Confusion in NUP as party constitution remains secret

Efforts by the National Unity Platform (NUP) party to force its deputy vice president in charge of Buganda region to resign from his position as parliamentary commissioner have led to questions about constitutionalism within the party. 

Mr Mathias Mpuuga is accused by the party leadership of irregularly receiving Shs500 million as a “service award” for his two-and-half-year term as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP).

Eyebrows were first raised when NUP’s president, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, issued dossiers, concluding that Mpuuga should resign on the account of corruption, only later to refer the matter to his party’s national executive committee (NEC).  

“I’m going to meet the NEC and present the issue to them. Among the NEC, we have more senior leaders and this is where the matters will be presented and we wait for the decision,” Kyagulanyi said before flying out of the country to attend the Oscar awards ceremony in the United States.

Mr Moses Kasibante, the former Rubaga North Member of Parliament (MP), poked holes in this move.

“The president made a decision first and then referred the case to NEC. He first sat with senior leaders, an organ that doesn’t exist, then made the decision and then referred the matter to NEC. How can you be a president of the political party, you decide against the deputy president without taking the matter to a single structure of the political party and your reference is social media,” Kasibante, a NUP member, said.

Indeed, the party’s NEC, in Kyagulanyi’s absentia, went on to ask Mpuuga to quit his parliamentary commissioner position.

“Although he responded to NEC’s request to show cause why he should not be recalled from the Parliamentary Commission, he did not provide any satisfactory explanation for engaging in this grave action which goes against mission, values and objectives of the party. In particular, he did not make any attempt to respond to the specific accusations levelled against him,” Dr Liza Zedriga, who was sitting in for Kyagulanyi as party president, wrote.

“In light of this, NEC has resolved to recall Hon Mathias Mpuuga from the Parliamentary Commission on account of corruption, dishonesty and abuse of office and to notify Parliament of the same,” she added.  

Mpuuga‘s position, in as far as the NUP leadership is concerned, was given to Mr Francis Zaake, the Mityana Municipality MP.   

Zaake, who is considered to be one of Kyagulanyi’s trusted lieutenants, held the position before Mpuuga, but was sacked for alleged indiscipline based on a report by the parliamentary Committee on Rules, Discipline, and Privileges chaired by Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu.

However, the Constitutional Court ruled that Zaake should be restored as commissioner, but Parliament through the Attorney General filed an appeal which is now gathering dust at the Supreme Court.

But the current impasse at NUP has raised questions about which constitutional framework the party is using to get rid of Mpuuga and reinstating Zaake.

“NUP has been working under a fallacy that they have a constitution, which they don’t have. In short, their entire leadership is fake and illegal,” Mr Ivan Bwowe, a lawyer who until recently has been working with NUP, said.

NUP, which has been in existence since 2020, had previously been registered as the National Unity, Reconciliation and Development Party (NURP) under the leadership of Mr Moses Kibalama Nkonge.

After a court fight between the Kyagulanyi and Kibalama factions over the ownership of NUP, Kyagulanyi’s faction decided to dump the constitution they had inherited from NURP which had been formulated in 2004.

NUP set up a constitutional review commission, led by Busiro East Member of Parliament (MP) Medard Lubega Sseggona, and it included, inter-alia, all Kyagulanyi’s deputies – Mpuuga (central region), John Baptist Nambeshe (eastern region), Jolly Mugisha Ekyomugasho (western region) and Lina Zedriga  (northern region).

In early 2023, NUP through a two-paged document unveiled findings of Sseggona’s constitution review commission, and what raised eyebrows was the inclusion of a clause that prospectively puts two-term limits on all positions within the party structure, including Kyagulanyi’s position. 

The two-term restrictions have also been put on all elective positions outside the NUP structure, such as MPs, Local Council chairpersons and councillors, among others. 

“The constitution imposes the two five-year term limits on all party leaders as well as elected leaders under the party flag,” NUP said in a statement, adding that one can’t be a party president, a party chairperson, or secretary general for more than two terms.

“Likewise, a person can’t be a Member of Parliament or councillor, at the same level under the NUP flag for more than two terms. This provision will be operational beginning with the next elective term,” the statement added.

For the avoidance of doubt, this position was explained by NUP’s leadership. 

“Starting from when we organise elections in NUP, no leader shall hold a position for more than two terms. After completing two terms, the president may choose to run for secretary general or other roles, but not for the presidency,” Mr Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro, NUP’s deputy spokesperson, explained in 2023.

“If you have been a NUP flag bearer successfully for two terms (they do not have to be consecutive) then you are not eligible to be a NUP flag bearer for the third term. We expect you to progress to another level or serve in another position,” he added. 

It is now coming to year and NUP has yet to publish this constitution in spite of earlier reports that it had been handed over to the Electoral Commission (EC) and that it has been gazetted.

“You are right, I tabled the constitution before the delegates’ conference and the rest became a matter of the secretary general… And the rest of the process you could probably ask the SG [secretary general],” Sseggona said.

When this writer asked Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, NUP’s secretary general for a copy of NUP’s new constitution, he said it was still confidential.

“I can’t give you the constitution because it’s only two of us who have it and we shall have to unveil it sometime,” Rubongoya said. “You have to wait until that time when we call the media.”

Yet Bwowe insists that there is no new constitution at all.

“The constitution of 2004 has never been amended. Those guys [NUP leadership] have been doing their things depending on the fallacies yet things are supposed to be done in accordance to the 2004  constitution,” Bwowe said, rejecting the notion that NUP ‘s constitution had been gazetted earlier this year.

“It wasn’t gazetted. It was an intention to gazette. They were trying to take advantage of changed leadership of the Electoral Commission so that they sneak in that constitution, they gazette it, and they start operating it,” he added.

NUP’s process of amending the co-opted 2004 constitution, according to Bwowe, ran into legal land mines. 

“However, for any changes or any amendments for the constitution to operate it has to follow the amendment procedure detailed in the previous constitution. So which constitution did they follow to bring forward the constitution they wanted to gazette in 2024?” he said.  

He added that an intention to gazette doesn’t amount to gazetting. 

“The reason why they say intention to gazette is to allow party members to challenge if the changes are legal or illegal. At the moment they don’t show us the constitution they used to amend. They have to tell us under which law they held a delegates’ conference yet even the party‘s constitution doesn’t talk about delegates’ conference,” Bwowe said.

Kimaanya-Kabonera legislator Abed Bwanika also raised queries on the legality of NUP’s NEC which has been used to punish his ally Mpuuga.

“I don’t know how our NEC members are elected. Us Members of Parliament don’t belong to the NEC. In NUP Members of Parliament don’t have any say in NEC. It’s a very interesting party. One time we were called for a meeting and I saw them for the first time. I saw Nubian Lee [Kyagulanyi’s co-singer], I saw another one called Mosh [former singer and councillor at Kampala Capital City Authority],” Bwanika said.     

To dispel Bwanika’s narrative, NUP social media handlers circulated a document indicating the party NEC members, but the list included people who either died or had long left the party.

For instance, it included Anthony Wameli, the NUP lawyer who died in 2023, and Roy Sembonga and Sulaiman Kidandala, who have long left NUP after they were denied party tickets for the 2021 parliamentary elections.

“As a matter of fact, we don’t know who are the NEC members and who aren’t. We can’t say certain things openly, but the party is run in an opaque manner,” a NUP member who represents one of the constituencies in Wakiso District said.

Bwowe insists NUP leadership has to explain under which law they had a delegates’ conference that resulted in the structures that the party currently boasts of having, including the NEC.

“Let them tell us under which constitution they have that NEC. Which constitution they have been using to file returns to the EC. Let them produce such documents,” Bwowe said.