David Sserukenya (National Unity Platform) won the 2021 parliamentary election. PHOTO/COURTESY
The general picture of how voters in Makindye-Ssabagabo vote can be drawn from the 2021 parliamentary election results. David Sserukenya, who got the National Unity Platform (NUP) ticket, won the election with 35,892 votes. Emmanuel Kigozi Ssempala, popularly known as Sajjalayabeene, then incumbent whom Sserukenya edged out for the NUP ticket, came second with 19,418 votes.
It seems the Makindye-Ssabagabo race was determined when NUP officially endorsed Sserukenya as its candidate, ditching Ssempala, who had won the 2016 race on the Democratic Party (DP) ticket. Indeed, during the campaigns, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate, Frank Kyazze, who eventually came third with 12,344 votes, was an outlier as Sserukenya and Ssempala slugged it out.
Ssempala had followed the trend of many Opposition politicians in Buganda of decamping from their political parties—particularly DP—to join NUP, having sensed the umbrella wave. Still, despite being an established politician, he was denied the ticket in favour of a political novice, Sserukenya.
According to sources within NUP, the clincher was that Sserukenya was a willing funder of many of the nascent party’s activities whilst Ssempala wasn’t that generous. Sserukenya insists that he has been backing NUP’s principal Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine. Their bond can be traced back to the time the People Power movement dominated Uganda’s news cycle.
“I started moving with my president [Kyagulanyi] from Arua, Gulu court, up to today as the head of the medical team, and I have saved many foot soldiers. My work on the ground for the party was visible and it was easy to get the NUP ticket,” Sserukenya explains.
Sserukenya also insists that since 2013, he has been involved in philanthropic work, including donating ambulances to Namalere hospital.
“[Ssempala] has been an MP for all these years, but he hasn’t done anything for the constituency. Why would he expect you to vote him back to Parliament?” Sserukenya told crowds at various rallies he threw in the run-up to the 2021 General Election.
With the Opposition tearing itself apart, Kyazze was expected to exploit these divisions and take Makindye–Ssabagabo into the yellow column. This, however, didn’t happen as he came third. This wasn’t the first time Kyazze was losing in Makindye-Ssebagabo.
In 2016, he placed second with 15,410 votes whilst Ssempala emerged victor with 22,152 votes.
Kavuma at the helm
Although the NRM is currently struggling in this constituency that was formerly called Kyadondo South, its member, Steven Kavuma, who would go on to become Uganda’s Deputy Chief Justice, represented it in the Constituent Assembly (CA) that midwifed the current Constitution. Kavuma would a represent the constituency in the sixth
Parliament. Kavuma’s roots within the NRM are traced to the Resistance Councils of the late ‘1980s when he represented Nangabo Sub-county.
Between 1986 and 1988, Kavuma was elected as the chairperson of Greater Mpigi, which included districts such as Wakiso, Mpigi, Butambala and Gomba. President Museveni would later appoint Kavuma in different ministerial dockets that included deputy Finance minister (custodian board); junior Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister; and junior Defence minister. The latter came at the height of Uganda’s military involvement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
It was during this time that Kavuma got embroiled in a national controversy when he insisted while appearing on a local television programme, that Col Jet Mwebaze and his colleagues were alive after their helicopter crashed in the Rwenzori mountains. The claim was made despite reports and evidence suggesting otherwise.
Kikungwe’s dominance
Kavuma’s political career as an MP for Kyadondo South or Makindye–Ssabagabo was ended by DP’s Issa Kikungwe, who would go on to represent the constituency for three straight terms, ending in 2016. From the time he made baby steps in politics, Kikungwe was a DP diehard. In fact, when many DP youth wingers like Kassiano Wadri (Terego County), Prof Morris Ogenga Latigo (Agago County) and Samuel Odonga-Otto (Aruu County), among others, decamped to join the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) in 2005, Kikungwe maintained his identity as a DP MP.
“It was a difficult time for those of us who identified ourselves as DP in Parliament. Our colleagues left at the same time Patrick Musisi (the Busiro South lawmaker) died. We needed new energy in the DP caucus as I took over as the chair of the caucus and Kikungwe joined me to form its leadership,” said DP president general Nobert Mao.
Kikungwe’s end in elective politics was self-inflicted as he decided to not stand again in his haven of Makindye-Ssabagabo. In 2016, he decided to challenge for Kampala Lord Mayorship, where many rightly opined that he stood no chance against Erias Lukwago, who had allied with Opposition doyen Dr Kizza Besigye.
During Kikungwe’s burial in 2017, his son explained why his father had decided to stand against Lukwago, an Opposition foot soldier.
“I asked him why he chose to run against Lukwago, because, in my view, [Lukwago] was one of us, but he told me that he was in the race to keep the DP flag high,” Kikungwe’s eldest son, Umar Kikungwe, told mourners.
Kikungwe’s love for DP, it emerged in the aftermath of his death, had driven him to see that he reconciled the mainstream DP leadership with Lukwago.
“He has engaged me several times, the DP leaders present here can attest to this. He has presided over a series of meetings aimed at reconciling us and I want to urge my colleagues in DP that Kikungwe’s efforts should not end in vain,” Lukwago said.
Opposition bastion
It was during Kikungwe’s reign as the MP for Makindye–Ssabagabo that it became apparent that it would be hard for NRM to wrestle the constituency back to the yellow column. This was principally because the area was turned into a bastion of regime malcontents.
The key moment came in 2009 when NRM’s Ian Kyeyune, then Wakiso District chairperson, was humiliated by a crowd over the state of Busabala road found in Makindye- Ssabagabo constituency. Kyeyune had driven from Wakiso District headquarters to Busabala to explain to the demonstrating residents the fate of the dilapidated road. As soon as the crowd saw him, they pounced on him and covered him in dust. Kyeyune blamed the violence on his political adversaries, who included Kikungwe.
“Who mobilised all these people to come to the road on such short notice?” Kyeyune, who would go on to lose his seat to Matia Lwanga Bwanika in the 2011 General Election, rhetorically asked before claiming that Kikungwe had a hand in his humiliation.
With Makindye-Ssebagabo being firmly in the grasp of the Opposition, it doesn’t come as a surprise that it was Ssempala not Kyazze, who challenged Sserukenya’s victory in court in 2021.
Ssempala asked the High Court to declare him the victor of the elections, alleging that Sserukenya had no minimum academic qualifications of Senior Six or its equivalent that were needed for one to stand as an MP.
As Justice Winifred Nabisinde was getting prepared for the drama that comes with electoral petition hearings, Ssempala developed cold feet and withdrew the petition.
“Take notice that the petitioner [Ssempala] wishes to withdraw this petition having found compelling reasons to do so. It is without duress or complicity,” Ssempala, through his lawyers of Alaka and Company Advocates, revealed.
The here and now
Sources say Ssempala doesn’t intend to challenge Sserukenya once again as he is aiming for the Wakiso District chairmanship, which will have new challengers since the incumbent Bwan[1]ika wants to go to Parliament via Busiro South.
Some within NUP have speculated that Ssempala might challenge for the Wakiso District chairmanship through the Democratic Alliance led by Mathias Mpuuga, but this has, so far, been dismissed by those close to the former MP.
They insist Ssempala is still a staunch NUP supporter.
“Those who are saying he is part of Mpuuga’s group are the ones who don’t want him to get the NUP ticket for Wakiso District chairman. That’s why they are spreading the rumour that he has joined the Democratic Alliance,” a member of the Democratic Alliance, who preferred anonymity, said.
For the NRM, it is not clear who will take on the daunting job of standing in Makindye-Ssebagabo. The safest bet appears to be Kyazze, who since losing in 2021, was appointed by Museveni as Deputy Resident District Commissioner for Wakiso, specifically taking Kasangati township. Kyazze has been in the limelight more so calling for accountability after the Kiteezi landfill catastrophe.
“I strongly believe this wasn’t an accident. If it was, then it was a man-made accident; so, someone must be held responsible for whatever happened because this is a landfill that KCCA has now used for the past 20 years,” Kyazze, who still eyes elective office, said.
Although many NUP lawmakers have been accused of being quiet once they entered the House, Sserukenya insists he doesn’t belong to that category.
“In Parliament, I have been one of the most vocal MPs. I have managed to secure relief for the people of Naziba from the Office of the Prime Minister. I managed to secure a report on floods for Bata Bata and the minister of Works responded and it has been worked on,” Sserukenya says.
Eyeing seat?
.David Sserukenya - Representing the National Unity Platform (NUP), who won the 2021 parliamentary election.
.Emmanuel Ssempala (Sajjalayabeene) - The incumbent who contested under the NUP ticket but was edged out by Sserukenya. He later withdrew a court petition challenging Sserukenya’s victory.
.Frank Kyazze - Representing the National Resistance Movement (NRM), who came third in the 2021 elections and later appointed as Deputy Resident District Commissioner for Wakiso.
.Steven Kavuma - Former MP and Deputy Chief Justice, representing NRM in earlier years, whose political career ended in Makindye-Ssabagabo.
