{UAH} MUSEVENI'S SCRAMBLE FOR BUGANDA MAKES INCURSIONS IN BUKOMANSIMBI

MUSEVENI'S SCRAMBLE FOR BUGANDA MAKES INCURSIONS IN BUKOMANSIMBI

 

By CHANGE OF GUARDS

Bukomansimbi District is located in Museveni's most craved for Cattle Corridor.  It is bordered by Gomba to the North, Kalungu to the east, Masaka to the southeast, Lwengo to the southwest and Ssembabule to the northwest.  With a population of around 160,000, the district has a diversity of ethnicity - Baganda (77%), Banyankole and Banyarwanda (8%) and a few others. Formerly part of Masaka District, it became a separate district in 2010 but remains part of Buganda Kingdom's Buddu County. Slightly over 80% of the population depend on subsistence farming, mostly growing coffee alongside livestock farming.  

Bukomansimbi is traditionally a Democratic Party (DP) stronghold and home to its founding father, the late Bendictor Kiwanuka. During the National Resistance Council (NRC) Parliament (1989 - 1995) it was represented by the DP leaning Hajji Sulaiman Ssembajja. In the Constitution Assembly (CA) it was represented by Maurice Kagimu Kiwanuka who is a son of the late Bendictor Kiwanuka. Since then, Bukomansimbi has remained a DP stronghold.  However, the battle to represent Bukomansimbi County in Parliament persisted between Maurice Kagimu Kiwanuka and Hajji Lubyai Kisiki. Until around 2010 when it was granted a district status, election petitions, court nullification of results and by-elections characterised every election cycle in Bukomansimbi. Most of the controversies revolved around Hajji Lubyai Kisiki's academic qualifications but with Museveni's support he would repeatedly go over them.  

In 2010, Museveni granted Bukomansimbi a district status in the hope that he would win it over.  The 2011 elections, Museveni's NRM badly lost to DP's Deo Kiyingi as the County M.P and Susan Namaganda as the District Woman representative while JEEMA's Muhammad Katerega became the LC 5 Chairmanship. Around late 2015, the desperate and frustrated Museveni split the county between North and South. During his campaign rally at Butengo C.O.U in February 2016 he ranted; 

     "I only thank you people for helping your person (M.P Deo Kiyingi) to get out of poverty. I have never seen him coming to NRM Caucus where important decisions are taken............if you hang yourself again by voting opportunists, it's you to suffer."

He was campaigning for Kagimu Kiwanuka who was contesting for Bukomansimbi South against DP's Deo Kiyingi.  The former had, in 2006, left DP and joined Museveni's NRM where he was rewarded with a ministerial position and later sent into diplomatic service.  

The February 2016 polls saw the Banyankole/Banyarwanda dominated Bukomansimbi North Being won by Museveni's Ruth Katushabe. She is a beneficiary of Museveni's selective State House education scholarship right from Lake Mburo Secondary School to University and in India for her Masters Degree. After school he had posted her to the Uganda Media Center as Financial Manager. But DP's Deo Kiyingi defeated Museveni's Kagimu Kiwanuka in the South while DP's Veronica Nanyondo won the District Woman M.P. Museveni went ahead to recruit D.P's Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi (wife of Hon. Deo Kiyingi) into his NRM by offering her a Ministerial position. While attending the December 2016 traditional marriage ceremony for Hon. Ruth Katushabe at Katooke village in Bukomansimbi, Museveni thanked the constituents for voting her and assured them that she would articulate all issues that affect them. He went ahead to praise Ruth Katushabe;

    "I thank her for studying well from Primary to University. She is a good orator. She worked at Uganda Media Centre until when she told me she wanted to redeem Bukomansimbi through parliament."

During the August 2020 NRM primaries, Hajji Lubyai Kisiki defeated Museveni's incumbent Ruth Katushabe for the Bukomansimbi North Constituency flagship with 8,443 votes against 6,167. However, like had been the case in many parts of the country, Ruth Katushabe petitioned against this victory. Interestingly, while many other petitions have either been left pending or just ignored, Katushabe's petition has been expeditiously handled by arbitrarily declaring that she was the rightful winner with an allocation of 9,055 votes against Lubyai's allocation of 8.972 votes. Obviously, Museveni could not risk losing Bukomansimbi back to DP/Baganda and must have ordered the reversal of results. It won't be surprising if Museveni will offer Hajji Lubyai Kisiki a fat job as a way of dissuading him from going independent. It is in the same regard that Minister Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi has won the flagship of the Woman Parliamentary seat for Bukomansimbi District. Obviously, her husband, Deo Kiyingi must have also converted to NRM from DP for the Bukomansimbi South Constituency. 

The developments in Bukomansimbi is a replica of what is happening in the entire Cattle Corridor in the Buganda region.  

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Rehema
Patriot in Kampala,East Africa:Assalamu Alaikum

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