Bad day for Byabakama as Kadaga Joins Kabaka in disputing EC’s Readiness to Deliver Credible Elections

Stung by the controversial circumstances under which Budiope East MP Moses Magogo’s leading opponent Daniel Mulirire (an NRM-leaning independent) was denominated and disqualified from the race, leading Busoga kingmaker Rebecca Kadaga has sharply criticized the Electoral Commission.

Speaking to media reporters at her Kamuli home at Mbulamuti on Thursday moments after returning from St. Paul’s Church for Christmas prayers, Kadaga furiously described the EC’s latest act “as a worrying trend of blocking candidates especially in areas where the ruling party is perceived to be weak.”

Kadaga, who had just addressed the ‘fake news’ around her state of health, elaborated thus: “Disqualifying candidates is a new development. We did not have this in the NRM before. This is a strategy now used by people who fear competition. Where they are weak, they don’t allow others to stand.”

She castigated the EC top leaders for accepting to be weaponized by stronger leaders who are bent on unfairly locking out their opponents. She accused the EC of denying the targeted candidates a chance to be exhaustively heard before the denomination decision is made. “I’m very dissatisfied with the way the EC is behaving. Everyday, candidates are disqualified without being invited for hearings. That is not justice.”

Kadaga was specifically referring to the circumstances under which Mulirire, a former policeman, was disqualified from the Budiope East race. The EC acted on a petition that claimed he didn’t properly resign from his Police job in a manner that is prescribed under the relevant laws of Uganda. Mulirire was advised to challenge the decision in court in case he feels dissatisfied.

Self-interest can’t be ruled out of Kadaga’s comments bashing the EC decision in Budiope. Moses Magogo, who stands to benefit from Mulirire’s ouster, is the husband of Speaker Anita Among, who is a leading Kadaga opponent inside the ruling NRM where she despises her as a new entrant who has merely been favoured by the President to have accelerated promotions inside both the party and government.

Kadaga’s rebuke of the EC came within hours after the Kabaka of Buganda equally portraying the Commission as not measuring up to the task at hand when, in his Christmas message proclaimed on 23rd December, he demanded that the EC begins doing more than merely condemning overzealous members of the security forces who use brutal force to prevent Ugandans and supporters from congregating in large numbers to listen to NUP Presidential Candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu wherever he goes. The Buganda King demanded that the EC top leadership takes charge of the electoral process and does more than mere statements of condemnation.

Weeks before all that, Rtd Anglican Bishop Macleod Baker Ochola of Kitgum Diocese led a group of senior citizens and opinion leaders in Acholi sub region in issuing a public statement demanding that the EC demonstrates that they are still in charge of the 2026 elections exercise. They specifically were protesting the public flogging of Kyagulanyi and his supporters on the streets of Gulu as he arrived for his designated rally.

The Ochola group equally wrote to the President Gen YK Museveni, demanding for action against area NRM leaders and security forces members who individually participated in the 10th December torturous act that saw entire Gulu City engulfed in teargas.

Gratefully, some actors have since been arraigned before Court to face criminal charges. Justice Minister Norbert Mao, who hails from Acholi too and has supervisory authority over the EC, equally spoke out corroborating on the concerns the Ochola group had raised in their missive.