FDC, NRM camp in Sheema as by-election draws closer
Former FDC president Kizza Besigye campaigns for Mr Guma Nuwagaba at Kabutsye playground in Sheema District on Friday. PHOTO BY FELIX AINEBYOONA
Sheema- Campaigns are in high gear as Sheema North prepares for the parliamentary by-election on October 8.
The seat fell vacant after the incumbent, Dr Elioda Tumwesigye, won the newly-created Sheema Municipality seat on July 28.
This is a two-horse race featuring NRM’s Naome Kibaaju and FDC’s Guma Nuwagaba. Mr Nuwagaba, who stood in the NRM party primaries and lost to Ms Kibaaju, joined the FDC at the last minute and was nominated as the party flag bearer.
Party leaders have now pitched camp in the constituency and are combing all corners for votes.
FDC president Patrick Amuriat and opposition lynch pin Kizza Besigye moved around the constituency on Friday and Saturday, campaigning for Mr Nuwagaba.
Appeal to FDC candidate
Last weekend, NRM Secretary General Kasule Lumumba campaigned for Ms Kibaaju. Ms Lumumba urged Mr Nuwagaba to return to the party.
“You people, tell Guma to come back because the father who gave him the key to Mitooma District is still the same father and where he is going, there is no future. Of the 35 by-elections we have had in the country, NRM has won 24 and the majority MPs are NRM,’’ Ms Lumumba said at Kigarama Sub-county headquarters.
However, Mr Nuwagaba said there is no chance of ever returning to the ruling party.
“I made the decision to join the opposition FDC, so whoever thinks that he is about to bring me back to the NRM is dreaming. I made a decision and I stand by that decision. Those who think that they can come and talk to me to go back to NRM, I am not about to side with them,” he said on Friday.
Mr Nuwagaba, who is the former Mitooma RDC, claims he quit the ruling party after he was arrested and his supporters beaten during the primaries.
“I am not in position to talk to anybody because I have made a choice. I am praying that Sheema North chooses me because we have issues to address and those are issues that made me leave NRM,” he added.
Dr Besigye said Mr Nuwagaba’s decision to join FDC should be an eye opener to the rest of NRM supporters.
“Mr Guma has been RDC but because of what he has gone through, he decided to join FDC and we welcome him because everybody has his time of changing from Saul to Paul. Guma sends a big signal to the rest who are there still confused of what to do; he has showed you light,” he said at a rally in Masheruka Town Council on Friday.
Dr Tumwesigye, the district NRM chairman, said the area needs a person close to the President.
“There are unfinished projects, which I left behind and must be completed such as the tarmacking of Kabwohe-Nyakambu road; we are done with the survey, so we need to complete that. Electricity has not reached all the villages and we also aim at extending water to all the villages in Sheema North,” he said.
