NUP, Lukwago to fight over the Lord Mayor’s seat

Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago recently sent a clear warning to Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) councillors that they stand no chance in a fight against him. 

“The path they have taken is a dangerous one. If they want to fight me, they should know they can’t win that war,” Lukwago said. 

 Lukwago’s message was directed at National Unity Platform (NUP) councillors led by Zahrah Maala Luyirika, the Authority speaker. The councillors precipitated chaos after accusing the KCCA political leadership led by Lukwago of failing to table a report on waste management in Kampala. 

“Unfortunately, the theatrics that characterised the council thwarted the process. It’s very regrettable and it’s of great concern to us,” Lukwago, who now belongs to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) Katonga faction, said of accusations that a report on the Kiteezi landfill tragedy that claimed 35 lives was not produced on his watch.

“I have never seen the councillors in the council saying they have summoned the minister [of Kampala] to furnish them with a report from Cabinet after all [Minsa Kabanda] is the minister of Kampala. Why don’t you put the minister of Kampala under pressure, after all, she is the representative of the President and instead you divert your energy on John Mary Ssebuwufu, the Authority’s secretary for finance and administration?”

Although on the face of it, the altercation between NUP councillors—who dominate the council—and Lukwago, is purely based on the principle of trying to handle waste management in the capital, to many political observers, this fight is a precursor to the battle for lord mayorship come 2026.

Lukwago’s associates believe that NUP councillors want to use the waste management crisis to loosen a grip he has had on the lord mayorship since 2011 when the KCCA Act was introduced.

 Eyeing Lukwago’s crown

Already two NUP members—Fred Nyanzi, whose brother, Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, is the party’s principal, and Ali Kasirye Nganda, alias Mulyanyama, the current mayor of Makindye Division—have indicated their interest in the Kampala lord mayorship.

Nyanzi, who is NUP’s chief for mobilisation, controversially lost his bid to represent Kampala Central in the 11th Parliament to Muhammad Nsereko by a margin of 1,023 votes. A challenge of the victory in the High Court made no headway after Nyanzi, a former NRM cardre, failed to prove claims of bribery and ballot stuffing. 

 Although Nsereko has indicated that he won’t seek to represent Kampala Central in the 12th Parliament, Nyanzi has indicated—much to Mulyanyama’s astonishment—that his focus is on the lord mayorship.

“I don’t know who advised Nyanzi to stand for lord mayorship. Why did he end his bid to become the MP for Kampala Central yet Nsereko has said he isn't running again and Nsereko is now weaker?” Mulyanyama said, adding that the lord mayorship position is a bridge too far for Nyanzi, whose only elective position has been Local Council One chairperson in the Kampala slum of Kamwokya.

 Mulyanyama contended that the people of Kampala can’t replace competent people like Lukwago with Nyanzi.

“Lukwago isn’t bad. I think he is best suited to be an MP, not to be a Lord Mayor. But again, you can’t tell the people of Kampala to retire Lukwago yet you are bringing Nyanzi as the replacement,” Mulyanyama said.

When contacted, Nyanzi declined to comment on the matter. 

 A topsy-turvy fight

While NUP is yet to decide on who will challenge for lord mayorship, its councillors seem keen to draw first blood. Council speaker Luyirika particularly has a bad history with Lord Mayor Lukwago. From 2011 to 2016, the speaker, who—like the Lord Mayor—belonged to the Democratic Party (DP), represented Makindye as a councillor at City Hall. That council was dominated by NRM party members. Despite this, or in fact because of it, a few DP councillors such as Luyirika joined the NRM in tormenting Lukwago. The councillors teamed up with Jennifer Musisi, KCCA's first executive director, and Frank Tumwebaze, then Kampala minister, to rumble with Lukwago. 

 It was on August 15, 2012, that President Museveni appointed Tumwebaze as minister for the Presidency and Minister for Kampala. He would go on to work up a productive partnership with Musisi. Tumwebaze let Musisi run the show at City Hall. 

The two ensured Lukwago was dragged to Justice Catherine Bamugemereire’s Commission of Inquiry where they accused him of abuse of office and misconduct. The High Court later stayed the implementation of Justice Bamugemereire’s report after the Kampala Lord Mayor challenged it.

 Tumwebaze and Musisi succeeded in turning the lord mayorship into a lame duck before Lukwago returned for a second term in 2016. During that time, Lukwago began to earn the sympathy of councillors who previously tormented him. In 2014, Frank Kanduho—then the councillor representing Uganda Law Society (ULS)—reported Musisi to Tumwebaze on behalf of several councillors who felt that the Authority was going astray. Although he was among the councillors who voted to impeach Lukwago, which gave Musisi a free rein as the city supremo, Kanduho lamented to Tumwebaze that any councillor who criticised KCCA managers was isolated.

“Whoever raises a legitimate concern pointing at or questioning the governance and accountability fog and mist that there is in KCCA is always threatened with the censorship blackmail of ‘so you too want Lukwago back...so you too are working to fail the ED?” Kanduho wrote. “No one is allowed to question this or demand some explanation. We even have no forum to ask any accountability-related questions. Whoever attempts to speak in ways and means the chief steward considers anti-establishment, is blacklisted as part of the bad elements working to facilitate Lukwago’s return. Animal Farm [Novella by George Orwell] at play here.”

All this was ignored by President Museveni and Minister Tumwebaze.

 Musisi’s fall

In the 2016 elections, Museveni and his ruling NRM party were humiliated at the polls in Kampala. In a complete U-turn, Museveni blamed the loss on Musisi’s highhandedness in evicting vendors. 

Musisi never recovered from this incident. Adding insult to injury, Museveni replaced Musisi’s ally Tumwebaze with Beti Olive Kamya in his Cabinet. Kamya was reeling from defeat in the Rubaga North polls and wasn’t about to let Musisi run the show. 

Soon, in 2017, Kamya was calling Musisi “a populist and poor manager”. 

This was after the 2015 KCCA (Amendment) Bill was tabled before Parliament by then junior Kampala minister Benny Namugwanya Bugembe. 

On top of clipping the powers and influence of the Lord Mayor, and the executive director, the Bill also reasserted the minister as the most dominant person in the city, something that Musisi simply didn’t like. In a letter that was leaked to the media, Musisi wondered how Kamya could table such a Bill before Parliament without hearing from the executive director’s team. 

 Although Museveni surprisingly renewed Musisi’s contract in 2017, it was clear that she was living on borrowed time. She was hated by the Opposition led by Lukwago, who looked at her as Museveni’s enabler; yet the President, her godfather, had also forsaken her. In one of Lukwago's moments of glory at the back-end of 2018, Musisi ended her seven-year tenure, unceremoniously tendering her resignation to President Museveni. Chief among the reasons why she decided to resign, Musisi alluded to political interference or lack of political support.

 “One of the main challenges,” Musisi wrote in her 21-page letter dated October 15, 2018, “has been to reconcile the competing interests between political perceptive/decisions and the strategic plans, policies, regulations and work plans of KCCA technical team.”

As a result, according to Musisi “it has increasingly become difficult to achieve set targets.” 

Back to the future

Although the animosity between Lukwago and Dorothy Kisaka, the recently sacked KCCA executive director, didn’t reach the levels of Musisi, still the former Kampala Central legislator was relieved when Museveni sacked her on account of her negligence that led to the death of scores of people in Kiteezi. 

“Every year, the Authority has been apportioning Kiteezi Shs4.1 billion. The purpose of that money was to ensure the rubbish doesn’t create heaps. But who is responsible for creating those heaps? President Museveni instead tasked the IGG [Inspector General of Government] to do an investigation. But we have never seen this report by the IGG. It has only been Lukwago who has been demanding this report and yet I have never appointed these people,” Lukwago said, adding that his opponents are trying to use the Kiteezi scandal to bring him down. 

 He proceeded to reveal thus: “They have been saying Lukwago this. Lukwago that. As if I’m the one who has been spending Shs4 billion each year. Although Museveni has sacked Kisaka, which is the right thing to do, he should do the following: […] apologise because he has treated the Kiteezi land scandal in a jocular manner.” 

Politically, in 2026, Lukwago will have to deal yet again with the NUP wave. The Kampala Lord Mayor has made it clear that whoever NUP will front stands no chance. 

“They don’t merit any response from me. They are not worth a response from me. They are not among my priorities,” Lukwago said.

 In 2021, Lukwago weathered the NUP wave when he defeated Nabillah Naggayi by 65 percent to retain the lord mayorship.