Paul Nsubuga (right) of the National Unity Platform gives jerseys to footballers at Kakiri in Wakiso District. His main claim to re-election has been being a manager and major funder of Busiro County football team. PHOTO | COURTESY OF NSUBUGA’S X-HANDLE
When results for the 2021 General Election trickled in, the Opposition was buoyed when, for the first time, it scooped all the 10 parliamentary seats, including that of the Wakiso District Woman MP seat.
The election results were particularly impressive for the newly formed National Uni- ty Platform (NUP), which won nine out of the 10 parliamentary seats.
Only Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) survived the umbrella wave after beating NUP’s Jimmy Lukwago, alias Kira Young to the Kira Municipality seat.
Among NUP’s victorious flag bearers in Wakiso were Charles Matovu (Busiro South), Medard Lubega Sseggona (Busiro East), David Sserukenya (Makindye-Ssabagabo), Nkunyingi Muwada (Kyadondo East), Hannington Nsereko Musoke Wakayima (Nansana Municipality), Michael Kakembo (Entebbe Municipality), Betty Ethel Naluyima (Wakiso District Woman) and Paul Nsubuga (Busiro North).
The pressure will now be squarely on NUP during the 2026 polls when it sets out to defend nine seats in Wakiso. Ob- servers say the most vulnerable of the nine is Busiro North’s Nsubuga. When he prevailed in 2021, beating five opponents, Nsubuga was just 33 years old.
His critics point to the fact that he has maintained a quiet presence in the House, only making his voice heard during the chaotic plenary session when the fate of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) was decided.
“The NRM illegitimate government has proceeded to forcefully pass the controversial unpopular coffee Bill against the will of the majority Ugandans. SFC [Special Forces Command, the] army, and [the] police are now representing the Op- position in the House,” Nsubuga said back then.
Brush with the law
It could be argued that Nsubuga’s troubles started even before he was sworn in as a lawmaker. He was dragged to the Buganda Road Chief Magistrates’ Court for allegedly stealing a mobile phone valued at Shs80,000.
This was reportedly at the Eseria Building in Nakasero, opposite Shoprite in Kampala. The prosecution’s case was strengthened by CCTV foot- age from the building that captured the lawmaker wrapping his newspapers before walking off with an Itel phone loaded with Shs4.5m worth of mobile money.
The phone belonged to Nicholas Karuhanga. Nsubuga, however, maintained his innocence, even refusing to appear in the court at first, much to the chagrin of Sienna Owomugisha, the Buganda Road Grade One Magistrate.
An arrest warrant was duly issued. Nsubuga opted for an out-of-court settlement in which Karuhanga left Shs30m richer. That was the start of Nsubuga’s challenges because Edgar Lubadde, one of the losers in the 2021 Busiro North race, filed a case asking that the lawmaker be kicked out of Parliament on account of having no academic papers.
Lubadde’s case, however, ran into strong headwinds when Justice Winfred Nabisinde rejected new evidence in the form of a police re- port that showed how Nsubuga had allegedly forged academic papers.
“It was established from Church records that the real Paul Nsubuga is the son of Joseph Musoke and Specioza Lunkuse,both residents of Kakooge Village in Wakiso District and the same was born on January 19, 1985, and baptised in the same church on October 1,1986,” a police report said.
Justice Nabsinde chose to reject that report, saying it was introducing new rounds that should have been included in the petition. This gave Nsubuga a life- line.
Against the odds
Nsubuga’s legal tribulations shouldn’t obstruct the feat that he managed to achieve when he got 21,401 votes, relegating NRM’s Dennis Ssozi Galabuzi—who got 16,136 votes—to the periphery, as did seasoned politician Kasta Hussein Bukenya.
What made Nsubuga’s win all the more remarkable was that Busiro North is the most rural of all constituencies in Wakiso. It had been a bastion of the NRM for several decades.
From 1996, the constituency had been dominated by NRM’s Prof Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya, who would go on to be appointed Vice President in 2003. Buken- ya’s firm group of this constituency,which was a haven for Museveni’s National Re- sistance Amy (NRA) guerrillas during the Luweero Bush War, was only briefly shaken in 2011.
This short-lived moment came after High Court Judge Vincent Kibuuka-Musoke tossed Bukenya out of the House after being presented with in- controvertible evidence that the former Dean of Makerere University School of Medicine had bribed voters using induce- ments like malwa (local brew).
“Section 61 (1) (c) of the Parliamentary Elections Act is very problematic. Even if one bribery allegation is proven be- yond reasonable doubt, this alone affects the election substantially,” Justice Musoke-Kibuuka ruled as he ordered Bukenya to face voters again via a by-election.
At this point, Bukenya’s political career was at a crossroads because Museveni hadn’t only ditched him as his Vice President by appointing Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, the professor was also facing graft charges at the Anti-Corruption Court over his role in the botched 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) procurement of cars. But in the resultant by-election, Bukenya would reassert his claim over Busiro North politics when he trounced Kasta by a difference of 7,693 votes.
By this time Bukenya, who had fallen out with Museveni—had dropped the NRM sign of the thumb and rather he had adopted the sign of togetherness that Museveni’s Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) used during that contested 1980 elections dubiously won by the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC).
“We should never allow being enemies of each other because we belong to differ- ent political parties,” Bukenya said after defeating Kasta, then a Democratic Party (DP ) member.
From Bukenya to Galabuzi
Bukenya then attempted to use his upland rice scheme to put money in the pockets of his rural and poor constituents.
Although the upland rice had initially been restricted to his constituen- cy, soon he promoted it across the country, prompting many to speculate that he was using the rice scheme as a mobilisation tool to challenge his boss, Museveni, for the presidency. Despite previously indicating that he had stepped away from parliamentary politics with ambitions set on the presidency, Bukenya surprised many by contesting again in 2016. Running as an Independent candidate for the fifth time, he secured a disappointing third place, garnering just 5,160 votes.
The NRM flag bearer, Galabuzi, won with 11,249 votes. Subsequently, Bukenya was appointed Junior minister for the Luweero Triangle. After being elected to Parliament in 2016, Galabuzi rarely showed up. In fact, in 2017,Franca Akello,then Agago District WomanMP, stunned then-Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and other lawmakers when she mistook him for a stranger.
“Our rules don’t allow strangers in Parliament. I see a stranger sitting between Hon Ephraim Kamuntu and Hon Haruna Kasolo. It’s the first time I’ve seen him,” Akello said, triggering laughter from Ms Kadaga and other lawmakers.
Survival for the fittest
With that kind of no-show, in 2021, Busiro North voters chose Nsubuga over Galabuzi. But with the 2026 General Election beckoning, Nsubuga is interested in getting a second term.
His main claim to re-election has been being a manager and the major funder of the Busiro County football team. Busiro competes in Buganda Kingdom’s famous Masaza Cup and Nsubuga is a permanent fixture in all its games.
“I’m the only MP who is manager of a county football club. I have been promoting the interests of Buganda and the youth through sports. And will continue doing the same,” Nsubuga said.
It’s not clear who will be Nsubuga’s rivals within NUP, but party mobilisers told this newspaper that the party leadership had asked Matia Lwanga Bwanika, the current Wakiso District chairperson, to interest himself in the seat but he opted to challenge Matovu in Busiro South.
“There are other people who are interested in Busiro North within NUP, but they are weaker than Nsubuga. Nsubuga is indeed weak but within NUP, he is stronger than the people who are interested in his seat currently,” a NUP mobiliser in Wakiso said on condition of anonymity.
Within NRM, Nsubuga could be challenged by Galabuzi or Moses Mayanja, who once contested for Wakiso District chairmanship but was defeated by Bwanika. After losing his parliamentary seat, Museveni consoled Galabuzi by appointing him as the national coordinator of the Parish Development Model (PDM), but sources within NRM say he is eager to return to elective politics. Having been voted out of Parliament, NRM cadres—led by Mayanja—have accused Galabuzi of being behind the decline of the party in this constituency.
They say Galabuzi has been frustrating the efforts of NRM grassroots cadres because he wants to remain the Alpha and Omega of NRM politics in Busiro North,an accusation Galabuzi denies. Another person who is expected to rival Nsubuga for this parliamentary seat is Kasta,who ditched DP for NUP in the run- up to the 2021 General Election.
When the NUP leadership denied him a ticket, he immediately ditched the nascent party and stood as an Independent and he got only 893 votes. Kasta, as things stand now,will for the fourth consecutive time try to get the Busiro North seat as an Independent.
“Once he stood as an Independent in 2021, he stopped being a NUP member. If he is to stand in a NUP primary, he has to apply again for party membership. Something he hasn’t done and we don’t expect him to do it,” Nasif Najja, a NUP grassroots official, said.
