Fight for Buganda Caucus leadership: Why Nambooze rebelled against NUP

If you were to wind the clock back to 2011, you couldn’t fathom a scenario where Democratic Party (DP) stalwarts Muhammad Muwanga-Kivumbi and Betty Nambooze Bakireke could clash over any position, more so that’s related to Buganda.

The two had joined hands with other idealistic Buganda politicians such as Erias Lukwago, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, Medard Lubega Sseggona, Mathias Mpuuga, and Moses Kasibante, among others, and formed an alliance termed “Suubi 2011” whose major aim was to advance Buganda interests, which they believed could be obtained by ousting President Museveni from power.  

These politicians belonged to different political parties but did joint campaigns to ensure that each one of them wins their respective races.  

A lot of things have changed since 2011 and it seems the ‘Suubi spirit’ is all but gone, though the architects of the alliance deny it.
“It will get stronger,” Mr Muwanga-Kivumbi said referring to the Suubi spirit. “We have had setbacks but we shall make up. We have come from very far.”

Among the changes – Mr Mpuuga, Mr Sseggona, Mr Muwanga-Kivumbi (Butambala County) and Ms Nambooze (Mukono Municipality) after years of infighting within their beloved DP,  decided to call it a day and joined the National Unity Platform (NUP) as senior members of the newly formed party.

Once NUP became the leading Opposition party having scooped 57 parliamentary seats, the most challenging issue was going to be how they share positions that come with being the biggest Opposition party.

The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), which has been choosing Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) since multiparty politics returned in 2005, was always divided over who should be given that position.

In 2006, when Dr Kizza Besigye was still the president of the party, he wanted the mercurial Cecilia Ogwal (Dokolo Woman MP) to take the position, but the party leadership voted for Prof Ogenga-Latigo on the account that the Acholi sub-region had come through for the Opposition.

The idea that he wasn’t Dr Besigye’s first choice didn’t go down well with Prof Latigo.
In 2011, Dr Besigye choose Budadiri West Member of Parliament Nathan Nandala Mafabi as LoP, but this didn’t go down well with Abdu Katuntu, the Bugweri County MP, who considered himself more polished and eloquent.  

It’s no surprise that both Latigo and Katuntu are no longer members of the FDC party.
In 2017, when Patrick Oboi Amuriat took over from Mugisha Muntu as party president, he reshuffled and ousted Winfred Kiiza and appointed Betty Aol Ochan as Leader of Opposition. Ms Kizza has since joined Muntu in forming the Alliance for National transformation (ANT).
For NUP, so far, there has been a concerted effort to push their disagreements under the carpet. “We are concentrating on the struggle, not positions,” David Lewis Rubongoya, the party’s secretary general, has insisted when asked about how the party is apportioning positions.
However, on Tuesday the party was once again put to a test when its parliamentary caucus unanimously endorsed Muwanga-Kivumbi to be its flagbearer for the Buganda Caucus chair, prompting Ms Nambooze to storm out of the meeting in protest, rubbishing the whole process as “undemocratic”.  
Ms Nambooze claimed that the matter should have been put to a vote if the process was to qualify as democratic.
 
Before NUP could meet to decide on this position, which had attracted interest from David Lukyamuzi Kalwanga (Busujju County), Mr Muwanga-Kivumbi had made it clear in an interview that he preferred the party resolves the issue through consensus rather than going through divisive elections.
“Our considered view is it should be by consensus not through an election,” Mr Muwanga-Kivumbi said. “Because without that unity we can’t do much. What will you do with those who haven’t elected you?”

On June 13, it was reported by Sunday Monitor that Mr Muwanga-Kivumbi was slated to be NUP’s flagbearer for the Buganda Caucus chairperson owing to the fact that he had missed out on chairing any accountability committees in Parliament, yet his competitors for the Buganda Caucus chair, for instance, Ms Nambooze scooped the Government Assurance Committee and Mr Kalwanga will represent NUP in the Commonwealth Parliament.  

It’s not clear whether Ms Nambooze was in the know of the arrangements that the NUP honchos had made, but sources say her misgivings started when she was overlooked for the position of Leader of Opposition, which was given to Mpuuga, who was part of Suubi.
Ms Nambooze, according to sources familiar with her reasoning, fancied her chances of being Leader of Opposition, touting her experience.

Ms Nambooze, unlike Mpuuga and Sseggona, her competitors for Leader of Opposition docket who arrived in Parliament in 2011, had arrived a year earlier having ousted NRM’s Peter Bakaluba Mukasa via a by-election which had been in the offing for four years.

Just like her competitors, Ms Nambooze did a lot of lobbying and after procrastination, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, NUP’s principal, decided that Mr Mpuuga would lead the Opposition in Parliament.

As a consolation for missing out, Mr Sseggona was assigned to lead the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and it seems he rested his case, but Ms Nambooze has neither forgiven, nor forgotten.

With Mpuuga now in charge of parliamentary business, Mr Muwanga-Kivumbi has emerged as one of his key advisors and sources claim Ms Nambooze’s decision to stand was about disrupting Mr Mpuuga’s agenda than anything else.  

“She hasn’t recovered from the disappointment of being overlooked as Leader of Opposition,” a source within NUP said.
Other sources claim Ms Nambooze, who deputised Mr Godfrey Ssuubi Kiwanda (former Mityana North MP, NRM) when he served as the chairperson Buganda Caucus during the 9th Parliament, badly wanted the seat to have leverage over Mengo after she fell out with Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga.

“She felt that with her leading Buganda Caucus, Mengo would have no option but seek her out, which now won’t happen,” a source familiar with Ms Nambooze’s plans said.  NUP has 55 MPs from Buganda, meaning they have the  numbers in the caucus.

Though positions have been jostled for, Buganda Caucus has for years been dormant.
The last time the caucus had a meeting was at the beginning of the 10th Parliament and was hosted at Katomi Kingdom Resort, owned by former vice president Gilbert Bukenya.

“Buganda Caucus had long died,” Mr Ssemujju, the Kira Municipality MP, said in a phone interview. “All you could hear is that the caucus was organising for MPs to go to Lubiri [Kabaka’s palace] when there was a ceremony. I have known Muwanga-Kivumbi since Makerere University and I have no doubt in my mind that he will revive the Buganda Caucus and I will support him.”

Mr Muwanga-Kivumbi is still optimistic that with time, Ms Nambooze, who has said she won’t step a foot in any Buganda Caucus meeting in the foreseeable future, will recover from her disappointment.
“She has done a lot for Buganda and I’m sure we shall meet and make up for the good of the region,” Mr Muwanga says.
This message of unity was echoed by Mr Kalwanga who stood down in favour of Mr Muwanga-Kivumbi, citing the interests of NUP and Buganda Kingdom.

Mr Kalwanga, as a reward, will remain the treasurer of the caucus. Ms Nambooze has been joined by Kampala Central MP Muhammad Nsereko  in trying to downplay the importance of the caucus. But Muwanga-Kivumbi believes it can be used as a platform to advocate the challenges facing the regions such as land wrangles, unemployment and poverty, inter alia.