Nambooze’s Web Of Intrigue Backfires, Unreliable Bobi Appoints Muwanga NUP Buganda Boss

National Unity Platform (NUP) President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine, has appointed Butambala MP Muwanga Kivumbi as the party’s deputy president for the Buganda region.

This move has left many NUP members, especially Mukono Municipality MP Betty Nambooze, feeling demoralized and used.

Sources close to the NUP headquarters revealed that Muwanga’s appointment is a reward for his role in a largely unsuccessful “political massacre” of Mathias Mpuuga, the former NUP deputy president for the Buganda region.

Muwanga had been instrumental in spreading lies about Mpuuga before Bobi, who had looked after him when he was still a pauper.

The drama began in 2022 when Muwanga started a vigorous campaign to be appointed the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP).

He even went as far as telling lies about his old buddy Mpuuga, who had led a campaign that took him to Parliament during a by-election in 2012.

As if fabricated lies against Mpuuga were not enough, Muwanga bargained favours from the NUP principal to the extent of picking up and taking Bobi’s children to both school and out.

Little did the senior Buganda MP who is part of the few firebrand politicians Buganda boasted on before Bobi hit the political fray, that the principal was using him as a weapon to shoot himself in the foot to clear the way for his blue-eyed boy Joel Ssenyonyi.

Not Happy

Those who attended the stormy meetings through which Bobi decreed Mpuuga’s successor say that both John Baptist Nambeshe and Muwanga turned rowdy with Muwanga vividly telling them off that he was not ready to be “led by a novice,” yet Mpuuga whom Muwanga had always targeted kept calm all through.

“I am a senior legislator with fair knowledge of articulating issues learned over a while. How dare you give me a junior [Joel] as my leader?”

According to a source, Muwanga who had been primarily named Joel’s successor as the chairperson of Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities, and State Enterprises (COSASE), rejected it outrightly, affirming, “I better remain an MP without any position. For your information, I am already a chairperson of the Buganda Parliamentary Caucus.”

On uttering such tough statements, Muwanga walked out of the meeting room in protest, but the meeting resolved to name him the chairperson of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in his absence.

His Manjiiya counterpart who retained his position as the Chief Opposition Whip, but had also joined the race to become the LoP, was not happy too.

“I am the deputy president Eastern region which also overwhelmingly voted for the NUP President, and we want to retain our support in the region. Why do you not want to make me a LoP? Why are you making the party which is supposed to be a national party, a Buganda party?” Nambeshe reportedly said.

In total contrast, Mpuuga who was their target maintained his coolness, responding with “Yes sir, or Yes Mr. President” to whatever decree Bobi read out during the transition meetings.

This calm behavior eventually neutralized schemers against him, and he was named a Parliamentary Commissioner without any requisite soliciting, contrary to their preferred choice, Mityana Municipality’s Francis Zaake.

Deputy President Buganda Campaign

The jostling for the vacant deputy president position for the Buganda region had begun after Bobi suspended Mpuuga 10 months ago.

Bobi used this position as a carrot and stick, promising it to various NUP MPs and members, including Patrick Nsamba (Kasanda North), Betty Nambooze (Mukono Municipality), Joseph Ssewungu (Kalungu West), Francis Katabaazi (Kalungu East), Goreth Namugga (Mawogola South), Francis Zaake (Mityana Municipality), and Florence Namayanja, the Masaka City Mayor.

The common denominator was the condition that in addition to retaining their party tickets in the forthcoming 2026 elections, they had to use their mouths as loud as possible in vilifying Mpuuga, whom Bobi perceives as his main political threat.

When they got wind of Muwanga’s appointment, many members who were expectant to be named Mpuuga’s successor, especially Nambooze, were left demoralized. After exposing her short-termism style of work to the extent of sacrificing her long-time political ally, Nambooze is reported to be overly disappointed in Bobi.

According to a source at Kavule, Bobi’s appointment of Muwanga is a move to further break the Mpuuga cycle and team by dividing their team.

Muwanga’s appointment comes at a time when he is facing challenges in retaining his parliamentary seat in Butambala.

Appearing on CBS FM’s Kkiriza oba Gaana show on December 18, 2024, Muwanga declared that he was talking with authority on matters of NUP on any party position in his position as a leader of the party.