Mpuuga camp criticise NUP registration plan

A section of National Unity Platform (NUP) members in Masaka have criticised the party leadership for issuing membership cards during mobilisation tours, saying the move will not achieve the desired goal.

The group, which is allied to Parliament Commissioner and Nyendo/Mukungwe County MP Mathias Mpuuga, said not everyone who attends rallies is a genuine NUP member deserving of a party card.

“This arrangement which is not well thought through will give the party disloyal members who will easily be bought,” Mr Joseph Kasirye, the NUP Masaka City registrar , who was speaking on behalf of the group, said during an interview at the weekend.     

Mr Kasirye said the mobilisation tours, which the police have since suspended over the NUP leadership’s reported failure to adhere to agreed-upon guidelines, are unproductive.

“You can’t just go vending party membership cards at rallies like popcorns or groundnuts because they may end up in the hands of the wrong people who will come out tomorrow and start claiming that they have defected to other parties. This should be stopped forthwith. We use party branches to recruit new members who can be traced and verified,” Mr Kasirye said.

On April 29, NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, launched a campaign to register party members. The exercise is part of NUP’s wider arrangements to organise party structures from the grassroots to the top leadership.

Mr Kasirye said the mobilisation tours do not reflect the party’s strength in the areas where they have so far been held. He claimed many of the attendees at these tours are from Kampala, which he argued does not contribute to increasing the party’s support in rural areas.

 “We keenly followed what was going on at the Masaka Recreation Grounds on May 31 where the latest party mobilisation tour took place and realised that many of the people who were in attendance travelled from Kampala. This practice of ferrying people to venues is common in NRM (National Resistance Movement) and as Opposition, we shouldn’t copy it,” he said.

Mr Mpuuga, who is the former Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, had earlier described the Masaka mobilisation tour as “a fanfare”, saying he would not attend the event.

Ms Alice Nanungi, the representative for Nyendo Ward in the Masaka City Council, urged those who believe the ongoing update of the party’s register and the mobilisation tours should be conducted differently to participate in the preparation meetings and share their views, rather than criticising from the sidelines.

“Those colleagues chose to rebel against the party and whatever they are saying about NUP shows that they are not holding the true aspirations of our party,” she said.

Mr Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro, the NUP deputy party spokesperson, said party members subscribing to the Mpuuga camp have no right to question any NUP programme.

“A leader like him (Mr Mpuuga) knows how the party operates and that is how we are operating. I don’t think there is any problem with that,” he added.

MPUUGA-NUP SAGA

Nyendo/Mukungwe County MP Mathias Mpuuga fell out with NUP’s top leadership over a controversial Shs500m “service award” he received as Parliament commissioner.

In March, NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, suspended Mr Mpuuga as NUP vice president for Buganda Region over the “service award”.