When news emerged that Opposition doyen Dr Kizza Besigye, together with Mr Obeid Lutale, his long-time ally, had been abducted from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, and returned home where treason charges would be preferred, it was received with cynicism. Surprisingly, even within sections of the Opposition circles. Key among those Opposition figures who were cynical about the charges was Mr Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro, the deputy spokesperson of the National Unity Platform (NUP).
Mr Mufumbiro insinuated that slapping Dr Besigye with treason charges was part of the ruling National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) strategy to throw the four-time presidential candidate into the limelight at the expense of NUP’s Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, who is having a second shot at the highest office in the country. Mr Mufumbiro’s prediction, which turned out to be wrong, was that Dr Besigye would be quickly released from jail in time to launch a presidential challenge in an attempt to overshadow his candidate, Mr Kyagulanyi.
This month, Dr Besigye and Mr Lutale will mark a grim milestone, spending a year behind bars. The former has not been nominated to take part in the 2026 General Election. Instead, what has happened is that Mr Mufumbiro has been nominated for the Nakawa East parliamentary seat whilst in Luzira prison. It is the same place where Dr Besigye is incarcerated.
Facing two charges, including inciting NUP supporters to attack security personnel, Mr Mufumbiro was this past week remanded to Luzira Prison until November 13 after his bail request at Nakawa Magistrates Court was met with a dead bat. To ensure the bail process becomes complicated, the State has further slapped him with charges of ‘incitement to murder.’
While incarcerated, Mr Mufumbiro made another wild claim that one of his competitors, Michael Kabiziguruka, who belongs to the Opposition’s People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), was the brainchild of the charges that the State instituted against him. ‘My arrest was precipitated by Kabaziguruka Michael, the person I’m contesting against. He works for security. He is a security operative, and he is aware of what is happening,’ Mr Mufumbiro said when he first appeared in court in September.
Politicking?
It could be said that Mr Mufumbiro was just politicking in an effort to win over Opposition voters. He had, however, only succeeded in opening an unhealed wound because Mr Kabaziguruka had been a victim of State brutality and persecution. The record shows that Mr Kabaziguruka was first charged with treason in 2012 after he stood against NRM’s Fred Ruhindi in their battle over Nakawa constituency, which had been vacated in 2011.
Whilst the State never produced a single witness in this case, it moved to arrest him in 2016 after he had defeated Mr Ruhindi. In June 2016, security operatives who were armed to the teeth raided Mr Kabaziguruka’s home in Luzira, claiming they had seized electronics he used in a plot with army officers to engage in subversive activities.
He was interrogated about his links with a rebel group and subversive activities and held at the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) in Kireka before being later transferred to the Nalufenya detention facility for further questioning. Mr Kabaziguruka, a key cog in Dr Besigye’s defiance campaign, was charged with 22 others in the General Court Martial (GCM) for allegedly hatching a plot to overthrow Museveni’s government.
The State claimed that Mr Kabaziguraka and company turned the districts of Kampala, Wakiso and Luweero into sanctuaries. Sporting a blue shirt-the colour of his FDC party-in August 2016, Mr Kabaziguruka and his co-accused were arraigned before Lt Gen Andrew Gutti’s military tribunal. What happened thereafter would go down in history as one of the most dramatic days in the much-feared GCM’s history.
Mr Kabaziguruka, who in 2021 lost his bid to get a second term in Parliament, not only refused to answer the questions fired by Gutti’s panel, but also turned up in court with no lawyer, and rejected free legal representation by Maj Patra Asha, who had been made available by the military tribunal. Mr Kabaziguruka defiantly insisted that since he is a civilian, he was appearing before an illicit court.
‘I’m a civilian who should be tried in a civilian court. I can hire a private lawyer, but I can’t because I am in the wrong court. If you force me to be tried here, I prefer to represent myself,’ Mr Kabaziguruka said, triggering a thunderous ovation from FDC supporters who had crammed the courtroom. Once he was released from jail, Mr Kabaziguraka challenged the constitutionality of trying civilians in the GCM, which was challenged both at the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court.
Mr Kabaziguruka’s track record of being a victim of State persecution didn’t matter to Mr Mufumbiro, with sources familiar with NUP planning saying the Opposition party is trying to turn this incarceration into political capital. This is a tactic that worked in 2021 when the State arrested several NUP members who were running for various positions, but they still emerged victorious even when they were in prison.
For instance, Lubaga North councillor, James Mubiru, was charged at the GCM for wearing a red beret, but still people turned up and voted for him in absentia.
Sticking with this tactic, NUP has been quick to circulate the pictures of Mr Mufumbiro handcuffed whilst shouting defiance slogans. ‘These are not criminals; these are ordinary Ugandans who dared to speak about the poor conditions Ugandans are living in as their leaders are enjoying life in comfort,’ Joel Ssenyonyi, the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP), said.
Another source within NUP, who preferred anonymity so they could speak freely, said incarcerating Mr Mufumbiro is the easiest way to mobilise what the party has termed as the ‘protest vote’ against the regime. ‘The best thing would be to have Waiswa [Mufumbiro] nominated in absentia so that he is on the ballot even without being physically present to campaign, and by some luck, voters might still go for the umbrella, and he makes history winning that MP seat without campaigning. The same will keep his name in the media and thereby pressurising the regime for his release from illegal detention,’ the source told this writer.
To milk Mr Mufumbiro’s incarceration further, NUP has used his identical twin brother, Kato, as his campaigner-in-chief, who has articulated the message of defiance.
‘It is very unfortunate what is happening. You wake up and ask who has been taken. It seems like a joke, but it’s happening. But we are going to campaign for him and he will win,’ Mr Kato said.
Mufumbiro’s flip-flops
For Mr Mufumbiro, his decision to stand in Nakawa East has raised eyebrows, considering that he is a native of Busoga Sub-region. In 2021 he stood in Jinja West, but he came third with 964 votes, whilst Timothy Batuwa, then of the FDC but has since joined Mufumbiro in NUP, emerged victor, obtaining 4,801 votes. Yet 2021 wasn’t the first time he threw his hat into a parliamentary contest because in 2011, Mufumbiro, then a Democratic Party (DP) member, stood in Jinja West’s neighbouring constituency, Jinja East, but he could only emerge fifth with only 262 votes while NRM’s Nathan Igeme Nabeta emerged victor.
Even when the courts ordered for by-election, Mr Mufumbiro could only get 291 votes while Paul Mwiru, then a member of the FDC but has since joined NUP, emerged winner with 7,758 votes. With Mr Mufumbiro seemingly unable to secure victory in his home area, he has been exploring Buganda, Kampala in particular.
He jockeyed with Kawempe North, but here, he was told in no uncertain terms he wasn’t welcome because he had allegedly doubted the gravity of the sickness of then area legislator, Muhammad Sseggirinya (RIP).
Though Mr Mufumbiro and Sseggirinya belonged to NUP, voters in Kawempe North accused the former of not being empathetic to their legislator when he was terminally ill. Openly downplaying the sickness that Sseggirinya grappled with proved to be Mr Mufumbiro’s karma after a viral video registered the former’s wishes that the latter should never set foot at his funeral.
With Sseggirinya holding cult hero status in Kawempe North, Mr Mufumbiro decided to tease his chances in the neighbouring Kawempe South, but he faced the same reaction. He, therefore, left the constituency to Fred Nyanzi Ssentamu. Mr Kyagulanyi’s elder brother, popularly known as Chairman Nyanzi, had earlier interested himself in tussling with Erias Lukwago for the Kampala Lord Mayor position.
But NUP wouldn’t leave their deputy publicist hanging as they coerced Ronald Balimwezo into not defending his Nakawa East position. They assured Mr Balimwezo that they would strongly back his Kampala Lord Mayoral challenge if he leaves his parliamentary slot for Mr Mufumbiro. That’s how Mufumbiro came to stand in Nakawa East, but he has to do it while he is in jail with Dr Besigye, who set a precedent of being nominated for the presidency while in jail in 2005.