Kawempe North MP-elect Elias Nalukoola (centre) together with NUP Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya (left) and party lawyer George Musisi at the Electoral Commission offices in Kampala on March 24, 2025. PHOTO/FRANKLIN DRAKU
The National Unity Platform (NUP) party has accused security forces of abducting and coercing their polling agents to sign fabricated affidavits aiming to implicate Elias Nalukoola, the Kawempe North MP-elect, in electoral malpractice.
This follows the earlier arrest and remand of 20 NUP members after the by-election.
NUP Secretary-General David Lewis Rubongoya, addressing journalists at the Electoral Commission (EC) offices yesterday, alleged an intensification of arrests, with agents being forced to sign pre-prepared affidavits intended to challenge the election results.
“I must say that since the election, many of our polling agents have been arrested and tortured. Some of them have been forced to implicate Honourable Nalukoola in electoral offences,” he said.
“His agents are being arrested, up, left right and centre, being forced to sign affidavits, which are not true,” Mr Rubongoya added.
He further said security forces instigated violence during the campaign and election.
“We have not seen the regime arrest its own officials who caused all the violence. And here they are picking up our people, trying to force them to implicate our own,”Mr Rubongoya said.
Attempts to obtain police clarification were unsuccessful, with spokesperson Rusoke Kituuma failing to respond to repeated inquiries.
The NUP leaders were at the EC to establish why it has delayed to gazette Mr Nalukoola as the newly-elected MP for Kawempe North, paving the way for his swearing-in.
Mr Nalukoola directly implicated President Museveni in the matter.
“General Museveni, get to know that those guys, those security operatives, are arresting my former agents and supervisors. They are being coerced to append their signatures on affidavits, which are intended to be used for the impending petition by the National Resistance Movement,” he added.
“They are swimming in the scourge of evidence. They have no grounds upon which they can base that impending petition. Indeed, one councillor, Henry Bule of Kikaaya, one of the secretaries of the local government of Kawempe Division, was abducted in the wee hours of the night. Why are they doing that if they have their own evidence?” Mr Nalukoola wondered.
He also highlighted the alleged torture of William Soka at Kawempe Police Station.
“He’s being tortured from there. He’s being coerced by operatives in your government, General Museveni.
They are forcing him to append his signature on the affidavit they intend to use in the petition which is about to be filed by Nambi,” Mr Nalukoola added.
He vowed to resist any attempts to overturn his victory.
“The time has come for Uganda to have an enhancement of democracy. You must accept, in this case, we gave you a bloody nose in the recent by-election, we are calling upon you to do the rightful thing,” he said.
“Order all those armed men and women to go back to their barracks and stop brutalising Ugandans, especially those in Kawempe North constituency,” he added.
NUP maintains that these arrests are a politically motivated strategy to invalidate Mr Nalukoola’s victory, against the will of the Kawempe electorate.
