With the Electoral Commission of the Republic of Uganda putting out it’s interim roadmap to the 2026 general elections recently, the paths are being cleared and the stage is being set for what will be another epic show down of a democratic contestation to determine the political future and leadership of Uganda for the period 2026 to 2031.
Key players in the political arena are already angling and positioning themselves to gain the best advantage and momentum as the years turn to months and the days draw near for this momentous election.
However the youngest political party in this space also the leading opposition party in parliament given it commands the majority of opposition Members in the August house seems to be faltering or losing traction as it staggers to the 2026 general election.
Before the largely unhinged youth mainly comprising of generational Z and those a little older but still very sentimental and not so practically reasonable about things political in Uganda on whose support this party rides even catch the drift of it’s malfunction, the chances of NUP self destructing and putting up a dismal performance come 2026 seem to show more and more each passing day.
Why will NUP falter?
From it’s onset just like many nascent political parties in young democracies around Africa, the National Unity Platform was bedeviled by accusations of being a tool being used by elements in the state to fight already established political entities that were a headache to the ruling regime at the time like the Democratic party and the Forum for Democratic Change an accusation NUP can’t completely clean itself of given some of it’s so called ‘foot soldiers’ for a long time made it their routine to throw barbs at leading opposition parties and figures with whom they are supposed to be in the same ‘struggle.’
Enter the most recent former Leader of Opposition in Parliament Rt. Honourable Mathias Mpuga a political stalwart in his own right and former Minster in the Kingdom of Buganda which earned him the title Owekitibwa and NUP’s woes take a turn for worse.
After diligently serving the National Unity Platform as it’s Vice President for Central (Buganda), Leader in Parliament and Leader of the entire Opposition in the August house, Owekitibwa Mathias Mpuga who was already an established name in Uganda’s political circles especially the opposition having cut his political teeth in the Democratic party before moving on to other pressure groups became a target of a very rabid attack from a party he has been serving as it’s Vice President for Central where it commands majority of it’s support until his recent uncouth ouster.
The kind of venom that was unleashed on Mathias Mpuga directly and indirectly by the rank and file in NUP would make any right thinking person wonder whether this party was ever at one point grateful for the organisational and strategic work Mpuga put in to ensure it garners majority parliamentary seats with in this region in the 2021 general election.
From an outsider’s point of view it looked like Mathias Mpuga was considered a major threat to the powers that be at Makerere Kavule (NUP’S headquarters) or more so was considered persona non grata by the ‘powerful funders’ of this budding party overseas whose interests seemed to have faced a great set back recently when the Parliament of Uganda passed a fundamental bill that was not in their interests as then L.O.P Mpuga representing the interests of his constituency did not do the undoable and try to stop it something these strong foreign backers thought he should have done christening him a betrayer of sorts and pushing their agents on ground to act.
From then on there has been a very deliberate very well coordinated attempt to dim the political light of a man who has worked tirelessly for years to build a formidable and good name of his own as a force to reckon with in the politics of especially his home district of Masaka and the greater central region where he hails from.
The corruption accusations cooked up by his detractors that were recently crashed by the High Court legally and officially, an attempt to oust him from being a Commissioner in Parliament even when the party didn’t have those powers and trying to use all sorts of informal media especially the internet at large to malign Mpuga’s name and smear him with all kinds of dirt has left a bad taste in mouth of many a sober political observer in regard to the modus operandi of this young party called NUP and it’s real interests in Uganda.
Owekitibwa Mpuga aside, NUP more recently took a very dangerous path ( a lose it all or gain it all kind of gamble) that could be the beginning of it’s demise if it doesn’t do something to redeem itself from this unbecoming behavior. The young party in trying to gain quick but traction through it’s diaspora activists and some loud mouthed unhinged local representatives took to indirectly harassing and disrespecting the Kingdom in the geographical locale in which almost all it’s entire relevance to power stems from by having a number of it’s members demanding without any restraint or respect to the King, his right to privacy and proper protocol procedures to have the King of Buganda make a public appearance and be brought back home unceremoniously from outside the country where he had gone to seek medical treatment some thing that was very uncouth, uncultured and very shallow as a political maneuver especially when it involved demonstrations at embassies around the globe of Namibia the country where the King was on a medical recovery rest to have him ‘released.’
Not only was this a form of disrespect to the King, his family, his Prime Minister and entire cabinet which was accused of being behind his ‘abduction/disappearance’ but also an abuse to the entire Kingdom, it’s subjects and we’ll wishers who out of respect for the longstanding Monarch and traditions of Buganda Kingdom have no business pushing his Majesty the Kabaka of Buganda, his family or Katikiro around to do as they wish, it was a also a pointer to those who read beyond the horizons as to what NUP and it’s wheelie dealers are willing to do and the lines they are willing to cross to achieve their selfish political goals. ‘There is no table however revered it may be they won’t kick and no head they won’t step on to try and achieve their personal wants’ they seemed to say through their actions!
Dragging the name of an approximately 1000 year Kingdom which has remained apolitical since it’s re-inception in the 1990s into the mud to try and arouse political sentiment that NUP can ride on to achieve whatever political goals it may have whether it is increasing pressure on the sitting government to give way or create a wedge between the Kingdom of Buganda and it’s subjects to gain an upper hand over it’s people is the substance of political miscalculation and selfishness perfected by NUP.
There is a huge probability that alienating itself from the Kingdom of Buganda completely will bring many of NUP’s supporters the sober ones that is into asking what exactly this political nubile of a party intends to achieve with this dirty divide and rule approach even before it ever tests the feel of real political power. What they did not anticipate though is how far the potential backlash of this unhinged political opportunism will reach and the likely ramifications to their toddler of a political party if the entire plan goes South.
And being the biggest uniting factor among the people in the central region (Buganda) once the people get the drift of where NUP really intends to end up with this, they might never give this political novice of party another chance to ride on their shoulders.
What next for NUP?
With many of those political missteps having backfired already in the face of NUP even causing political cracks and disunity with in it’s ranks, it should get back to drawing board and first of all apologize to the Kingdom of Buganda for it’s misadventures and attempt to drag the name of the Kingdom and the King into it’s shallow political gambles and also to the subjects of the Kingdom whom it is attempting to use as unsuspecting political tools to achieve it’s very selfish political goals.
Finally having attempted desperately and rabidly to dim and diminish the political name of Owekitibwa Mathias Mpuga albeit unsuccessfully from the cream of Buganda and Uganda’s political circles, it is time NUP ate humble pie and apologized to one of its stalwarts lest it sends out the wrong message to other political big wigs and non political actors who may have given it a hand as it looks more and more of a one man, one family political show willing to crash any other emerging strong name with in it’s ranks something that will alienate any would be other big name potential political allies in Buganda and across Uganda.
Chances are high that these blatant miscalculations will eat into NUP’s political backyard in Buganda with other forces emerging in the next 2 years and NRM regaining a foot hold to take away part of it’s support.
This trend, political gambling and perception of NUP if not checked and corrected is most likely to stagnate the young party completely given it has hardly gained any considerable political inroads into other regions of the country as the 2026 general election draws near while unfortunately it is also busy self destructing and eating away on its political backyard in Buganda by anatagonising various centres of power in the region.
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