Busiro South: Sign of the times for Democratic Party

Uganda’s history is littered with literature that shows that Catholics in their competition with Anglicans gave birth to the DP as a way of trying to wrest power from their rivals. It’s also documented how the DP, formed in 1954, traces its roots to the central town of Masaka, where a woman called Diana Noakes, kick-started the whole project by doting down the meeting minutes that resulted in the Catholic party.

Whilst the DP started in Masaka, one of the central towns that quickly accepted this then-nascent political idea was the lakeside town of Entebbe, where the White Missionary Fathers would put in place Kisubi seminary in 1951. They would also construct one of their major schools, St Mary’s College Kisubi (Smack).

It’s also in Kisubi where former DP president Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere started as a toddler. This is also where his nephew Paul Ssemogerere, the current Kampala archbishop, was born in 1956. Kawanga-Ssemogerere, who led the DP for decades, following the disappearance of Benedicto Kiwanuka in 1972, was interred in Nkumba, near Kisubi, still in Busiro South in 2022.

For many years, if you were not a DP card-carrying member or Roman Catholic, it wasn’t easy to win the constituency that runs from Kitubulu in Entebbe through Entebbe Road to Kasanje-Bubebere on the shores of Lake Victoria before meeting Mawokota North near Bikondo Stage on Kampala-Masaka highway.

From Mubanda to Musisi

In 1996, Busiro South joined other constituencies in Wakiso by voting for pro-National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidates.

Mr James Mubanda, a former junior Foreign Affairs minister, who has since passed on, became Busiro South’s lawmaker. In 2001, however, the constituency kicked out Mubanda to reignite its relationship with Catholic/DP-leaning politicians when it voted for Patrick Musisi.

Musisi, who was the treasurer of the DP parliamentary caucus, would not see through his first term as he died in 2005. This was a year before Uganda held its first multiparty elections since the NRM shot its way to power in 1986.

In those years that DP was known for being a melting pot of youthful firebrands such as Erias Lukwago and Samuel Odonga Otto, who later joined the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Musisi was eulogised as a measured if not laid-back politician. He was hailed for trying to bring together the warring factions in what was in turn called the Divided Party or Dead Party.

Apart from being the Busiro South lawmaker, Musisi is said to have set his eyes on challenging for the position of DP president general. Aged just 50, his plans were upended when he met his death at the Catholic Church-owned Lubaga Hospital, where had been taken in the night after he suffered a cardiac attack.

Life after Musisi Although he would attack the NRM, Apolo Nsibambi, then prime minister, who has also since died, eulogised Musisi as a predictable politician who the government would work with. After grieving for Musisi, the party leadership had to decide on who would complete his term.

They zeroed in on Musisi’s son, Joseph Balikuddembe Mutebi. One of the things that Balikuddembe would be remembered for, is his claim that on his first day in Parliament, a top NRM politician tried to bribe him using a blank cheque from the central bank.

“I told them that my father was a predictable politician and I would live by his principles. If I signed their cheque, he would turn in his grave,” Balikuddembe said.

After easily winning the by-election, Balikuddembe also prevailed at the ballots during the 2006 and 2011 general elections. Observers say he took advantage of the emotional relationship voters had with his father.

However, when the 2016 elections beckoned, Balikuddembe, who had failed to establish himself in the House, read the signs and decided to call time on elective politics.

“I agreed with my voters that I will not stand in 2016. We shouldn’t be in politics all the time,” Balikuddembe, a lawyer, rationalised his retirement from elective politics.

Sematimba shocker

To replace him, DP decided to use the same old strategy of making it a family affair when they gave their card to Stephen Sekigozi, Balikuddembe’s younger brother. But it seems by this time the DP had lost control over its strongholds because NRM’s Peter Sematimba won after garnering 24,298 votes. Sekigozi came second with 19,266 votes.

Looking at the figures, the defeat of the general Opposition could be pinned on fielding many candidates with no one pulling away in terms of support.

Simon Kaggwa Njala, who stood as an Independent yet he was a DP member, and also had strong ties in the Catholic Church, came third with 15,904 votes. Elsewhere, FDC’s Ronald Kibirigo Mwekambe got 5,160 votes.

In theory, if just one Opposition candidate had stood, it would have meant that he would have got 45,362 votes thus edging out Sematimba’s tally of 24,298.

Sekigozi wasn’t willing to let the matter go. He challenged Sematimba’s victory on grounds of academic qualifications or rather the lack of them. Sekigozi appeared to be in business when High Court Justice Lydia Mugambe threw Sematimba out of Parliament.

This was after finding out that the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) didn’t independently verify the authenticity and validity of Sematimba’s diploma in Electrical and Computer Technology, which he claimed to have been obtained from the Pacific Coast Technical Institute in the USA.

Sematimba, however, had the last laugh when upon appeal, Justice Steven Kavuma, Cheborion Barishaki and Catherine Bamugemereire evoked the Evidence Act and noted there was no requirement for Sematimba to produce certified copies of his diploma in evidence before the court. The three judges said all Sematimba needed to do was to produce a certificate that bore a signature and seal of office of a foreign service officer in Uganda or British Counsel or diplomatic agent in such a foreign place, among others.

“It is not in dispute that the first appellant’s [Sematimba] certificate did not comply with Section 84 of the Evidence Act and the trial judge could have rejected the certificate and other documents therein, but she opted not to, for the justice of the case. The implication was that she presumed the documents to be authentic under section 84 of the Evidence Act,” they wrote.

In NUP hands

Sekigozi once again had to wait for another five years to contest for this constituency. But there were changes because there came the National Unity Platform

(NUP) under its principal Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine. Sekigozi, who had always insisted that he had DP in his DNA, turned pragmatic. He dumped his father’s party and joined

NUP. This didn’t yield results as he was denied the NUP ticket. He would be swept aside by the NUP wave after he chose to stand as an Independent.

In a race of eight contestants, Sekigozi came a distant fourth with 9,276 votes. NUP’s Charles Matovu, largely a nonentity, garnered an undisputed 35,391 votes.

Paul Owor, an Independent, who openly doled out money during campaigns, came second with 16,418 votes. Sematimba, the incumbent, placed third with 12,842 votes.

In the years he has been a lawmaker, Matovu has struggled to stand out from the crowd. Observers say his position will be vulnerable should NUP choose to hold primaries. One of the NUP supporters, who has come out to challenge Matovu is Matia Lwanga Bwanika. The latter has been Wakiso District chairman ever since he ousted NRM’s Ian Kyeyune in 2011.

Just like many traditional politicians in Busiro South, Bwanika has strong ties with the Catholic Church and he was a DP member before he crossed to NUP in the run-up to the 2021 General Election.

One of the major reasons he presents for leaving the comfort of Wakiso District

to go and slug it out in a very unpredictable parliamentary contest is the disillusionment that has come with Uganda’s decentralised system.

“When I went into elective politics, I knew Local Government was where service delivery is done. On paper, they say we decentralised in 1993, but practically we centralised. Almost all the money

we collect at Local Government is taken to the centre. So, how do you expect me to deliver services to my people,” said Bwanika, who also has roots in Mengo, where he served as a journalist at the Buganda

Kingdom-owned Central Broadcasting Services (CBS) radio station.

Tough choice

Another reason Bwanika gives for joining the race to Parliament is what he terms as mediocre representation.

“My constituency is very traditional. It’s the constituency of Kawanga-Ssemogerere, but when you look at it recently we have even had people like Sematimba. I think we need to get proper representation,” Bwanika explained while dodging commenting on his party colleague, Matovu.

It seems NUP is destined to have a headache in choosing who will be its flag bearer because sources say Sekigozi is still interested. Recently, Sekigozi has been dogged by financial problems, with lawyers in the Sematimba case still hunting him for their money to the tune of Shs33.3 million.

“Sekigozi is hard to get nowadays, but he is liked within NUP. Matovu has support within the constituency, but not so much within the NUP leadership,” a source familiar with the NUP leadership told this writer on condition of anonymity.

For the NRM it’s not clear if Sematimba will try for the third time while the youthful Owor has been hamstrung with fraud claims ever since the elections ended.

From DP to NUP

Stephen Sekigozi – He was the DP candidate after Balikuddembe’s retirement but lost to NRM’s Peter Sematimba in 2011. Sekigozi later challenged Sematimba’s victory on grounds of academic qualifications, but the case was dismissed on appeal.

Sekigozi also switched to NUP for the 2021 elections, but after being denied the NUP ticket, he ran as an Independent and placed fourth.

Matia Lwanga Bwanika – Former Wakiso District Chairman and a former DP member, Bwanika joined NUP and is now challenging the current MP, Charles Matovu, for the parliamentary seat. He cites dissatisfaction with the decentralisation system and the quality of representation as his reasons for running.