New Day…New Way For Uganda: Mpuuga Unveils The Democratic Alliance

In a historic and bold move, former Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Mathias Mpuuga unveiled The Democratic Alliance (DA) pressure group at Malibu Gardens in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city on December 6, 2024.

The Nyendo-Mukungwe MP Mpuuga’s DA launch, which was made amid hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic supporters, comes after four years of enduring a choreographed political witch-hunt by the National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine.

With 14 years of experience in the August House, the Parliament Commissioner used his 45-minute launch speech to detail his plan for the 62-year-old nation, which has been led by nine presidents, with the current president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ruling for nearly 40 years.

In his speech, Mpuuga emphasized the need for unity and a new way of doing things, promising to provide refuge to all Ugandans across different political parties who are tired of politics of division and hatred.

Read the full speech text below.

Hulloooo, DA…New Day…DA…New Way…kindly resume your seats.

To you fellow countrymen and women gathered this afternoon today, a very special day in our political culture, in our political history, redefining our journey to an enduring democracy. It is my singular pleasure, and honour to welcome and appreciate you for turning up in huge numbers. Thank you very much.

Applause.

Invariably, in life, you reach time for everything. However, this is a crucial issue before I deliver my main speech. This Kabaka’s man Patrick Mulwana best known as Alien Skin is among the Kabaka’s youth who love their country at heart. Applause…

He sent me a team and through them, he indicated his will to work with me. He committed himself to traversing this country from border to border to cause a mindset change among youth in Uganda, which I accepted. I assured him we shall work together to bring our young people back on track. We agreed that we shall also make a MoU that would guide us to move from Sironko to Zombo, and we hugely welcome Patrick Mulwana…

Just as I was observing at the beginning of my statement, there is time for everything, and in politics, timing is very important.

I have been thinking through this moment over the last couple of months. I have been consulting over this moment with the young, the old, the women, the youth, the religious leaders, and the cultural leaders, I have been consulting.

Which is why, for months back, the Country has been watching me, asking, ‘what is Mpuuga’s next step?’ I am here to tell you and the world what is next. I want you to listen. Probably in our lifetime, we shall not have the occasion to rise to the aspirations, challenges, inhibitions that we have encountered in trying to engender the kind of democracy that we have desired over time.

No doubt, you all know that most of my life, and the lives of most of you, have been a life of struggle in trying to bring the best out of ourselves, and the best out of Uganda so that the big quest that Uganda will become, and the heritage of Buganda and the rest of Uganda will become, would be the one that we can bequest to generations.

However, despite our long-term struggle, which has left some of our comrades, disappeared, others imprisoned and or left injured, there is no sight that clarity at the end of the tunnel is visible.

Today I am happy that I am speaking to you comrades from across political parties; ANT, FDC, Katonga Group, the DP block, and the NUP. This is the Uganda that was formed in 1962 which was supposed to be one united progressive country that would serve all and sundry. One nation united in service of the people.

That for 62 years, we have not achieved, and sadly, one single person has been at the helm of the State for 40 years! I am 49 years old, and somebody has ruled for 40 years, he came to power when I was barely 9 years old in primary four (4). It is a shame!

I am here to invite you to join me, to join my leader team, to join DP block, to join the Holly Alliance…into one single struggling Ugandans to liberate our Uganda into a better country, and I can tell you, we have missed a lot of opportunities, we have lost time backbiting each other, backstabbing each other instead serving the enemy of our people.

Some of our actions have only entrenched the enemy of our peoples. Probably, Mr. Museveni would have left power a long time ago, but for our actions, he feels stronger and stronger to stay on hold, and the biggest danger for the generations and us ahead is that Museveni dreams of his son succeeding him…

I invite you to join every one of us, to join the struggling Ugandans in that common call that we are not going to make that mistake again and I want to invite you. We have our friends we have left at Kavule (NUP headquarters), they have their issues, (and) we have Uganda to save. We shall tell them to save themselves, and we shall pay them salutes.

They have enough problems, and I do not want to make them a subject of this, our struggle. They also need liberation because they have nowhere to go. They have arms, legs, eyes, and ears. They have no reason to use them to their potent.

I am here to apologize to my brothers I will never give myself that blame to think. God gave brains to me, and I have to use them to serve the common good, therefore, they should never be the subject of our struggle because they also need to be liberated.

My brothers and sisters, it is time to think anew. It is time to move afresh. Time to dream again, time to sacrifice again, time to work together, and while we do this, we do not need to be most closet friends.

Therefore, we shall work with all people even if they are not our friends so as long as we are walking the same journey. We shall knock on the doors of our enemies for the sake of this country. We shall speak to the people we all say can never be spoken to for the sake of our children.

We shall look for the angriest and happiest people, and we shall look for the most hungry and satisfied people to tell them the single-most job we have to save our country from going to abys.

This is a job you and I, are here to promise. This country is a sick country. People are sick, people are tired, people are injured, and people are harmed. People need to be healed, but the healing must come from unity of purpose to deliver one single mission-saving this country from going under the abys.

A few months back, I proposed to my point into parliament that we are going engender a new framework that will give us a new outlook in the coming elections.

Most of you are eager to participate in these coming elections. Then you ask; what difference will happen if we woke up today to participate in an election that makes no difference? To seem to partake in a ritual, but not to change the history of this country.

I have proposed reforms in our electoral systems. I have proposed reforms, and amendment to the constitution. Some people are saying; why is he the one bringing them? I want to ask them why don’t they bring them?

They also ask why is he bringing such reforms, and not the others. I want to tell them, to bring theirs.

Because I want us to dream together, I have brought my proposals, and I am inviting everybody to join me in making sure that these proposals for a better, and well-managed electoral system become an issue before we ping-pong each other for an election.

I am here to invite you to fight for a free and fair election. The first task of the Democratic Alliance will be to go throughout the country to make reforms the major issue in this country for the next twelve months. Those who want to offer themselves for president as a ritual, May God bless you.

We must make it better for everyone to compete and win. That is the job. Members of the DP block, my leader team, and the rest of us, that is the job. We should not see the signature of each other in a small mirror.

We are going to put a big mirror in front of this country so that everyone can see his or her face. Our country is wealthy, and it is not for one person where to levy tariffs. We want to redefine the politics of our country. I can see many young people here who have dreams and aspirations. This alliance is your hope. To the young people with leadership dreams, but without offertory in the form of goats, cows, cocks, banana bunches, burning drugs, etc… to take to our political gods, this is your platform.

We must give a fair platform to all the young people who have the strength, capacities, and courage to be part of the struggle for a new Uganda. This alliance is a new epoch we want to usher in. Let me speak about something that has been in the public media, and is seemingly controversial.

My senior brothers the Hon. Michael Mabike, Samuel Lubega Mukaaku, and my young brother Henry Lubowa who was the Master of Ceremonies hitherto. They have been spoken of as inconsistent. They have been spoken of as unreliable. Who of you is consistent? Who of you is reliable? Who of you knows their next day?

These people for me, epitomize our common struggle. They have been struggling, and struggling trying so hard. If they are such a bad lot that is why you are here because they have been struggling, they work so hard. They are not saints. Neither am I one.

I wake up every day, and I make 100 decisions but 20 of them are wrong decisions. I wake up every day to be better. They have been struggling. They need our common support to carry on the struggle. If you are asking why is this group working so hard in mobilizing people, did they lock your people inside the house? Come and we work. Please come and we work we have a very big problem in the house. We have a very big problem in this country that requires our common effort, our common capacity, our different energies and skills. They have done their part.

While they have challenges like all of us, we shall speak to these challenges like mature people. Uganda’s issues are bigger than even me, I am only a humble servant of the people, and I am not the owner of this matter. It is our people’s issue. That is why we rise every day, to make a difference.

This platform, the Democratic Alliance, in the coming months will transform into an electoral platform. It is beginning as a civic platform, in a few months, we are consulting to be turned into an electoral platform. We shall sponsor candidates including the president, members of parliament, mayors, and councilors, anywhere.

We do not need anybody’s approval to do that. We only need the support of Ugandans who need to see a different Uganda. To you young people, we are going to return the favor, we are going to give you time to mentor you into leaders, and we shall deploy you for work like we were trained and deployed.

We owe you that duty, and I am going to give you time as I promised, and I have started. Applause…

How do we find ourselves in this kind of situation? One of us, a major pillar of our struggle Dr. Besigye is in prison, and somehow, life is moving on normally as if nothing happened because the leading opposition party in Uganda is in deep slumber

For the very first time, there is nothing going on. The last time I checked, the leader of that group was organizing a big concert. That is the plan. The plan is lack of plan.

I want to believe that it is deliberate. Whoever they see doing something, they quickly accuse that person of being paid. But that is his job. No musician touches the microphone without being paid apart from this one (Alien Skin) who is in the struggle.

They must know that there are struggles where you do not have to pay for certain things. Then I will ask you, who pays for what you do?

Comrades, we do not have a lot of time. The reason that General Museveni and his cabal have ruled us for 40 years is because our actions have fallen short of being deliberate on power. What should we tell our children? That we were here, looked on because we feared to be abused.

I want to tell you some of those people who belittle us are hired, but we need to tell you that you are wasting your time, we have time for this struggle. We have time to work for this unity. We are a fractured opposition, we must admit that we are fractured but we must work so hard, that we must climb down our high horses and calm down and speak to each other with humility and sincerity. It is what we need to do, and we must do it urgently to save this nation from going abys.

That is the job. The DA must rise to the promise of our independence; we must give hope to the workers, and to the people struggling to sustain this country. We must give hope to the teachers who are struggling to keep our children in school and teach them without discrimination.

Who does that (discrimination between Science and humanities teachers in payment), and he is a leader? We must give hope and promise to the doctors sustaining our ailing healthcare. We must give promise and hope to the farmers who are struggling and they are being alienated from the promise of our independence.

We must give hope and promise to the young people that we can plan better 75% of this country are young people below 35 years. They need leaders with a plan, with hope. That is why we sat down with my friends from the DP block to dream again.

Today, we are here to announce the birth of the DA, the Democratic Alliance. Applause…

We have given ourselves the task of moving all the way. We are going to speak to everyone. We are going to knock on every door. We are even going to open closed windows. We are going to speak to all in the tunnels, in the jungles to listen to the promise of this nation. A promise of a new dream.

If Uganda were a man, looking for a wife would you give it to your daughter to marry?  We must rekindle the promise of a progressive nation in our words and actions with humility. You saw our senior citizens who have given me the document that contains the litany of their hopes, wishes, but also frustrations.

Our task is to see that our parents must go down their graves when they have seen the fruits of their sacrifices coming to reality. Friends, the task is huge but it is not insurmountable, we can do it.

The capacity within and without this place is enough for us to go home to the villages, to the churches, to the mosques, to the councils, to the villages we come from to tell our people to dream again. It is our duty to do that.

I know at heart the struggles of our people in this country. I have moved every inch of this country. I have seen our people are suffering. I have seen the neglect. I have witnessed firsthand what leadership or lack of it has done to this country.

I have been to schools, I have been to hospitals, I have seen roads impassable, I have seen hospitals sick than the patients therein. I have seen children in schools on logs and stones, and I have seen teachers moving barefoot. That is the kind of promise we must rekindle.

The nature of dreams we must return to the table as leaders. Inevitably, we might stumble in this journey, but when we stumble, support us to rise again. We have a job to do in a short time. Changing this country is a job we must do in our time. For you, and me that is the job.

Finally, comrades, when you go out there, speak against pettiness. Speak against indecency. Speak about self-interests. Speak against the kind of spirit that has killed our struggle for the last four years. For the last four years, one group of actors has had occasion to speak about one person, the name of Mathias Mpuuga.

Mpuuga has been their business for four years. Unfortunately, we have lost time and space. I want to announce that I am around and I am going nowhere.

Today, I am even more energized to make the sole promise that I am ready to do the task you ask me to do. I want to invite all of us, without prejudice from wherever you come from to an idea that the opposition must sit under one big tent or under one big tree, not a small umbrella, and speak about what we have failed to do, what has been wrong with humility, and courage to match forward.

Certainly, we shall not be friends all the time, but we have only one country we call home all we must protect and fight for.

Stop the petty fights. Stop the petty quarrels, and ridiculing of others on social media. Use social media positively to promote our agenda. I want to send you our friends promoting our agenda and using social media to promote our agenda. Leave others to promote their pettiness as you promote unity.

Our friends in Kenya whom we admire, have been evolving. We must learn to evolve, to change, to move, work together even when we are not best friends. There is one only country called Uganda, and I have just one passport.

I thank my friend Mulwana for turning up and accepting to join us. I thank you for using your God-given talent to lead the youths, and henceforth, we are adding to the list of values of the youth you lead which is unity, and discipline. We are going to work with you and support you to make sure that our young people who look at the art industry as a career are guided and helped.

I thank comrade Mabike, Mukaaku, Kyamundu, friends from ANT, and the Peasants party, we shall speak to the peasants and this journey we have started today will speak to the ills and afflictions of the common people, and they must get out of peasantry. We are not going to be proud of harboring a country of peasants yet the country has wealth and resources.

We must demand that this country goes back to the path of democracy. Do not get excited about the upcoming election, we must be excited about demanding Museveni harder to organize a free and fair election.

We are not out for revenge and retribution. We shall lead the path to justice. I will lead the law, the way, and the path of justice.

Friends from Kyadondo, Acholi, Busoga, Lira, Lango, Singo, Mawokota, Buddu, etc, and all of you Ugandans here, and those following on social media and televisions, this is our day to dream and think again. I offer my promise to offer leadership in this struggle. Offer my promise that I will work with everyone, every man and woman of goodwill who wants to see a better and changed Uganda.

Today, I would officially like to launch the Democratic Alliance, DA…New Day…New Way…

Everybody deserves a new day; you all deserve a new way. We have tried all the old ways they never worked. We have an opportunity now to have a new day and a new way of doing things.

I thank you so much, for God and My Country.