By KT Reporter
As a party, NUP has many foot soldiers but Faustino Masaba, from Mbale, says none of them has suffered like he has. He says he has been to the Drone and Gen Kainerugaba’s basement many times and also lost his juicy job in Qatar because of NUP. These days, he makes Tik Tok lives to ask for party members to pay rent for him.
During the burial in Wakiso of arson victim Paul Musoke a foot soldier who died a few days ago at Kirudu hospital, hundreds of foot soldiers became unruly, misbehaved and threatened to beat up family members and run away with the body to show their unhappiness with the party’s MPs.
The foot soldiers see MPs as uncaring because they ignored them after winning elections earlier this year. The foot soldiers gave the example of lord mayor Balimwezo who has been mocking for being smelly and very dirty. George Musisi of Kira was the only NUP MP who came for the burial and foot soldiers praised him.
The foot soldiers narrated how they suffered raising money from among themselves to be able to support Paul Musoke as he suffered with the arson wounds at Kirudu.
They complained that both the MPs and the party headquarters didn’t do enough to be there for Musoke, a foot soldier who used to be part of Kyagulanyi’s bodyguards.
Days before Musoke’s vigil, the foot soldiers had attacked and beat up Makindye Ssabagabo MP David Serukenya accusing him of treachery. They said they are tired of MPs who use and dump them after winning elections. Serukenya had to run for his life after the security at NUP headquarters failed to protect him from foot soldiers.
Sylivia Namutyaba, a prominent NUP mobilizer from Wakiso had also complained about the misbehavior of foot soldiers and advised them to learn the difference between being a foot soldier ready to sacrifice and being a content creator.
Namutyaba said today’s NUP foot soldiers are spoilt kids who are too soft for the struggle. She said it’s wrong for foot soldiers to expect rewards from the party because being in the NUP struggle is not a job to get a salary from.
She said she is missing those old days of people power 2017-2022 when foot soldiers were real fighters. She said today’s foot soldiers are mere content creators who can’t do anything for Kyagulanyi beyond recording abusive videos.
Namutyaba’s remarks made during Musoke’s vigil angered many foot soldiers who turned their anger on the party since she is a blue eyed girl of Kavule.
The foot soldiers accused Nambeshe the acting party president of not doing enough to appreciate their role. They started grabbing microphones to forcefully address mourners.
This was all done infront of the secretary general Rubongoya and other officials. They declared war on all NUP MPs for refusing to give them money and said they are all bad people except George Musisi. He was the only MP at the burial.
After the Wakiso burial fracas, ordinary NUP supporters led by Julius Katongole Mumiransanafu and Sseremba Jimmy Mwoyo Gwa gwanga, organized Tik Tok live sessions to discuss what had happened.
They said this Tik Tok live was aimed at defending party leaders like Rubongoya who were humiliated by the misconduct of foot soldiers at Musoke’s burial.
They singled out Faustino Masaba who they said is very indisciplined and money-minded. Masaba was part of the Kyagulanyi campaign motorcade in the last campaigns and was also a NUP MP candidate back home in Bugisu. He is therefore an insider at NUP head offices.
They accused him of monetizing the struggle. Fazil Mayanja, a NUP funder in the diaspora, said Masaba was a jobless extortionist who thrives on blackmailing NUP people both in Uganda and diaspora.
It was proposed that Masaba gets expelled from NUP before Sseremba Jimmy who was moderating the Tik Tok live, brought Masaba online to defend himself. He had been following.
Masaba was also accused of being the man who pretended to console Rubongoya after the burial embarrassment at Wakiso yet he is the one who behind the scenes was coordinating the entire uprising by foot soldiers.
In his response, Masaba was very angry and went personal on the diaspora group. Saying he will not accept to be blackmailed simply because Fazil one time gave him 80k, Masaba declared the diaspora groups useless.
He said they have been penetrated by Museveni’s state house through Mohamed Nsereko and they are now moles wanting to split foot soldiers.
Masaba laughed at Fazil and said there was nothing in NUP for him to be chased away from. Masaba said he doesn’t work at Kavule and doesn’t hold any position in NUP’s NEC.
He said that life can continue and he can be expelled from NUP and still remain alive. He said he is not a poor person because he had his well-paying job in Qatar before returning to Uganda to struggle. He said even his parents are doing well.
He shed tears and said it was painful for people like Fazil who have never been anywhere near a Drone or Gen Kainerugaba’s basement to belittle strong foot soldiers like himself.
Masaba also denied claims that he was part of the large group of foot soldiers who were planning to raid Kavule, burn the party offices and beat Joel Ssenyonyi and Rubongoya. He also denied being part of the foot soldiers who Museveni’s security is using to cause a coup inside NUP and overthrow Kyagulanyi.
Masaba accused the diaspora funders like Fazil for working with Mohammed Nsereko to destroy NUP and later on use Museveni’s money to buy Tik Tok live hosts like Sseremba and Katongole to destroy the genuine foot soldiers of the struggle.
Masaba accused Fazil of working with Nsereko to kidnap himself to dupe foot soldiers the last time he was in Uganda. Masaba warned fellow foot soldiers to be careful and start refusing diaspora money because funders like Fazil left the struggle long time ago.
Other contributors accused Rubongoya, Ssenyonyi and Nambeshe of failing to run the party properly in Kyagulanyi’s absence. It was advised that these official resume regular meetings with foot soldier the way Kyagulanyi used to do.
Masaba said he deserved to be thanked because he is the one who pleaded and convinced foot soldiers not to chase away family members, take away the body and people party leaders and other mourners. Masaba said the foot soldiers went through a lot raising personal money to buy their fallen comrade, Paul Musoke. Therefore, the anger they directed at MPs was understandable-Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
