongoya in 2016, and “he was an NRM supporter who disagreed with many things in the party but like others remained there [in NRM].”
“When we see each other, we don’t look at tribe, age, gender, religion or past political affiliations. The people who have been at the helm of People Power come from different tribes, religions and political affiliations,” he said.
“Our movement was and continues to be shaped by Ugandans who felt oppressed, suppressed and exploited, regardless of who they are and where they come from.”
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