NRM dominates mayoral polls in Mbale, Kapchorwa

Left to right: George Mwanika, mayor-elect for Northern City Division, Mbale City and Timothy Andrew Mangusho, mayor-elect for Kapchorwa Municipality. PHOTO/COMBO/NMG.

What you need to know:

  • Winners attribute their victory to party support and good leadership.

Candidates allied to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party on Monday emerged victorious during the election of division mayors and municipal councillors in Mbale City and Kapchorwa Municipality.

Mr Muhamood Masaba Mutenyo, the NRM chairperson for Mbale District, was elected mayor of Industrial City Division in Mbale City.

Mr Masaba, the NRM flag bearer, who sat for his Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations at 46 years in 2019, beat eight others to take the seat during the election of division mayors and municipal councillors on Monday.

The Mbale City registrar, Mr Charles Robero, declared Mr Masaba winner after he garnered 8,163 votes, while his main rival, Mr Robert Mukamba, who contested as an Independent, got 4,457 votes. Mr Mukamba was backed by the Woman MP-elect for Mbale City, Ms Connie Galiwango.

In the Northern City Division, the NRM party also won the seat after its flag bearer, Mr George Muwanika, garnered 7,148 votes, beating his main opponent, Mr Zubair Galiwango, who got 5,066 votes.

In Kapchorwa Municipality, the NRM party also won. Mr Andrew Timothy Mangusho, the NRM flag bearer, emerged winner with 10,002 votes against the incumbent, Mr Stephen Batya, who got 3,575 votes.

However, in Tororo Municipality, the NRM party lost to the Independent candidate, Mr Kenneth Orono Nyapidi, who defeated the incumbent and NRM flag bearer, Mr John Opio. Mr Opio got 3,151 votes. 

After being declared winner of the Industrial City Division mayoral seat in Mbale City, Mr Masaba, who first dropped out of school in Senior Two in 1991 before resuming his studies recently, attributed his victory to the NRM party’s support and good leadership.

“The NRM party laid the foundation, which enabled me to go back to school and now l am the mayor. It wouldn’t be possible without NRM good leadership,” he said.

Mr Masaba, however, castigated the senior NRM cadres for fighting him by supporting and funding other candidates so that he loses.

“I was being fought by prominent people, including the minister [Michael Kafabusa] Werikhe and Sanjay Tanna, [former Tororo County MP] who came from Tororo to decampaign me but I thank God, I have won,” he said.

Left to right:  Muhamood Masaba Mutenyo, new mayor for Industrial Division, Mbale and  Kenneth Orono Nyapidi, Tororo Municipality mayor-elect. PHOTO/COMBO/NMG. 

The rivalry between Mr Masaba and the State minister for Trade, Mr Werikhe, came to the fore last year after the latter lost in the NRM party primaries.

The minister reportedly accused Mr Masaba of being behind his defeat after the mayor-elect supported his rival, Mr Richard Wanda, who won the NRM flag and later the MP seat for Bungokho Central.

It is alleged that Mr Werikhe and Mr Sanjay, supported and funded Mr Fred Kuranga, the former chairperson for Nauyo- Bugema Town Council, who contested as an Independent and came third in the mayoral elections with 3,647 votes.

NRM intrigue
When contacted, Mr Werikhe dismissed the allegations as “false and baseless.”
“If I was supporting any of the candidates, I would have been seen in the field but I have been in Kampala. Funding alone is not enough to fail someone,” he said.

Although Mr Sanjay could not answer our repeated calls, some of the NRM supporters say the former Tororo Municipality MP was paying back Mr Masaba for not supporting him during the NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) elections when he contested and lost the seat for party vice chairperson-in-charge of eastern region. Mr Masaba supported Mr Mike Mukula, who went on to win the seat.

On his plans, Mr Masaba said he will lobby for infrastructure development, including the construction of broken bridges linking the city to its suburbs.
“l am also going to organise boda boda riders by setting up gazetted stages and timely garbage collection centres,” he said.

However, Mr Kuranga, one of the losers, has dismissed the outcome of the elections and threatened to go to court. “We are going to court to challenge this. The declaration forms they were announcing were different from ours,” Mr Kuranga said.

By Micheal Woniala, Kitunzi Yahudu & Joseph Omollo
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