ROAD TO 2011: The scramble for Jinja West seat

This week, Pauline Kairu looks at the battle for Jinja Municipality West constituency where the incumbent is fighting to maintain a grip on his seat for the third time.

In the 2006 elections that handed him his second term in office, the Jinja Municipality West Member of Parliament, Harry Kasigwa, had only one challenger to tussle it out with.

That time, he edged out Anna Muja Rutebuka of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) by a meagre 1,374 votes, after garnering 6,464 votes while his rival got 5,090 votes in a tightly-contested race, during a dawn of upsets in which his opposition colleagues from the Busoga region like Abdu Katuntu, Salaamu Musumba and Dr Frank Nabwiso were shown the exit.

Mr Kasigwa will for the third time be vying for the same office come 2011.
However, area political analysts believe that for Mr Kasigwa who, until the election of Abdu Katuntu in the Bugweri by-elections in 2007, was the only opposition MP from Busoga out of 27 legislators, it will be quite an uphill task.
If the scramble for his seat is anything to go by, then the race for the constituency is certainly heating up.

Rough ride
Daily Monitor has learnt that Mr Kasigwa’s battle starts in the primaries, where Jinja District Councillor Simon Muyanga Lutaaya will challenge him for the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) nod.

And yet still, this could be the most hotly-contested seat in the entire district with a drove of other contestants gearing up to give him a run for his office, including Youth MP for Eastern region Zaake Kibedi (NRM).

Others who have publicly declared interest in the seat include, businessman Moses Balyeku (NRM), chairman Jinja district public accounts committee Moses Talugende (DP), the headteacher of Iganga Boys Secondary School Fred Kasisa (NRM), Najib Kezaala (NRM) and local businessman Wilson Waisswa Nabeta (Independent).

An evaluation by his constituents indicates that other than his legislative representation, Mr Kasigwa, who is known for his vocal criticism of the government, has little to show on the ground in terms of development projects.
In fact, they allege that after the campaigns leading up to the 2006 elections, he has done little and instead stayed away from the people.

Failed initiatives
But he begs to differ. “That’s an obvious lie. Of course I meet people in groups. You don’t expect me to go to individual homes trying to find out what is happening there. That’s not what an MP is supposed to do,” he told Daily Monitor in a recent interview.

Mr Kasigwa contends that an MP’s job is to lobby for the municipality’s development in its entirety together with other MPs.

A Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation called EXCEL, which he initiated in the town in 2002, has since collapsed, apparently after members failed to pay back money they had borrowed.

“The problem is that they thought it was a thank you for supporting me during the elections,” explained Mr Kasigwa.

And that is not all that is ailing the incumbent’s chances. The opposition die-hard who was among the local pioneers of the opposition here has lately been thought to have fallen out with his party, FDC. It has actually been rumoured that he was abandoning the party and switching to the ruling NRM party in which he was said to be soliciting a ministerial job from President Museveni.

Courting NRM
However as far as he is concerned this is a campaign to wither his popularity, “and what is wrong with being an NRM,” he said, before adding, “I don’t play cheap politics. I am a founder member of FDC. It’s just these DP thugs trying to cause confusion.”

During an interview with a local radio some time back, asked to comment on rumours that he was crossing over to the ruling NRM party, Kasigwa said he would divulge that information when the time came.

Though he remains tight-lipped on details of reasons that led to his fall out with Dr Kizza Besigye, the FDC president, Mr Kasigwa says, “I don’t support Besigye and will never support him again.” Asked why the sudden change of heart, he says, “I have been with him for the last so many years and have had an opportunity to study him and I have found out that he is not up to the challenge.”

The MP, who proposes that Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu is a better candidate for the battle ahead of the party delegates meeting, assesses him (Muntu) as a “better option for FDC for his approach to issues.

Lost it all
As if to suggest the opposite is true for his contender in the on-going race for the party presidency, he says, “Muntu is not an angry man. And the maturity he exudes is unrivalled.”

“Why should there be tension every time there is an election? Why would someone want to take it to be a precipice and fights?” he asks.

Analysts say Mr Kasigwa, who is also understood to be feuding with fellow local opposition colleagues including FDC’s William Ebusa who chairs Mpumudde-Kimaka Division, DP’s Baswale Kezaala and Jinja mayor, he might be headed for a rugged frontier.

“Kasigwa seems to have lost both in the constituency and within his party. We are all aware that during his second term in Parliament he has not even been attending party functions particularly those presided over by Besigye,” an observer told this newspaper on condition of anonymity.

“He is on his own now. All his FDC allies have abandoned him because of his differences with Besigye. And it will be interesting to see how he redeems himself,” he adds.

However all is not lost for the legislator who will go down in history as the opposition MP in Busoga with an impassioned drive to fight corruption by his fellow opposition local government leaders.

Not only did he petition the IGG and cause an investigation into perceived corruption by mayor Kezaala, but he has also brought to the fore the illegal sale of public land to private developers by the former Jinja Town Clerk David Bashakara.

Anti-graft crusader
“We convinced the electorate in Jinja to vote for the opposition but when we got there, we from the opposition have proved to be the worst thugs,” Kasigwa says of his fight.

But these are some of the achievements that give Kasigwa, who believes he still has solid support, confidence that he will win despite the tough political terrain ahead.

“The people of Jinja are out there watching. They know people who just came to steal and when judgment day comes they know who has been doing what,” he said, adding, “I don’t care whether it is my fellow opposition counterpart, but I will not compromise on issues of corruption for the sake of the party or opposition for that matter.”

It is testament to the febrile nature of today’s politics that these apparent advantages are now being used as sticks with which to beat him.

Challenger’s promise
He even realises the dynamics have changed. And in this regard Mr Kasigwa says, “I appeal to the people of Jinja West to be calm, not to rush to make decisions. Very soon I will be able to tell them the way forward. If they buy it well and good, if they don’t, well, I’ll go out honourably.”

But Mr Muyanga believes he will beat him. “I will beat Kasigwa and if I don’t get through the (FDC) primaries, I will contest as an Independent.”

On the doorstep, Zaake who has now outgrown the youth parliamentary seat is also positive he will be able to sweep the swarmed NRM seat during the primaries to be able to tussle it out with others.

The legislator who found himself walking in and out of jail several times this past year after he was dragged to court after 35 youth he guaranteed a loan of about Shs70 million from a Jinja-based Chinese businessman to get motorbikes for a boda-boda initiative defaulted, is banking his hope on the same youth.

He says they know what he has done for them in an attempt to reduce unemployment. The 33-year-old MP who outgunned seven others in the 2006 Eastern youth elections says he still has the appeal among the youth.

And in that regard, Zaake who refers to himself as an NRM ‘emerging leader’ who has grown through the ranks believes he will have a substantial edge on the basis of his track record.

But in what is emerging as another interesting contest to watch, Zaake has to square it with among others 35-year-old Moses Balyeku in the NRM primaries.

Aspirant questioned
The aspirant who first sprang to the spotlight following the Entebbe airport sale saga mid-last year, just returned from Dubai where he claims to have been working as a government trade representative.

But perhaps the biggest engagement for Balyeku yet, will be fighting an air of suspicion that hangs around Jinja town particularly about his dealings.
“Murmurs doing the rounds in town is that he is a conman. And people think that is how he has been able to accumulate all this money that he is flashing around,” a source well versed with his goings-on told this newspaper.

Within a few months of his return from his four-year stint in Dubai, Balyeku has started modernising Mpumudde market in the constituency, sponsored several needy students at school while works are underway at Bugembe Kingdom head quarters where he is jointly constructing a radio station-Basoga Baino (87.7 Fm) with the kingdom.

But Mr Balyeku is not bothered by these rumours. He says he is braced for the negative propaganda that will be hurled his way.

More witch-hunt
“When you get into politics you have to get prepared to be undressed from head to toe. The laws in Uganda are very clear if I am a conman I would be in jail,” Mr Balyeku said.

“I have never been convicted; I have never been to Luzira for any crimes in Uganda. These are just makings of my opponents,” says the parliamentary hopeful who believes he is yet to endure more witch-hunt.