Former Kawempe North legislator Al-Hajji Latif Ssebaggala Ssengendo has confirmed to theGrapevine that he has abandoned his political dream to replace Muhammad Ssegirinya as Kawempe North member of parliament come 2026.

In 2021, Ssebaggala who had been in parliament for 20 years was defeated by the then Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Councilor Ssegirinya who contested on the National Unity Platform (NUP) ticket.

Ssebaggala declined to take legal action against Ssegirinya and concentrated on clandestine political mobilization.Voters in the constituency were very sure that he was coming to reclaim his political seat.

However, exclusively speaking to theGrapevine, Ssebaggala revealed that in 2026, he is going to contest against Emmanuel Sserunjogi for Kawempe Division mayorship seat.

When asked why he abandoned the juicy MP seat and decided to contest for a mayor, he explained that he spent a number of years in parliament and made a big contribution to his people and now he wants to serve them in another capacity as a Division mayor.

theGrapevine established that Barbie Itungo Kyagulanyi, the wife to Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) has a hand in Ssebaggala’s decision to contest as mayor.

Itungo is one of the strong members of the inner circle in NUP who are highly respected given that she is the first lady and her decisions are always final and not contested.

However, Ssebaggala’s decision to change his mind and to contest against Sserunjogi has created for him a hostile environment in the area because Sserunjogi’s supporters have started sabotaging his new campaign by mobilizing people not to listen to him.

“He should retire from active politics, he has nothing to add to Kawempe and we shall not allow him to address people in our presence,” one of the foot soldiers who is a close friend to Sserunjogi said.

“He shouldn’t waste his resources and energy because he will lose in 2026. Bobi Wine will not abandon people he knows very well in favour of people like Ssebaggala who was a staunch Democratic Party (DP) supporter,” a source said.

Other sources said that Itungo is still making political calculations after being advised to contest for Wakiso district woman Member of Parliament to replace NUP’s Betty Esther Naluyima who is a relative to veteran journalist and also spokesperson of the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) Andrew Mwenda.

Mwenda revealed that Naluyima is one of the NUP candidates in 2021 who were surprised by their win because she did not have money to move around the entire district campaigning.

Before Itungo comes into the political picture, after one Sylvia Namutyaba, a foot soldier and also a darling to Bobi Wine also declared interest to contest against her for NUP ticket come 2026.

theGrapevine has further established that Ssegirinya is also still interested in the seat and even though he is still receiving treatment, he has plans to start his political campaign in 2025 after fully recovering from a strange disease. He is currently still getting medication from Nairobi Kenya.

“He has a lot of unfinished business that is why he is coming back,” Alex Luwemba his personal assistant said.

Alex Waiswa Mufumbiro the party deputy spokesperson is also interested in the seat because he is very sure that it will be very difficult for him to win a political seat back home in Busoga.

President Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) has used a lot of energy to make sure that it sweeps Busoga and removes all traces of the opposition.

Kampala city lawyer Erais Nalukoola has also declared interest to contest on the same seat and has confirmed talks with Bobi Wine so that he is fronted by NUP.

Since Norbert Mao the DP president general entered a political marriage with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s government, Nalukoola, who is DP’s chief legal advisor feels his career in the party is threatened because he protested against the agreement.

Sources close to Nalukoola said that come 2025, he is likely to cross to NUP if the ongoing negotiations with Bobi Wine succeed but if they fail, he is going to stand as an independent.

Nalukoola is very understands the political dynamics in Kawempe Division because he was once a youth councilor.

By that time, he was still a student at Law Development Center and a personal lawyer to a number of prominent families in Kawempe.

Bobi Wine is at the cross roads given that he has to take a tough decision of stoping his wife from contesting for a political office come 2026 as he did in 2021 when he stopped her from contesting for Wakiso district woman Member of Parliament seat.

Recently, Commissioner of Parliament Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba revealed that Bobi Wine is under siege and his family members are using him as a weapon to gain politically, socially and economically.

However, Bobi Wine rubbished the allegation.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Maverick Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Junior Minister Joseph Christopher Kabuye Kyofatogabye has narrated how he survived being humiliated by angry traders at State House before his boss President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni last week.

Minister Kabuye was part of the team that organised the meeting between President Museveni and traders to solve their tax grievances with Uganda Revenue Authority  (URA) after they closed their shops for a week.

The angry traders were protesting against the high tax levies slapped on them and the use of the Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing System (EFRIS) as a mechanism to collect taxes.

Minister Kabuye revealed that he chickened out of the meeting at the last moment because his intelligence briefed him at the last hour before the meeting that there was a group of traders who had strategised to humiliate him before the President like they tried to do to URA Commissioner General John Musinguzi Rujoki.

theGrapevine recently reported how a female trader, a one Doreen Nakirya shocked the meeting when she told the President that Rujoki’s men sexually harass female traders when collecting taxes and the president directed his Special Forces Command (SFC) detectives to record statements from both from Nakirya and the male taxman who she accused of sexual harassment. They were later released.

Kabuye said that a section of traders were not happy when he told them not to first consult National Unity Platform (NUP) boss Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) on what to tell Museveni yet others were planning to ‘Kulabisa’ Museveni as Bobi Wine encouraged them to do by exposing and humiliating leaders.

“Those people who were stopped at the State House gate were not traders but they were taken to State House to humiliate me. Never joke with the government, it has intelligence,” Kabuye boasted.

Sources within the traders associations confirmed the allegation adding that they wanted to tell the president that Kabuye was using government’s money to bribe a section of traders to withdraw from the strike so that he is praised as an influential minister in the city.

The sources added that when Kabuye invited the traders at Africana Hotel to discuss their issues before meeting the president, he came with people who they didn’t know in the trader’s circle and his plan was to declare before the media that they are ready to open the shops.

“We identified them before the meeting and we started grilling them to tell us where they operate business from and their shop numbers. When they failed, we forced them out of the meeting and we frustrated Kabuye’s meeting,” one of the leaders in the trader association said.

He divulged that they wanted to tell the President that Kabuye is very arrogant and doesn’t listen to them and like former KCCA Executive Director Jenniffer Musisi, he runs the city on orders.

He added that they know that political leaders are mobilizing non traders to be taken to President Museveni’s meeting on 7^th May 2024 at Kololo Independent grounds to tell lies to the big man.

On that date, Museveni is expected to make a final announcement on the issue of EFRIS.

By Hadijjah Namagembe

Many people cannot differentiate between a strike or protest or demonstration or industrial action and rioting. The reason is that in both instances, a big number of people express their anguish over a certain grievance.

They lay down their tools of work, shut off services they offer and call attention to their plight openly.

Striking or demonstrating is a human right, is legitimate and nonviolent. Rioting, on the hand, is violent protest that leads to death, injury or destruction. Rioting is usually staged by actors with ulterior motives and usually, there is an unseen hand or a ringleader inciting the rioters.

The recent action by traders (members of the business community) in Kampala and environs was nonviolent unlike previous mass action witnessed in the city. The Mabira riots were definitely violent; the Nakasero market protests were violent, they were riots; the November 2020 acts by political pushers were riots, and they led to loss of life; other protests like those of A4C and others codenamed differently were riots.

Usually, riots result from incitement and the issuance of uncoordinated messaging intended to confuse the public. The agenda is often unclear or shrouded in politics so as to give it undue clout with the intention of undermining the Government.

In the absence of coordination and clear engagement with different stakeholders, troublesome elements come into place and take charge of the mass action, start causing destruction, directly confronting other citizens going about their business as well as security personnel carrying out their normal duties of ensuring law and order.

Any attempt to contain the situation is taken as highhandedness of the state, thus causing further incitement and clashing. There is a thin line between rioting and mass insurrection which can cause regime change and that’s usually what rioters are up to; not to address a particular grievance, but to capitalise on the discontent of a few to achieve other unrelated objectives.

The “anti”-Electronic Fiscal Receipting and Invoicing Solution (EFRIS) traders were clear on the cause of their displeasure and this they voiced through their respective associations including Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA), Uganda Cargo Consolidators, Kampala Rice Traders and Federation of Uganda Traders Associations (FUTA). They freely expressed concern that EFRIS poses several challenges, notably: that it imposes a high cost of compliance, most traders didn’t understand how the system works and that it applied to all traders irrespective of whether they are VAT registered or not.

Perfect! Problem identified, solution-finding begins! That’s how civilised society works, not jumping out of the blue and ransacking towns, burning tyres, breaking buildings and dragging passersby into one’s fight.

This has been a big problem in this country when people instead of raising what is disturbing them are quick to engage in public confrontation. If it’s about taxes, how does it help matters to attack people physically or destroy property? If it’s about a bad section of road, how does it help matters burning tyres on tarmac when that action alone will destroy the good section of road?

It’s high time that as citizens we embraced our full responsibility when expressing our frustrations and demanding for action from those in authority. Uganda is a democratic country where the voice of the downtrodden or aggrieved can be heard and responded to. We have Parliament, Local Councils, Cabinet, and a large media space. Any issue can be raised in a civil way and it’s attended to.

In fact, even a sit-down strike over EFRIS, though peaceful, was unnecessary. Why? When traders closed their shops, they lost business-merchandise in stock could go bad, landlords would still demand rent, customers couldn’t get served and the economy was slowed all along the broad value chain. The advantage from the strike was, as already noted, it was nonviolent and also created ground to discuss some of these issues.

Questions on EFRIS came at a time a number of measures were being instituted to raise tax revenues and so many mistook EFRIS for  a form of tax whereas it’s only a system used to track tax compliance and is designed to monitor the payment of value-added tax (VAT) and facilitate accurate record-keeping for business transactions.

Again, the strike also raised the need to always adequately sensitise the public on changes taking place. It shouldn’t be a matter of slapping “solutions” in place without educating them on what is involved, because, specifically in the line of taxation, there is no day tax will ever be sweet.

It’s always a bitter pill which should be packaged with sweeteners for better acceptability. Even now, URA should step up client engagement and provide information to partner agencies to explain to the public what this is all about, like RDCs who are in place to explain Government programs.

EFRIS is a modern system already in use in countries like Tanzania and Rwanda. I thank H.E the President for putting his experience, seniority, wisdom and heart for the people to use by giving the traders a listening ear, taking note of their issues, halting some of the measures that the taxman had imposed and promising to meet the larger body of traders soon to hear directly from them. That’s a people-centered and responsive government.

If the traders had sought the President’s ear before the strike, I know he would have listened to them with similar attention.

When I saw Dr. Besigye joining the fray and attempting to stop the traders from engaging with the President, I was concerned that the agenda of the traders would be lost but, thankfully, they were not diverted. These traders are great contributors to our economy and they aren’t divided along sectarian lines. They should be supported to do business in a supportive environment free of lawlessness and undue interference. That’s what the President is working on!

Faruk Kirunda is the Deputy Press Secretary to the President of Uganda

Contact: kirundaf2@gmail.com

0776980486/0783990861