Minister Kamya, Tindyebwa lock horns in Rubaga North

What you need to know:

  • Mr Tindyebwa accuses the Lands minister of preferring to contest as a sole candidate for the position.
  • Efforts to reach Ms Kamya on the matter were futile as she spent most of the day with President Museveni opening Kasubi Market and later attending Parliament.

The race to become the flag-bearer for the National Resistance Movement (NRM) for Rubaga North seat is heating up with the Lands minister, Ms Beti Kamya, tussling it out with city lawyer Brian Kusingura Tindyebwa.

Mr Tindyebwa said he was called by God to lead the people of Rubaga North, adding that there is no way he can leave Ms Kamya to sail through as the party’s flag bearer.

“She has just joined NRM and we even do not know whether she took back her former party card. In January, she wanted to be a sole candidate and we said democracy must be followed. She managed to convince other candidates but I rejected her request and I said unless the party chairman himself tells me so, I cannot just leave the contest for you,” Mr Tindyebwa said in an interview on Tuesday.

He further accused the minister of being sectarian, a vice he said is not part of the NRM ideology.
He added: “I have advised her to read and understand the NRM ideology. So when NRM took over power, it has been fighting it.”

Efforts to reach Ms Kamya on the matter were futile as she spent most of the day with President Museveni opening Kasubi Market and later attending Parliament.
However, her aide, Mr Hassan Kasibante Junior, rubbished the allegations that she wanted to be the party’s sole candidate for the position.

“That was a lie because the minister has never met Mr Tindyebwa to ask him to leave the race for her. She is a leader who embraces democracy so that cannot be true,” Mr Kasibante said yesterday.
On being tribalistic, Mr Kasibante laughed off the allegations.

“Surely, Ms Kamya’s dad is a Muganda, the mum is Kenyan and husband is from western Uganda, so how can you say such a person with different backgrounds is tribalistic?” Mr Kasibante added.

The race has so far attracted four aspirants for the seat currently represented by Mr Moses Kasibante.
Mr Kasibante is a former Radio CBS journalist turned politician and subscribes to the Democratic Party.
The other candidate is Mr Abubaker Kawalya of People Power Movement, now turned into National Unity Platform.
Mr Kawalya is the current speaker of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).

When asked whether he is bouncing back for the third term, Mr Kasibante answered in affirmative.
“Definitely, I am coming back. First of all, what I have done is to prepare the people before I prepare myself,” Mr Kasibante said by telephone yesterday.

“The people of Rubaga North need a legislator who can speak in Parliament and who cannot be bought and that is me. I am hearing that sacks of money are being distributed but that is not what people want and that is not a threat to me,” he added.

The former journalist declined to commit on which political party he will be contesting on.
“I will be an Opposition candidate but on which party I will stand for, those are nitty gritties that will come later,” he said

Background
Minister Kamya
Minister Kamya before officially joining NRM party earlier this year, was previously a strong opposition stalwart with Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
She later formed her own opposition party, Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA) in which she was advocating for federalism.

She contested on UFA party ticket as the first Uganda woman presidential candidate in 2011 polls, emerging fifth with 52,782 votes. UFA accuse Ms Kamya of neglecting the true cause of the people in favour of selfish gains.