During the ongoing campaign season, it has become commonplace for National Unity Platform (NUP) candidates to adopt presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi’s campaign song titled ‘Eh Bobi Bobi’, which was composed by his long-term ally and music producer Daniel Oryewot, popularly known as Dan Magic.
One of the NUP parliamentary candidates who have effectively used the song has been Abedi Nasser Mudiobole who, for the fourth time, is attempting to wrestle Iganga Municipality from the firm grip of Peter Mugema, alias Panadol.
While Mugema is an Independent, he tilts towards the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) during parliamentary voting time.
Social media has been awash with videos showing hundreds of Mudiobole’s supporters dancing through Iganga Municipality in a carnival-like atmosphere that would make some of the presidential candidates jealous.
Though from afar the expectation is that Mudiobole would emerge victorious, considering that he is a crowd puller and also Iganga is now considered to be a NUP stronghold as the reception of Kyagulanyi on Friday attests, there is a lot to factor in and tame this expectation. Mudiobole is a veteran of Busoga politics, having thrown his hat into the Iganga Municipality race in 2011.
Back then, he lost to Mugema with a difference of 636 votes. Mudiobole, then a member of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), challenged Mugema’s victory at the High Court in Jinja, claiming it was secured through bribing voters.
Justice Lameck Mukasa cancelled Mugema’s victory on the grounds that he had bribed voters when he gave out Shs100,000 towards the construction of St Gonzaga Prisons Chapel during the campaign period.
Lives of a cat
Mugema, through Kiryowa Kiwanuka, now the Attorney General, wasn’t satisfied and took the battle to the Court of Appeal, which confirmed his victory on the grounds that Mudiobole’s witnesses contradicted each other.
‘Having reviewed the evidence adduced and the position of the law, as set out above, I find that the versions of the respondent’s [Mudiobole] witnesses who claimed to have attended the same function at the same time are contradictory in the areas already set out and thus cannot provide proof of what exactly transpired.
The possibility that the appellant did what he did purely as a matter of the practice and manifestation of his faith cannot also be ruled out,’ Justice Remmy Kasule adjudged in a majority judgement, with other justices being Alice Mpagi Bahigeine and Augustine Nshimye.
Five years later, in the 2016 General Election, it was yet another showdown between Mugema and Mudiobole. Once more, Mugema emerged victorious with a difference of 1,291 votes.
Yet again, Mudiobole wasn’t convinced that Mugema had won fair and squarely. The challenger once again ran to the High Court in Jinja, alleging his arch-rival’s victory was a result of bribing voters.
There was drama in court when Abdallah Siraje, Pastor Julius Taleng, whom Mugema had taken as a part of his efforts to shore up his defence, turned around and sided with Mudiobole.
Taleng and Siraje separately told the court that they indeed coordinated the distributed bribery items such as cash, soap, and salt to sway voters to vote for Mugema. Based on such evidence, Justice Margaret Mutonyi not only cancelled Mugema’s victory but also ordered that Mudiobole should swear in as the Iganga Municipality legislator.
Mugema once again appealed, and once again the Court of Appeal, which took over 15 months to deliver, came to his rescue when it overturned Justice Mutonyi’s judgment.
The Court of Appeal Justices claimed that the Shs300,000 Mugema had given out at Bethel Healing church was just an offertory given as an act of religious dedication, not a bribe like Justice Mutonyi had ruled.
Mugema wins, again
In 2021, the showdown was for the umpteenth time between Mugema and Mudiobole. This time round, Mugema, having fallen out with the NRM, after he voted against the editing out of the age limits from the Constitution, an act that allowed Mr Museveni to stand for re-election, he stood as an Independent.
On his part, Mudiobole stuck with FDC, whose popularity had waned, but he supported Kyagulanyi’s presidential bid, having sensed that Iganga Municipality had turned into a NUP stronghold.
Still, Mudiobole, who had crowds attending his rallies, couldn’t translate this into a ballot paper victory since Mugema emerged victorious with a difference of 109 votes.
There were claims that Mugema won because he had distributed food during the pandemic-induced lockdown, but Mudiobole this time didn’t pursue this matter in court.
With FDC in free-fall, Mudiobole formally crossed over to NUP, and it is during this time that he has attracted the wrath of security agencies, who abducted him for several days earlier this year.
‘Our comrade, Counsel Abed Nasser Mudiobole from Iganga, was abducted yesterday evening from Kyaliwajjala. Mudiobole, who is an advocate, was invited to meet a client, and on reaching the premises, he was put at gunpoint by heavily armed men and driven away in a drone to an unknown location,’ Kyagulanyi said after Mudiobole was abducted.
Before the abduction, Mudiobole had been summoned by the police in Iganga to explain his role in the video that emerged showing NUP foot soldiers celebrating Kyagulanyi’s birthday by mimicking a military parade.
Later, the State charged him with unlawful drills, and the file is now gathering dust at Iganga Magistrates’ Court after Mudiobole was given bail. Mudibole was subsequently given the NUP ticket on the grounds that he has a good record of mobilising the opposition in Iganga.
In the 2021 election, though Kyagulanyi not only defeated Museveni in both Iganga Municipality and at the district level, the party couldn’t replicate this at the parliamentary level as it failed to win a single parliamentary seat. In the municipality, Francis Muganga, its candidate, came fourth with 2,935 votes.
Lulenzi up in arms
Though Mudiobole is a crowd puller, the decision by NUP to give him the ticket to try out his luck for the fourth time didn’t go down well with Bamu Lulenzi, another NUP member.
Lulenzi won the Iganga mayoral slot on a NUP ticket in 2021, and he wanted to set up and represent the area in Parliament.
Lulenzi, who prides himself on setting up NUP grassroots structures, had no kind words for NUP leadership when they rejected him in favour of Mudiobole. Consequently, he decided to stand as an Independent.
‘The flag was sold for Shs40 million. The party that we thought had been constructed based on transparency and accountability has decided to sell party cards,’ Lulenzi alleged.
NUP insisted that their Elections Management Committee (EMC) wasn’t involved in any kind of corruption since the choices they took were based on merit.
‘We think the process was free and fair, but we weren’t going to make everyone happy. Some people had to feel aggrieved after this process. That’s what politics is about, but it shows how people like NUP’s ticket,’ David Lewis Rubongoya, NUP’s secretary general, defended the party’s choices.
It remains to be seen if Lulenzi’s decision to stand as an Independent won’t spoil Mudiobole’s party, with his perennial rival, Mugema, lurking.
‘Lulenzi is popular with many people, especially the youth in Iganga [Municipality]. He is a certified foot soldier. That will be Mudiobole’s first roadblock to victory,’ a source familiar with Iganga Municipality elections said on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, Mugema, with his deep wallet, is still the man to beat since he was once again nominated as an Independent; never mind that in 2022, he had said he decamped to NUP after ‘seeing the light.’
Sticking to his jocular if not cavalier style, Mugema, who made that announcement of crossing over to the Opposition’s largest political party at a burial in Kamuli, didn’t follow up his words with action.
‘Besides using money, he knows how to play both the Opposition and the NRM. That’s how he wins by the thinnest of margins,’ a source familiar with Mugema’s strategies said on condition of anonymity.
About Iganga
Iganga is located in Uganda’s Busoga Sub-region. It lies approximately 45 kilometres (28 mi), by road, northeast of the city of Jinja on the highway between Jinja and Tororo. This is approximately 118 kilometres (73 mi), by road, southeast of Mbale.
Iganga comprises of one county of Kigulu and Iganga Municipality. Iganga District is composed of three constituencies of Kigulu South, Kigulu North and Iganga Municipality. It has nine lower local governments.
These include the sub counties of Nawandala, Nabitende, Nambale, and Kidaago located in Kigulu North. Kigulu South includes Bulamagi, Nakigo, Nawaningi and Nakalama. Namungalwe Town Council located in Kigulu North is the urban authority.
Iganga Municipality which is an independent authority from the district in terms of leadership and managemnt, has two divisions of Iganga Central and Northern.
According to the 2024 census, Iganga District has a popuation of 505,405. This figure includes 366,736 rural residents and 68,669 urban residents.
The District accommodates all tribes in Uganda, and the usual common languages being Lusoga, Luganda, English and Swahili.
The bulk of the population belongs to Basoga, characterised by choice of their own religious affiliations, i.e. Protestants, Muslims, Catholics, Faith based and Traditional Cultural beliefs.
The Traditional Foods being mainly potatoes, Cassava, Matooke, Rice and Maize flour, the people are very hospitable.