In December 2015, Veronica Nanyondo instantly became the toast of the Democratic Partly after the death of her sister Susan Namaganda in a road accident.
Three years later, she is now an afterthought fighting for her political survival. At Namaganda’s funeral on December 15, 2015, a little-known Nanyondo was unveiled before mourners as the political heir to her younger sister, Namaganda.
Namaganda, the pioneer Bukomansimbi Woman MP for the district, was a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party (DP). To reclaim the seat in the February 2016 general election, Nanyondo had to toe the same opposition political line.
Five years later, some DP leaders that helped her win the seat seem to have switched loyalty to the minister of State for Youths and Children Affairs, Florence Nakiwala Kiyingi.
“The incumbent is too weak,” says Lawrence Mukasa, the DP organizing secretary in the district. “She rode on her sister’s popularity to get to parliament but she hasn’t done much to keep with the electorate.”
Nakiwala, wife to Bukomansimbi South MP and DP treasurer in the district, Deogratius Kiyingi, was the unsuccessful DP flag bearer for the Kampala Woman seat in the previous election but got her way into parliament as an ex-officio member given her appointment as a minister.
Since her appointment to cabinet, she has done vigorous mobilization in Bukomansimbi reportedly reaching all 264 villages in the district. She has given material support to the needy, distributed agro inputs to farmers and taken about 3,012 youths to a skills training program.
She also set up Bukomansimbi Community Radio and Nakiwala studios for talented youths to develop their music careers.
Musa Matovu Kigongo, the Bukomansimbi district secretary for Works, is one DP leader openly campaigning for Nakiwala against Nanyondo. Speaking to The Observer on November 17, he said, the 2021 vote will not be about parties.
“Bukomansimbi first saw Nakiwala as a member of DP and much as she is now openly campaigning as an NRM, a sizeable number of DP supporters are willing to back her bid. Nanyondo hasn’t done much to win back the hearts of those DP supporters; she will have her personality to blame,” Kigongo said.
This view is also shared by Hussein Kasasa, the party’s publicity secretary in the district, who also claims that Nakiwala stands a better chance to win by about 95 percent.
NOT ALL IS LOST
What is surprising is that Nanyondo, no longer enjoys the support of DP vice president, Fred Mukasa Mbidde who was a fiancé to her late sister. Information within the DP leadership in the district points to Mbidde backing Nakiwala.
Nanyondo however, still has some DP leaders to count on like Joseph Ssekibaala, the party’s chairperson in the district. Last month Ssekibaala convened a meeting and condemned Kiyingi for allowing his wife to undermine the party using its own structures.
The meeting stopped short of denouncing Kiyingi as a DP member after he threw the party out of an office he rented for purposes of coordinating party activities in the district.
While some of his colleagues that jumped ship look at him as inconsequential, local analysts say, Ssekibaala still has enough forces to mobilise for Nanyondo. Interviewed, Nanyondo said Nakiwala’s early entry offered her (Nanyondo) ammunition to weaken her challenge.
“Nakiwala’s early declaration has benefited my camp in that the electorate has been able to assess her and know who she is. She is one person who has made too many empty promises,” Nanyondo said.
Nakiwala, however, refutes the accusation that she has made empty promises.
“Ours is a unique combination because we are developmental and non-segregative because my support does not know political affiliations or religious backgrounds,” Nakiwala said
BUFFER ZONE
Having contested for the Kampala Woman seat in the previous election, some within NRM had preferred to have Nakiwala hold the NRM flag in Kampala but she flatly refused.
“The president [Museveni] has a battle to safeguard the peripherals that have always voted for him from being infiltrated by the opposition, it is for that reason that I have to recapture Bukomansimbi for NRM,” Nakiwala said.
Since it was carved off Masaka district in 2010, Bukomansimbi has been voting opposition. In 2011, Bukomansimbi’s two seats in parliament were taken by Namaganda and Kiyingi while the LC-V chair was taken by Justice Forum’s Muhammad Kateregga.
NRM managed to win a seat in 2016 after the split of Bukomansimbi into two constituencies – South and North. According to local analysts, if DP doesn’t put its house in order, it will lose the two parliamentary seats. NRM cannot write off DP yet because its house is messy, which could work in Nanyondo’s favour.
Halimah Nakawungu, who was the NRM flag bearer for the seat in the previous two elections, is back and already mobilizing as well as Hadijah Nakazzi and Pamela Namuyanja.
sadabkk@observer.ug