By THE OBSERVER UG
Bobi Wine with Mathias Mpuuga
Cracks within the National Unity Platform (NUP), Uganda’s largest opposition political party, have grown wider after Mathias Mpuuga, its deputy president, hit back at those calling for his resignation over alleged abuse of taxpayers’ funds, arguing that the leadership of the party is clueless about how to galvanise its supporters ahead of the 2026 general elections.
Mpuuga has been in the eye of the storm after a social media campaign, under the hashtag #UgandanParliamentaryExhibition, released a trove of documents that pointed to him receiving a service award of Shs 500 million, which his party leaders interpreted as extravagance at a time when many poor Ugandans are struggling to put meals on the table.
The party then wrote to the speaker of parliament, Anita Among, requesting for the withdrawal of Mpuuga’s appointment as parliamentary commissioner.
In a press conference held at the parliamentary commission’s boardroom, a defiant Mpuuga said in the coming days he will lay out his plans of reforming NUP to rid it of what he called obscurantism, nepotism, corruption, greed, abuse of office, extortion, blackmail, defamation, slander and lack of internal democracy.
He then launched a salvo at Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu aka Bobi Wine, the president of NUP, for hiding behind accountability to portray him [Mpuuga] as “a terrible human being” as a way of character-assassinating him.
Mpuuga said that the public has failed to buy into Kyagulanyi’s smear campaign, adding that many in the party leadership feel the approach
the party has taken to portray him as corrupt is proof that the leadership only had a score to settle with him. He said that he has no intention of leaving NUP because he is a founding member of the party, and that he is not there on anyone’s invitation.
“I reassure the entire NUP leadership, membership, supporters, and the general public that NUP is my party and I harbour no intentions whatsoever of leaving; I am going nowhere; rather, I will in the coming days embark on a process of instituting internal party reforms to make it a credible and competent government in waiting,” Mpuuga said.
He added: “The largest opposition party [NUP] looks clueless and unable to guide its bruised cadreship. I’m going nowhere.”
TEST OF POWER
Mpuuga’s resolve to stay and fight within the party offers the first real test of a power struggle within the party. While there have been murmurs of a toxic relationship between Mpuuga and Kyagulanyi, the expose from the social media campaign has triggered a spark for a full-blown power struggle, with the battle lines now clearly drawn out.
The timing of this internal fight comes less than two years before Uganda goes to the polls, with the onlookers waiting to see whether the party will emerge out of this rabble scarred or stronger.
Talk of the ruling party bankrolling moles to operate within the opposition camps is as old as the country’s multiparty system, and it is one allegation that Mpuuga will have to shake off in the coming months if his message is to be bought.
On the other hand, Kyagulanyi’s ways of purging officials who harbour bigger leadership roles in the party could be misconstrued as a big-man mentality of stifling any room for questioning decisions passed by the party.
STILL DEFIANT
Mpuuga assured the ‘comrades in the struggle’ that his commitment has never waned. He promised he will never be part of any form of corruption, and no one will invite him into it.
“When we find ourselves disagreeable on anything in our midst, we must find mechanisms for mature resolution, which is different from grandstanding and desire to settle political scores at the expense of the reputations of comrades with whom we struggle to offer the country better leadership,” he said.
“Ugandans must be encouraged at all times to question the decisions of their leaders, especially those in higher offices, and make critical decisions on their behalf. In the current circumstances, it is also not difficult to tell that the objective was never on accountability, because no one provides financial accountability at press conferences and on social media.”
Mpuuga noted that he is appalled that instead of NUP focusing on the issues that matter such as President Museveni’s candid creation of a dynasty by appointing his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba as the chief of defense forces (CDF), and the renewal of the term of the Electoral Commission commissioners who bungled and fidgeted with the last election, they are busy engaging in minor issues.
Reached out for a coment, David Lewis Rubongoya, the party secretary general who is also being accused by many Mpuuga supporters of being one of those fermenting chaos in NUP, said he has watched Mpuuga’s address but wouldn’t want to respond before the leadership team meets.
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