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How 26-year-old won Hoima chairmanship
NRM Candidate Mr Uthuman Mugisha Mubaraka receives results from Hoima District Returning Officer, Ms Merab Kasande, after winning Hoima District LCV by-election on September 14. Photo/Alex Ashaba
What you need to know:
An enrolled nurse, Mr Mugisha was having a first crack at politics. His victory means he succeeds his father, Kadiri Kirungi as Hoima District chairperson. Kirungi tragically lost his life in a road accident on March 17 on the Kampala-Hoima road
Mr Uthuman Mugisha Mubarak, 26, polled 18,353 votes to hand the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party a win in the Hoima LCV by-election on Thursday night.
An enrolled nurse, Mr Mugisha was having a first crack at politics. His victory means he succeeds his father, Kadiri Kirungi as Hoima District chairperson. Kirungi tragically lost his life in a road accident on March 17 on the Kampala-Hoima road.
To earn the right to complete what is left of the five-year term his father won in 2021, Mr Mugisha did just enough to hold off Mr Vincent Muhumuza, who mustered 12,020 votes at the ballot. Mr Muhumuza ran as an independent candidate after coming up short in an attempt to get the NRM flag on August 28. It was also a third time unlucky for Mr Muhumuza after failures to win the district chairmanship in 2016 and 2021. His last elective leadership was in 2011-2015 as councillor for Kahoora Division, Hoima Municipality.
In his victory speech, Mr Mugisha emphasised the importance of unity and peace, pledging to continue the work his father had started.
“I want to work for the people of Hoima. Many people have been grappling with land grabbing issues, which I am committed to addressing,” he said, adding, “I will reach out to the relevant authorities and ministries to ensure land titles are issued, and those in need of compensation receive their due.”
Ms Rosemary Sseninde, the director for mobilisation in the NRM party, said: “This election, as a party, we have learned a lot of lessons that we had a big population of the youth who are voters and we need to ensure we don’t leave them behind. We must work closely.”
The National Unity Platform (NUP) party fielded a youthful candidate in Mr Moses Aguuda, who garnered 3,972 votes. Mr Patrick Musinguzi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party got 271 votes, and Mr Lenox Mugume received 179 votes running as an independent.
Ms Babara Nabaasa, the Office of National Chairman coordinator for Tooro region, attributed the success of her NRM party to a door-to-door campaign mounted six days before the elections.
“We had to look at voters by visiting them in their homes,” she said, adding, “This helped us, and people were receiving our message.”
NRM bigwigs like Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja; Moses Kigongo, the party’s national vice chairman; and Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the party’s vice chairman of western region, also threw their weight behind Mr Mugisha’s candidature.
