Entebbe Municipality MP Micheal Kakembo Mbwatekamwa has defined NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi as not just a court of many colors but also a very hypocritical man who never stands by his word.
Mbwatekamwa’s definition was reached after a chronology of events he observed while still active a Member of Parliament in 2022.
According to Kakembo, upon entering Parliament, NUP President called a number of meetings where he made it clear, he wouldn’t contest again as President if the country never experienced meaningful Electoral reforms.
Such communication, he says, trickled down to the Party’s foot soldiers who not only printed t shirts with “2026 bigambe nyoko”, attacking anyone who made formidable efforts for his 2026 return to politics.
“You remember when I abused foot soldiers in Entebbe? I was in Kigungu buying chairs branded with NUP colors and initials, a foot soldier comes up and says, we were with our President and confirmed he would not contest again in 2026 because we do not want more imprisoning of our people and deaths, reigning his grassroot mobilization for the party,” Kakembo recollects.
Upon asking Kyagulanyi in a meeting, the NUP President confirmed that he wouldn’t contest without meaningful Electoral reforms.
However, when former Leader of the Opposition Mathias Mpuuga introduced reforms, he faced backlash from his own party.
At the launch of the quest for Electoral Reforms in Munyonyo on June 2nd 2023, the Kyagulanyi team at NUP, led by the party Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya accused Mpuuga of inviting many groups including Opposition doyen Kizza Besigye and making Bobi Win’s photograph smaller than that of Besigye at the launch.
“Mpuuga thought, he was engaging for meaning reforms so that his then boss, Kyagulanyi, would find a safe landing for the 2026 better election management. Rubongoya only said he didn’t know any of what was done, and the reforms were sent to the steep sides of a narrow bridge,” Kakembo said.
Upon leaving Munyonyo, NUP made it clear that they had disagreed with Mpuuga on reforms and were not in any way backing the introduction of such reforms to Parliament.
“When other party leaders saw that Kyagulanyi and Mpuuga were disagreeing, they all ran away from the reforms, and all was dusted.” Kakembo added.
Upon the sacking of Mpuuga as Leader of the Opposition, many MPs thought the new Leader of the Opposition Joel Ssenyonyi would introduce the reforms that weren’t introduced to date.
“To NUP, Mpuuga is worse than meaningful reforms, NRM, President Museveni and the Struggle and chose to fight Mpuuga and not better governance,” Kakembo wondered.
