NUP takes over leadership of Buganda Parliamentary Caucus

The National Unity Platform (NUP) yesterday took over leadership of the Buganda Parliamentary Caucus, ending the dominance of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party for several years.

In an election that was shunned by NRM MPs, NUP’s Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala County) was voted caucus chairperson. He will be deputised by Mr Lulume Bayiga (Buikwe South MP), while Mr Patrick Nsamba (Kassanda North) is the secretary general.

Mr Fred Kayondo (Mukono South - DP) was elected secretary for welfare, Ms Christine Ndiwalana (Bukomansimbi North-NUP) is the secretary for external affairs, Ms Hanifa Nabukeera (Mukono Woman –NUP) is the secretary for cabinet, and Mr Denis Sekabira (Katikamu North – NUP) was elected secretary for cultural affairs.

In an interview after the election, Mr Kivumbi promised to tackle the land problem in Buganda, work for cohesion and also ensure equitable sharing of national resources.

“We want an equitable sharing of revenue from the national resources. So it is our time and we are coming back to ask for a share as well,” he said.

For long, the NRM has dominated the Buganda Parliamentary Caucus but following NUP’s performance in the region in the January 14 polls, this was bound to change.

On Tuesday, in what seemed as a surprise to their NRM counterparts, Members of Parliament subscribing to NUP from Buganda Sub-region met at Parliament to plan on how to conduct yesterday’s elections.

They then resolved to front Mr Kivumbi against the NRM candidates. The protests by one of their members, Ms Betty Nambooze (Mukono Woman) against the proposal did not deter them.

Yesterday morning, nine of the 46 NRM MPs from Buganda held a meeting to agree on how they would handle the election. However, the meeting chaired by Mr Kefa Kiwanuka (Kiboga East), failed to agree on how to participate in the election and asked for a postponement but this didn’t happen. They then decided to boycott it.