Former Leader of Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga (right) takes his party president Robert Kyagulanyi (left) on a tour of Masaka City in May 2023. PHOTO/ Courtesy of @MathiasMpuuga on X
The fallout between Nyendo-Mukungwe Member of Parliament (MP) Mathias Mpuuga and his former party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), isn’t about to end.
First, in an effort led by NUP’s deputy president in charge of the Buganda region, Mr Muwanga-Kivumba, Mr Mpuuga was given an ultimatum to either apologise for going against the party’s agenda or the party would direct its energies towards kicking him out of Parliament in next year’s polls. Before the dust could settle, NUP principal, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, backed by Mr Allan Ssewanyana, the Makindye West lawmaker, claimed that Mr Mpuuga had a hand in the death of Muhammad Ssegirinya, the former Kawempe North lawmaker. Derrick Kiyonga sounded out Mr Mpuuga about the current state of tumult in NUP. Excerpts:
Give us the context in which you got to know about the allegations made against you by the National Unity Platform (NUP) principal, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, and Makindye West Member of Parliament Allan Ssewanyana...
Incidentally, I was here in the office. I had so many people to meet: I had spent almost a week without being in the office, so when I came back to the office, I had a whole line of visitors. After seeing the second-to-last visitor, somebody sent me a prompt for the clip. When I saw it, I thought it couldn’t be true. I thought it was probably AI (Artificial Intelligence).
That someone was trying to manipulate me, but, on scrutiny, it turned out to be true because it began trending. I thought the devil was a liar because after an hour of composure, I called Hon Ssewanyana. I asked him if it was him speaking or it was his ghost. He retorted, “I think I have been misquoted.” I asked him: Is this you who spoke at the presser?
He said, “Yes, but that’s not what I said.” I asked him what you were talking about. So, of course, the moment I heard him retorting and unable to speak coherently, I felt hurt deep down [and was] burning with rage. But for some reason, I have a mechanism of quick composure. I composed myself, and I was like, “well, same people, same problem. Same misery, same care.”
A few friends called me when they saw it. I told them it’s true, that’s what we have. I don’t know what is motivating Mr Kyagulanyi to behave the way he did. I was shocked by the lack of consideration. No leader. Not even a malwa [local brew] group leader can do that.
Not even a boda boda stage master can do that. For a leader, wanting to be a national leader, trying to propel mob justice and make a method of work is unthinkable. So, over the day, the evening and night, I thought through options.
I consulted colleagues as I thought through my options. I felt this was an opportunity to rest the gossip. The gossiping by Mr Kyagulanyi and his political ghost. To take him on legally and politically so that if he has scores to settle with me, he settles them in court. I think politically, he has tried for two years to bring me down. His efforts, I think, are in vain. He has made all manner of accusations against me: How I’m a thief.
How is that, but the world is discerning. They look through his statements. They look through his actions and apart from his cronies with him, they cook malice, I think the world sees frustration. And that’s why I elected to say that I will take him to court together with Mr Ssewanyana, for the statements he made. And for Mr Ssewanyana in particular, I will charge him with criminal defamation.
Mr Kyagulanyi, I will take civil defamation because as a lawyer, I know the difference between the two. And considering their different actions, I have no action.
For Mr Kyagulanyi, I get a sense he lacks a coherent political programme. He hasn’t articulated anything serious to take the people to the vote. He is looking for excuses for his inept approach to serious matters. Kira Municipality MP Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda recently intervened, advising that it’s about time NUP focused on its real opponents—President Museveni and his son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
Is it correct to say NUP is still focused on you?
I think this is what happens when a person or group loses control over you. They normally go for your reputation. That group failed to control me. They wanted me to do things their way, which is actually wrong. They tried to control me; I refused to be controlled by unstructured actions.
So, they have been heavily coming down on my reputation because they know you don’t wake up one night and you become Mpuuga. I’m not saying that I’m the best of the best, but I’m not among the lowly in our systems and political exposition. They have tried to come after my character.
I have ignored them because I can’t recount how many times Mr Kyagulanyi has made me his subject. I’m aware that they have a whole structure, where they have people who must show daily how many times they have abused me on various social media platforms, and they are paid for that.
A whole pay system is put up. This is taxpayers’ money being spent to bring the person of Mpuuga down. It has been a tall order for them. And I can assure them, they won’t succeed. I think this is indicative of their failure to control me.
Remember, they told me to resign [as Commissioner of Parliament], but they knew they were making frivolous demands. When I was LoP [Leader of the Opposition in Parliament], Mr Kyagulanyi was concerned with everything about me. He would either complain to me or other people. I will give you an example. He complained that most of the time I was putting on a suit. He complained that I had security, I had a lead car.
He complained that I was meeting the Speaker, that I would sit in the meeting with the Speaker of Parliament as the Leader of the Opposition. So, one time I asked him that if you complain that I have security, when you become president, how will you be protected? Will you be protected by your brothers? By your sons? He was like: “The foot soldiers don’t want it.” I actually thought that when I’m replaced, because I had no problem being replaced, I thought my successor [Joel Ssenyonyi] would move on his own. Not in suits, but in overalls.
Not only has he maintained the same security detail, but also the numbers have increased. I have not heard him [Kyagulanyi] complain, yet I hear he is his [Ssenyonyi’s] close buddy. I think he was trying to bring me down from day one. So, trying to bring me down was a process.
When I was LoP, Mr Kyagulanyi and Mr [Lewis] Rubongoya [the NUP secretary general] would call members telling them to stop doing particular activities I was leading, including oversight activities. Can you imagine? Mr Kyagulanyi and Mr Rubongoya would call Members of Parliament and tell them not to come for oversight activities.
I want to challenge you, as a senior journalist, to go and interview privately Members of Parliament, and they will tell you how many times they were called not to go to the field, not to do oversight. They would say, “Let Mpuuga go alone. The president [Kyagulanyi] doesn’t like it when you go with him. You make him look so big.” So that’s the character of Mr Kyagulanyi and his petty ego.
Tell us more about the suits…
It’s pettiness. You remember the statements when I left office [of the LoP]? You must have read or heard, Tubuwonye Obusajja bwe suuti (We are done with men who are ever clad in suits). That was the open language at the headquarters led by Mr Kyagulanyi.
So, my character scares the hell out of them. And don’t know why: I’m not plastic. I’m what I’m. I don’t act. If I must put on a suit, it must be a suit. Not just a jacket with two arms. It must be a suit. If it’s a tie, it must be a tie.
Should I apologise for knowing what to do? I was trained to be what I am. I was even trained to know what to put on and when. I don’t do anything accidentally. Trained at home, trained through experience at work. Trained through the [Buganda] kingdom. Trained by many people I work with. When you are a leader, even your demeanour teaches the people. I have been mentoring hundreds of young people in public life, and I can’t apologise for being what I am.
So, I was waiting for my successor [Mr Ssenyonyi] to turn up in overalls. I was waiting to see him being guarded by foot soldiers. I was waiting to see him jump over tables.
He has never tabled a motion on the floor of Parliament. He is just nowhere and everywhere. So, I don’t want to comment about my successor because he is a man looking for identity, but I’m just telling you the level of pettiness I have had to put up with so that we progress.
I was willing to let that go because I thought there was a huge responsibility on my shoulders. So, the statements by Hon Muwanga, I don’t have much to say about them because they are misplaced. I know him. He gets excited sometimes, but I know he is desperate in the constituency, but that’s for him to deal with. He knows himself. He knows my close relationship with him over time, but I’m dealing with human beings and really don’t want to talk about him.
Nyendo-Mukungwe Member of Parliament Mathias Mpuuga (centre) arrives at Malibu Gardens in Namirembe-Bakuli, Kampala, to launch a new political alliance on December 6, 2024. PHOTO/ DAVID LUBOWA
What happened to the bond you had forged under the Ssuubi framework?
I also don’t know what happened […] probably I took so many people for granted. I actually thought they were genuine because for me, when you are a friend, you are a friend. […] I can work with you […] But I also work with so many people who are not friends. In fact, the majority of the people I work with are not my friends. But for you to qualify as my friend, that I can share with you a meal on my dining table, that I can take you to my mother, to my family.
Like these [Ssuubi members] you are talking about, it's for my special consideration. So, when you turn out and say particular things about me, my person, my character, for you to get capital out of that, it’s a new lesson for me about people. They say learning never ends. I think I’m learning new concepts about friends. But I can promise those who are my friends that I will never change.
Which is why even when they say the most despicable of things about me, I will never denigrate them anywhere. If I have a personal disagreement with them, I will call them individually. I have seen my sister Betty Nambooze [Mukono Municipality lawmaker] say very despicable things about me, but I’m a father to grown-up children.
I know Hon Betty Nambooze, she has in-laws because her children are grown up and married. I will never say particular things about my sister [who is a] wife to my friend Mr Bakireke. There is no amount of disagreement and stress that will ever compel me to say anything that will try to bring down their personality, regardless of my circumstances, that I can promise them.
It has been suggested that these former Ssuubi members are attacking you because they want to secure NUP cards that are critical in Buganda ... […] They have never shared their disagreement with me. I know all these individuals in and out, including their personal troubles. If it’s about loyalty, I don’t think Mr Kyagulanyi respects that.
Mr Kyagulanyi knows very well that these have been close buddies of mine over time. I have been with Mr Kivumbi for more than 25 years. I joined university [Makerere] in September 1995. I found him in second year. He is close to 55 years.
I will make 50 soon. If you are at that age and you are driven by smaller ambitions, then what is friendship about? I don’t think the time I have been with them, which Mr Kyagulanyi is aware of, that he can respect them as really royal people. I’m very sure he despises them.
I’m very sure he really holds them in contempt. I’m very sure the things they do, Kyagulanyi will never do to Nubian Li [Buken Ali]. Because these people are like my brothers and sisters. If you ever see Kyagulanyi say such things about Nubian Li on the microphone, you probably know he has gotten insane. I’m very sure he holds them in contempt.
You talked about NUP wasting their energies on you instead of President Museveni. Don’t you think once you take these matters to court, this will further take away the focus from the regime?
I agree with you, and you could see that for the last two years, I have tried to restrain myself. Self-restraint wasn’t because of a lack of options from what I have been doing with people and what I know. But I felt that it was important for me to give my friends a chance to rethink their actions.
I never wanted to roll myself in the mud because this would become a pig game, and I don’t want a pigsty kind of environment. I wanted to give decency a chance. I wanted to give a common-sense chance. I had preferred that the bigger objective prevail.
There is no organisation worth its name, that there will never be disagreements about so many things. That should never rattle the bigger goal of an organisation. When you see leaders focusing on smaller goals, to score points.
To grandstand, then you know they were never intended to lead. And now I think we have been pushing the capacity of my friends at NUP headquarters too much. Their abilities seem to be perfectly inelastic. No amount of push can enlarge their capacity.
Probably one of my crimes is trying to push them on the wall and trying to do things the right way. You remember how I tried to push them for reforms, two and a half years ago. They refused because they thought that if they pushed for reforms when I was LoP, then I would score points.
Very ironic, if you ask me. Secondly, by now, we would be pushing an agenda against the regime. That’s why I said [at this week’s media briefing] that we would be pushing to galvanise the Opposition to galvanise the country to push the regime down the cliff.
Mr Kyagulanyi got three million votes, not because he was the smartest. No. Because he articulated no serious political agenda, and he had no part in removing General Museveni.
Which is a legitimate cause. People never voted for him because he was the best; people protested against the character, behaviour, longevity and Museveni’s failures. That was the protest. All the way, Mr Kyagulanyi felt that the three million votes were about his competence, which was unfortunate.
So, taking these matters to court is a choice for me again to remain decent because I don’t have the energy to engage in daily public altercations. The statements Mr Kyagulanyi and Mr Ssewanyana made were so grievous. To accuse anybody of participating in a murder can cause me death.
Mr Kyagulanyi was fanning mob justice against me. He was fanning mob justice against my family. I was shocked by his lack of sensitivity, by his lack of emotions, by his lack of depth. It shocks me that a man who wants to lead a nation can be that shallow.
To lack the basic imagination and meaning of his statements, that Members of Parliament were arrested, and you know, for four years. One of the members dies, and you say you are transparent, you are honest, you have integrity. That you still want to be believed by well-meaning people. That you are serious. That’s why I called him a joker.
Probably he was reminding the nation that he is a joker. But if you are making a joke, you don’t joke with my name. You don’t invite mob justice on me […] If you are a joker, go and join Mariachi [the comedian].
Leadership.
When you see leaders focusing on smaller goals, to score points. To grandstand, then you know they were never intended to lead. And now I think we have been pushing the capacity of my friends at NUP headquarters too much. Their abilities seem to be perfectly inelastic. No amount of push can enlarge their capacity. – Mathias Mpuuga, Nyendo-Mukungwe MP
BAKGROUND
On February 29, 2024, National Unity Platform (NUP), the leading Opposition party, tasked the immediate former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and now parliamentary commissioner, Mr Matthias Mpuuga, to resign over claims that he benefited from a questionable Shs500m “services award”. Mr Mpuuga rejected the calls to resign. The Shs500m award was first exposed in #ParliamentExhibition on the micro-blogging site X, formerly Twitter, by citizens, among them, journalist-cum-lawyer Agather Atuhaire, and Dr Jimmy Ssentongo, alias Spire, a Makerere University don and satirist.
