Why LoP Mpuuga has changed tactic to politics of activism

By the time Parliament was sent into recess, the Opposition, led by Mathias Mpuuga, had matched out from the plenary citing the State’s human rights violations, key among them, the disappearance of supporters of the National Unity Platform (NUP), the leading Opposition party. 

Mpuuga had faced off with Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja over the unexplained disappearance of NUP supporters before and after the 2021 elections. 

The subject of ire was John Bosco Kibalama, who disappeared in 2019, and Nabbanja had promised a couple of years ago that she knew where he was being detained, but to date, the former NUP mobiliser has never been seen. 

“The prime minister says she knows where Kibalama is, and she needs 30 days?” Mpuuga asked. “I asked the honourable prime minister that I escort her to see Kibalama and now she says that she needs 30 days,” Mpuuga added. 

Amid remonstrations from Nabbanja, Mpuuga went on: “I want to put it to her that the blood of Kibalama is on her hands,” he said, adding, “Right honourable Speaker, that’s the Leader of Government Business and her demeanour. And assuming she had a gun in this room she would be shooting all of us. The prime minister will respond after producing Kibalama.” 

Ever since he quit his ministerial position in Buganda Kingdom in 2010 to join mainstream politics, Mpuuga has been a permanent fixture in Parliament for 12 years, but in the politics of very extreme views, he has cut an image of a smooth operator who is relaxed, confident, and pleasant.

Even when he was appointed to head Activists for Change (A4C), a pressure group that spearheaded the 2011 walk-to-work protests, Mpuuga was never in the streets battling security agencies like Dr Kizza Besigye or Erias Lukwago, but he would be the one to announce the group’s next step. 

Even when President Museveni made it clear that he wouldn’t allow the protests that were triggered by the runway inflation following the 2011 General Election, Mpuuga was adamant.  

Museveni was against the protests on the account that they would worsen the economic situation because the business community, fearing attacks on their vehicles, would be afraid to bring food and fuel into protesting urban areas. 

“We were not waiting for President Museveni’s permission. It has never been part of our programme to seek his permission and consent for us to protest,” Mpuuga, who was then representing Masaka Municipality, said. 

“Ugandans have an obligation to demand of him [Museveni] and his government to do what other governments do in times of crisis. I would have been surprised if his message was different, but this is his usual intimidation trick,” he added. 

After the walk-to-work protests, Mpuuga’s relationship with Dr Besigye went on a downward spiral and he shunned confrontational politics and activism. 

But he became the focal point of Opposition politics once he was appointed by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, aka Bobi Wine, as NUP’s first Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) in the aftermath of the contested 2021 elections.

Poisoned chalice
To scoop this position, Mpuuga edged out the seasoned John Nambeshe (Manjiya County) and Medard Lubega Sseggona (Busiiro East), but he soon realised that this position is a poisoned chalice. 

In fact, Mpuuga wouldn’t be the first person to find this position challenging as Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) stalwarts found out after the position was put in place following the return of multiparty politics in 2006. 

Under FDC, Prof Morris Ogenga Latigo was the first LoP, but by the time the 2011 elections came around he had fallen out with the FDC leadership.

In fact, Latigo, who was the only FDC LoP in that Parliament, didn’t return to the 9th Parliament as he was defeated in Agago County. He was replaced as LoP by Nathan Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West).

Mafabi didn’t serve a full term after as he was replaced by Wafula Oguttu once Gen Mugisha Muntu defeated him in the FDC presidential elections of 2012. 

Oguttu didn’t make it to the 10th Parliament and he was replaced by Winifred Kiiza who was replaced by Betty Aol Ochan after Gen Muntu, her ally, was defeated by Patrick Oboi Amuriat in the contentious 2017 FDC presidential elections.

Once Mpuuga replaced Ochan in the 11th Parliament, he continued with his belief in gentleman politics and this was showcased when he put out a legislative agenda in which he came up with 17 points that would see democracy buttressed in Uganda and wastage in government eliminated. 

In this legislative agenda, Mpuuga said his energies will be channelled towards passing the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill 2019 that was presented by Ndorwa West Member of Parliament (MP) Wilfred Niwagaba.

The Bill had sweeping electoral reforms, including Ugandans in the Diaspora and prisons in the voters registrar, competitive recruitment of leaders of constitutional bodies, fixing terms of office for commissioners in the Electoral Commission (EC), reduction of the size of Parliament, reduction of special interest groups, restrictions of supplementary expenditures during election periods, the role of security organs in elections, relinquishing public assets during campaigns, media coverage of candidates and transmission of election results. 

The Opposition insists that Uganda lacks what they call a clearly defined transitional procedure of both leadership and operations of government. 

“It’s only presumed by virtue of actions such as swearing-in and approval of appointments,” the Opposition’s legislative agenda said.

Mpuuga wanted to clip the President’s influence, more so during the elections. They insist that it’s wrong for an incumbent who is contesting in an election to continue exercising powers of the head of State, head of government, commander-in-chief, and chairperson of national security council which they say makes him influence the partisan deployment of the military during elections.

To cure such anomalies, Mpuuga wanted to resurrect the Presidential Transition Bill that was presented by Buikwe South MP Michael Lulume Bayigga in 2014.

The plan is reviewing the Bill with the intent of broadening its scope and subsequently developing a holistic Bill that they say will seek to address transition management within the entire government developed to detach an incumbent from elections management and organisation. 

Among other electoral reforms, the Opposition wanted to further guarantee the independence of the EC by pursuing amendments that will ensure public selection of the electoral body’s members and commissioners through a process initiated by statutory bodies such as the Judicial Service Commission, Uganda Law Reform Commission, and Uganda Law Society. 

During the induction of this agenda, Mpuuga said he would implement it through Bills, motions, and press statements. 

Implementing this agenda was going always to prove a tall order when you factor in the sheer numerical strength of the NRM that has 336 MPs out of the 529 seats in Parliament. 

Indeed, this so-called legislative agenda is gathering dust as it has never been considered to upend Mpuuga’s claim that diplomacy could work. 

Mpuuga at the time wasn’t helped by the fact that NUP lawmakers Allan Ssewanyana (Makindye West) and Muhammad Ssegirinya (Kawempe North) were incarcerated in prison for months on charges of terrorism, murder and attempted murder. 

With the legislative agenda achieving no results, Mpuuga came under pressure from NUP activists for not doing enough to ensure that his colleagues were released on what they termed as trumped-up charges. 

Mpuuga was under pressure to the extent that when the Masaka High Court eventually granted the duo bail, the Mukungwe-Nyendo MP showed up in court, which he hadn’t done before. 

“You know the difference it made for the judge to see the Leader of Opposition in court?” Mpuuga, a lawyer, said why he had attended court.

Yet after Ssewanyana and Ssegirinya were released on bail Mpuuga was accused of engaging in clandestine negotiations that saw the two released, but the LoP fervidly denied the claims. 

“I would resign my position if anybody brings evidence that I had these negotiations with this regime,” Mpuuga said. 

He was backed by his party that stuck to the line that no evidence had been produced to support that claim. 

“The LoP has denied that. Therefore, until any new information surfaces, we can’t believe that otherwise. As far as we are concerned, lawyers have done their work in pursuing their freedoms,” NUP spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi said. 

Outside Parliament, Mpuuga didn’t agree with his party’s decision to put two-term limits on all positions within the part structure and all elective positions outside the NUP structure such as Members of Parliament, Local Council chairpersons, and councillors, among others. 

“I offered my counsel and opinion on the same and said for the non-executive office with no capacity to exercise executive authority, the term limit should not be really something that should give anybody headache,” Mpuuga said, adding that the term limits would deter the development of the nascent political party, which currently needs experienced legislators.

“There is going to be a fresh conversation in the party in a few years because I have an idea of how enduring organisations are built,” he said. 

Since NUP took over from FDC as Uganda’s leading Opposition party, the main complaint from within and without has been that many of its legislators have barely performed in the House. 

One of the reasons proffered is that NUP has many first-time lawmakers, a point Mpuuga has emphasised. 

“Many of my colleagues are new in Parliament,” Mr Mpuuga said in March, adding, “They need a lot of guidance on how Parliament operates and the procedures.”

But still, Mpuuga’s critics accuse him of staying clear of confrontational politics which is cherished by NUP diehards such as Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake.

“Zaake understands why he was elected to Parliament. He knows he was voted to pass laws, but he was voted to bring chaos to Parliament and that’s what he has been doing,” socio-political commentator Yusuf Serunkuma says. 

“He has imbibed Museveni’s disorderliness and continues to seek to reproduce it since you can only fight a coloniser on their own terms. I know, politicians are unreliable (as [DP president] Norbert Mao so recently, publicly demonstrated), but thus far, Zaake has remained steadfast – at least performatively,” he adds. 

In 2021, Dr Besigye under the Red Card Movement led protests triggered by galloping prices of essential commodities and fuel – they were shunned by NUP MPs, with Mpuuga coming out strongly to remind critics of why they had remained out of the demonstrations. 

“We at NUP have never rested, we have been at it, but the choice to selectively follow our activities is forgivable! The victims of our struggles are still in jail for the good doctor [Kizza Besigye] just joined them last week. We buried some that the tyrant murdered in cold blood!” Mpuuga said. 

Nevertheless, with his position as LoP under threat, Mpuuga has changed tactics and he now aggressively leading Opposition MPs to walk out of Parliament if the government isn’t meeting their demands. 

“If they [government] are considering us to be dramatic when we are demanding accountability and justice for the killed and kidnapped Ugandans, then as a country we have a crisis,” Mpuuga said. 

“I want to assure Ugandans that we shall not relent on our demands until justice is served. Families that lost loved ones must get justice, be compensated and the perpetrators charged. Those who are still detained illegally must also be produced to reunite with their relatives,” he added.