Sembabule Election Disputes Trigger Feud Between Security, Unsuccessful NUP Candidates

Kagaayi accuses Namugga of running a campaign based on false propaganda and inciting violence against political opponents, arguing that after such plans were foiled, she resorted to blackmail to gain political mileage.

The inconsistencies that characterized the just-concluded elections have sparked confrontations and counter-accusations between unsuccessful candidates of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and security organs in Sembabule District. From the presidential and parliamentary elections held on January 15 to the Local Council Three elections conducted this week, NUP suffered a sweeping defeat in Sembabule District at the hands of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).

The party’s presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, saw his vote share in the district drop sharply from 42 percent in the 2021 elections to 17.3 percent in this year’s polls. NUP also failed to retain any of the local government leadership positions it had secured in the previous elections. Specifically, the party lost the Mawogola County parliamentary seat, four district councillor positions, two sub-county chairperson posts, and 17 Local Council Three councillor seats that it had won in 2021.

In the aftermath of the elections, unsuccessful NUP candidates have engaged in heated exchanges with local security organs, accusing them of high-handedness and involvement in manipulating election results in favour of the NRM. Gorretti Namugga, the outgoing Member of Parliament for Mawogola County, has accused the Sembabule Resident District Commissioner, Jane Francis Kagaayi, and her deputy, Faisol Sseruwagi, of masterminding schemes to alter election results in areas she claims NUP had genuinely won.

Namugga alleges that NUP campaign mobilisation teams and polling agents were deliberately targeted with violence and forced disappearances on the eve of each election, to suppress their participation. She further accuses Kagaayi of targeting NUP sub-county candidates and coercing some of them to surrender and withdraw from the race in favour of NRM candidates. Beyond filing election petitions in courts of law, Namugga has also threatened to mobilise supporters to protest against the Resident District Commissioner, whom she accuses of disenfranchising voters by denying them their democratic right to choose their leaders freely.

Other NUP contestants, including George William Kangave and Jamada Kyeyune, who contested for Sembabule Town Council chairperson and Mitete Sub-county chairperson,n respectively, have also condemned what they describe as intimidation by the RDC, whom they accuse of turning the area into a battlefield.

Kyeyune says several of his polling agents remain missing after allegedly being kidnapped on Wednesday, the election day, while others are receiving treatment for injuries reportedly inflicted by security operatives. The candidates have called on the Electoral Commission to conduct a public hearing in the district to allow victims of the alleged election irregularities to publicly narrate their experiences.

However, the Sembabule Resident District Commissioner, Jane Francis Kagaayi, has dismissed the allegations, accusing NUP leaders in the district of mudslinging as a cover-up for their political failures.

Kagaayi accuses Namugga of running a campaign based on false propaganda and inciting violence against political opponents, arguing that after such plans were foiled, she resorted to blackmail to gain political mileage.

She further claims that some of the opposition supporters arrested during the elections were groups of strangers allegedly hired to incite violence, adding that police are processing their case files pending prosecution.