Mbabaali bows out of Bukoto South parliamentary race

“I will not contest in the forthcoming general elections given the irregularities that marred the party primaries. My focus now is going to be on strengthening NRM and supporting development projects in the constituency,” he said in an interview on Monday.

Prior to the party primaries, supporters of both Mr Mbabaali and Mr Kiyimba’s camps engaged in physical fights and some ended up in hospital. 

Mr Mbabaali’s camp had the highest number of casualities during the clashes.
When asked to comment about Mr Mbabaali’s decision to leave the race, Mr Kiyimba said his opponent made the right decision.

“I personally wanted him in the race so that we have a more meaningful contest, but it is unfortunate that he has chickened out,” Mr Kiyimba said during an interview on Monday.

He added: “People have been defecting from his camp to join me and that scared him.” 
Mr Kiyimba said Mr Mbabaali made attempts to have his victory cancelled, but the NRM electoral commission upheld his win.

“He alleged that the people who voted for me were Democratic Party supporters ferried from other districts. He also claimed that others were under age. However, he failed to produce any evidence to support his claims,” he said.

Mr Kiyimba said he genuinely won the party ticket with a bigger margin and expects Mr Mbabaali to rally behind NRM.

Before the recent NRM primaries, Mr Mbabaali was seen as the favourite candidate to win the race because he started several development projects in the constituency like Rural Women Microfinance Limited. 

During the 2016 General Election, he won with 67 per cent of the votes cast.
During his tenure, Mbabaali faced a number of controversies.

In October 2017, he narrowly survived being beaten by his own electorates after he asked them to support the removal of the presidential age limit which would allow President Museveni to contest in the 2021 General Elections. 

Mr Mbabaali had convened a consultative meeting on the scrapping of Article 102(b) of the Constitution at Kiwangala Parish in Kisekka Sub-county, but was forced to call off the meeting prematurely when the electorate turned rowdy and started throwing stones at him. 

Although the Constitutional amendment was made, some voters continued to curse Mr Mbabaali to date.

With Mbabaali out of the race, Mr Kiyimba will now battle for the seat with the National Unity Platform (NUP)’s Dr Twaha Kagabo and Mr Julius Ssentamu, who is standing as an Independent.

Mr Ssentamu applauded Mr Mbabaali saying he has exhibited a high level of political maturity.

“Mr Mbabaali’s decision should be emulated by all aging politicians in the country because politics is not a job, but a service where one should play his part for a specified period of time and pass on the mantle to another person,” Mr Ssentamu said.
Mr Ssentamu urged Mr Mbabaali to support him arguing that he is the right person to replace him. Dr Kagabo, on the other hand, said he wants to reclaim the constituency from NRM because it was previously represented in Parliament by Opposition leaning MPs.

“It is time to reclaim our seat as Opposition. The demise of Mr Mathias Nsubuga left a huge gap in Bukoto South and that is what I want to address,” he said

Who is Mr Mbabaali?

Mr Mbabaali, 65, is one of the first politicians to join President Museveni’s Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM) in 1980, which gave birth to National Resistance Movement (NRM). 

The NRM armed wing, National Resistance Army (NRA) later metamorphosed into the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces after capturing power. He is also the patron of the Children of NRA fallen combatants.

Before joining politics, Mr Mbabaali was a board member of National Medical Stores between 1998 and 2004 and member of the NRM national executive committee. He has also served as a board member and chairperson of various organisations. Between 2010 and 2015, he was the Lwengo NRM district chairperson.

One of the biggest challenges he faced in his political career was the issue of questionable academic papers.

Shortly after the 2011 General Election, court nullified his victory in the Bukoto South Parliamentary race on grounds that he lacked the minimum academic qualifications to be an MP, which nullification was later upheld by the Court of Appeal.  

During the same year, he was also nominated as the   State Minister for Investments, but was rejected by the Parliamentary vetting committee after accusations that his academic papers were forged. 

But Mr Mbabaali has always criticised those who say he lacks the required academic credentials to sit on the political high table. 

Mr Mbabaali insists that he attended Kikungwe Primary School in Masaka District where he sat his Primary Leaving Examinations in 1970 before joining Mengo Secondary School in Kampala where he attained the East African Certificate of Education (EACE) in 1974.

He later sat his Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) exams at Nsambya Sharing Hall Centre in Kampala, which he passed in 2013 and later enrolled for a Diploma in Information Technology at Uganda Pentecostal University. 

He says he also holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and management from Nkumba University.

In 2018, he got a Master class Certificate in Business Management and Leadership from the Commonwealth University of England. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Commonwealth University of England.

In 2014, the Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Directorate (CIID) in conjunction with the Director of Public Prosecutions cleared Mr Mbabaali of allegations that he forged his academic papers.

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, Mr Mbabaali garnered 14,410 votes and his closest rival, the late Mathias Nsubuga of DP got 6,296 votes. The late Gertrude Nakabira Lubega (Ind) scored 2,955 votes while Forum for Democratic Change’s Julius Ssentamu got 1,546 votes.

Bukoto South elections

Right from its formation in 1980, Bukoto South constituency was predominantly Opposition leaning and during that time former Finance minister Gerald Ssendawula represented the area in Parliament on a DP ticket. 

When the constituency was split into three to create Bukoto midwest, Bukoto Central, and Bukoto South, Mr Ssendawula chose to represent Bukoto South in the Constituent Assembly of 1995.

When Mr Ssendawula crossed to NRM, he continued to represent the constituency until 2001 when he retired from elective politics.

This gave way to another NRM cadre late Dr Herbert Lwanga to represent the constituency from 2001 to 2006 when the late Matia Nsubuga took over.

Mr Nsubuga too lost the seat in 2011 to Mr Mbabaali, but the latter was thrown out of Parliament the following year over questionable academic papers.

A year later, Mr Nsubuga reclaimed the seat in a hotly-contested by-election victory against former State Minister for ICT Alintuma Nsambu, but was also defeated by Mr Mbabaali in 2016.