The uncompromising electoral process reaches Kyadondo East

Today voters will cast their ballots in Kyadondo East in Wakiso District in a three-way by-election majorly pitting the NRM against two opposition candidates. NRM has been playing like the sleepy crocodile waiting to pounce. Their candidate Sitenda Sebalu waited until the last days to seriously make impact on the ground.
The ruling party’s pockets are quite deep in a poor economy like ours. Ms Justine Kasule Lumumba, the secretary general, can also afford to rest. Unlike previous times, she is running on a near perfect record of victory in this season. She has lost just one in Aruu, Kitgum.
The Opposition after a few false starts, have run very strong races. FDC’s Apollo Kantinti unseated by the Court of Appeal, averted early disaster and early departure from the race when Kizza Besigye was forced to his side after early ambivalence.
FDC after high profile losses in Kamuli and Toroma desperately needs to hold on to this seat. Apollo, soft spoken in certain ways, seems tailored for the conservative, church going precincts of this constituency.
There is, however, a new wave in Kyadondo. Robert Kyagulanyi, a popular musician, show-man and businessman, who has given the existing political hegemony a tall order and may run away with victory this evening.
Mr Kyagulanyi, a self-made rags-to-riches story, is the youngest of the big three. He is running in the election as an Independent-leaning, whose campaign is being run by one of the DP factions and elected officials in Kyadondo.
While DP president [Norbert] Mao campaigned for obscure DP candidates in the other by-elections, this time he has stayed in the city. Instead his opponents in the party minus current elected officials closely associated with Besigye, have blazed the trail with Kyagulanyi, whose grassroots populism speaking out for the underclass, have made him a hit.
The next four years will be dominated by politics of survival. Confident of its overall majority, NRM will push forward with its plans to amend the Constitution.
On June 22, signing for the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Savino Katsigare invited a number of technocrats to a meeting to draft materials to popularise the proposed amendment to Article 26(2) of the Constitution to allow government to exercise eminent domain if it cannot agree with the owner of the land on a fair market value. The tone of this letter is suggestive of how beaten down NRM treats the Opposition.
In the dusty roads in Kyadondo, no mention is made by any of the candidates of popular past causes like federal. Kyadondo in the Constituent Assembly was represented by two arch-federalists, Sam Kalega Njuba and Prof William Senteza Kajubi. The chain of small townships of Kawempe, Gayaza, Kasangati, Wampewo, Mpererwe were dominated by indigenous nationalist shopkeepers who were buglers in the fight for independence.
Land, an often emotive issue, has not attracted a lot of attention. Most of the young people were long ago uprooted from customary and inherited land by market forces. In the city, their engagement with the polity is on different issues - boda boda access, hawking, markets, etc.
You can see that Kantinti on his whistle-stop tours is engaging the parents of these people. But you can also see that the younger population is seeking a new identity in the Kyagulanyi campaign.
For the Opposition speaking about these issues may no longer be enough. These by-elections are supposed to reassure their supporters beaten down by years of harassment rather than despair them. Leaders such as Besigye who have been in activism politics for a long time know this. After years of fighting, their troops are tired.
Pressed to a wall, the opposition parties have sought accommodation with NRM. DP’s dalliance with NRM saw them win a seat in EALA. All parliamentary parties now share a stipend with NRM, which at the end of the day favours NRM.

Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-at-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]