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Entebbe Municipality: Has MP Kakembo Mbwatekamwa dug his grave?

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Entebbe Municipality  MP Michael Kakembo Mbwatekamwa. PHOTO/HANDOUT 

Kiruhura District—President Museveni’s country home, is documented for being a stronghold of his ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, where the Opposition is normally restricted to a handful of votes.

The same can’t be said of Entebbe Municipality where his official residence—State House—is found. In fact, the comparison couldn’t be starker—while Museveni almost wins 100 percent of the vote in Kiruhura, and the area is represented by two NRM lawmakers in Wilson Kajwengye (Nyabushozi County) and Herbert Tayebwa Musasizi (Kashongi County), he not only lost Entebbe Municipality to National Unity Platform (NUP) party principal Robert Kyagulanyi at the presidential level in the last elections but also the parliamentary seat swung from the NRM’s Rosemary Tumusiime to Michael Kakembo Mbwatekamwa (NUP). 

A prominent landmark in the Entebbe metropolis is the Independence Tree, once referred to as the Freedom Tree. This historic tree gained prominence in the 1950s as a gathering place for rallies led by influential nationalist figures like Ignatius Kangave Musaazi and Jolly Joe Kiwanuka, who passionately fought for self-determination. Nowadays, the Independence Tree has been transformed into a vibrant hub for community markets and events, showcasing the spirit of unity and progress that continues to thrive in the town. 

Regarding religion, Entebbe Municipality is home to the notable Anglican St John’s Church, whose octagonal bell towers give it a fort-like appearance. It was established in 1939 to serve the religious needs of the Anglican European community, including the governor and other British colonial administrators.

Just like its neighbouring constituency Busiro South, Entebbe Municipality has critical Catholic sites such as the Bugonga church, which is believed to be one of the earliest Catholic churches where Catholic missionaries—Brother Delmas Amans and Father Mon Maple Lourdel, colloquially known in Buganda as Mapeera—landed before they met with the oval-eyed Ssekabaka Muteesa Mukaabya in 1879. 

Trouble in paradise?
It is this history that makes the race for Entebbe Municipality special. It promises to be no different during the 2026 General Election following developments that NUP has agreed to dump the incumbent Kakembo on account of hobnobbing with the Mathias Mpuuga-led Democratic Alliance.

The differences between NUP and Kakembo, who won the seat in 2021 with a difference of 11,052 votes, emerged last year when the lawmaker decided to go to Gulu to attend the first regional parliamentary sittings that his party had said should be boycotted.

Kakembo put salt into the wound when he seconded Richard Lumu’s (Mityana South) motion intended to introduce a Bill that would have revised the way the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP) was selected. 

Ever since multiparty politics was reinstated in 2006, the LoP has been picked by the president of the Opposition party with the biggest numbers in the House. Lumu wanted that changed, claiming that the manner of election of the LoP, as it stands, excludes other Opposition political parties represented in Parliament and yet the LoP superintends over all of them, even cherry-picking their shadow cabinet from among them. 

Within NUP, Lumu’s Bill was treated as a move to clip the wings of the current LoP, Joel Ssenyonyi. Kakembo’s move to second it was the final nail in the coffin of his relationship with the party.

If seconding the motion wasn’t bad enough, Kakembo did something that is not common among NUP’s debutant legislators—he came out and openly attacked Kyagulanyi.

“All leaders, including my president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, have failed to learn. And when he refuses to learn, he shames our political party. The level at which my president is at, I’m just a call away. I’m his son for that matter. We have been warning him that our president [Kyagulanyi] should be the last to speak because you might embarrass yourself.

But he never listens,” Kakembo said before going on to throw digs at his party by referring to how during the last term, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) as Uganda’s leading Opposition party, managed to fight a similar Bill that was fronted by Busiro East lawmaker Medard Lubega Sseggona and his Ndorwa East counterpart Wilfred Nuwagaba. 

“Just look at how FDC managed the situation and compare it with what NUP has gone about the situation. You would conclude that FDC scored more than NUP,” the lawmaker said. 

On borrowed time
NUP members have been quick to capitalise on the fallout, with many coming out to front themselves as replacements of Kakembo. One of them is Joyce Nabatta Namuli, who stood in 2021 as an Independent and emerged fourth with 2,021 votes. 

The head of NUP’s Women’s wing in Wakiso District, Namuli insists that Kakembo has already left the party. 
“Since he departed from the NUP, it means we have a vacancy in our area. Last term, I competed as an Independent and I know the ups and downs of that, so this time I would like to represent our party. I think the current MP is representing the Democratic Alliance while I want to represent the NUP,” Namuli, who is said to have close ties with the Entebbe Catholic church, said. 

Namuli is reported to have telling support within NUP. She, however, is under no illusions about being a lone ranger when it comes to upstaging Kakembo. Stuart Lubwama, who was interested in the seat but was ignored by NUP leadership in 2021 in favour of Kakembo, has also reignited efforts to claim the party’s ticket. Lubwama, who is a member of NUP’s mobilisation efforts dubbed Kunga, has no kind words for Kakembo’s rebellious ways. 

“Our MP has failed to appreciate what we, the people, wanted and what our party largely wants. He has gone against us and, therefore, we have to ensure we give ourselves leadership,” Lubwama said during an interview. 

This and that
Following the fallout with Kakembo, NUP members have been quick to remind him that hadn’t he got a NUP ticket in 2021, he wouldn’t have become an MP since his previous attempt had failed. In 2016, Kakembo, who stood on the Democratic Party (DP) ticket, was edged by NRM’s Tumusiime by a difference of only 488 votes.

Kakembo wasn’t contended and he dashed to the High Court on the ground that some votes hadn’t been counted but Justice Henry Kaweesa dismissed the case, saying the noncompliance didn’t affect the elections substantially. 

The implication of Tumusiime wresting Entebbe Municipality to the NRM side was that she ended DP’s 10-year domination of the seat through Muhammad Kawuma. Kawuma first emerged on the political scene in 2006 when he defeated the NRM’s David Byatike Matovu, who had represented the constituency from the Constituent Assembly (CA)—which midwifed the current Constitution—to the sixth Parliament.

Kawuma, in 2011, would defeat NRM’s Patience Mubangizi Tusiimire, a former Wakiso District councillor, with a difference of 1,839 votes. His celebrations were short-lived because High Court Judge Andrew Bashaija, in early 2011, cancelled his victory on grounds that votes from 12 polling stations had not been included in the final tally, which tantamounted to voter disenfranchisement.