Former Jinja City Woman MP Manjeri Kyebakutika has heaped blame on the leadership of the NUP secretariat at Kavule. We had called her to corroborate on claims that she had joined Gen MK’s PLU after becoming frustrated due to the acrimonious loss of her MP Seat in the 15th January 2026 elections.
A pioneer of the Bobi Wine Kyagulanyi People Power politics in Jinja and generally Busoga, Kyebakutika, polling 9,411 votes, lost to Sarah Lwasansula (21,665 votes) who carried the NUP flag and benefited from the Kyagulanyi momentum (the masanyalaze).
Other 6 candidates (Sabrina Lukalu, Annet Musika, Petra Enid Nabukwasi, Margaret Nakamate Florence Naasubo & Zainah Wakeba Nambi) shared another about 16,000 votes.
In response to the question whether she had joined PLU and why, Kyebakutika said it was all propaganda being fabricated by powerful NUP officials at Kavule who she said have personal vendetta against her. She said Lwansasula was favored and given the flag, while bypassing her who was an effective incumbent, simply because some of the decision makers at Kavule considered her a very beautiful younger lady who knew how to effectively and seductively smile her way to the ticket.
“It was all about the skirt. She knew how to wear the nice skirt and smile at those people and that’s how I was sacrificed and the party card given to her even after I had put in a lot of personal money. Those people are very treacherous even God will never forgive them,” said Kyebakutika who revealed she was speaking from Kenya where she had travelled for some personal errands. “They are spreading all that propaganda because they are hurting to see that I’m doing very well financially and not grassing as they expected even after being betrayed and forced out of Parliament.”
She said the NUP Secretariat was full of vey treacherous people who are also very ungrateful. “With exception of Joel Senyonyi my former boss as LoP, who is decent gentlemen, the ret of those people are very bad, selfish and manipulative. They don’t appreciate people who genuinely work hard for the struggle. All they know is selfishness, greed and divisive politics. We worked whole-heartedly for Kyagulanyi since the days of People Power but they never accepted us because of where we come from. The only way they paid us back was by dividing us to become antagonistic and hate each other. Why do you want to recruit me in your hate against Gen Moses Bigirwa? Why do you want me to think he is bad person simply because you are envious of the good political oratory talents God put in him?”
She explained that many ordinary Basogas will never forgive Kyagulanyi and his fellow leaders in NUP over the selfish and destructive manner in which they used and dumped PP pioneers like herself, Moses Bigirwa, Iganga ex-Mayor Bamu Lulenzi and others. She asserted that the likes of new Iganga MP Mudiobole Nasser and Paul Mwiru were originally in FDC at a time they (Kyebakutika & others) risked the unknown by gambling on Kyagulanyi. “At that time, they laughed at us and saw us as jokers. They preferred the comfort zone of FDC which was already powerful and a well-established party but today they are the darlings at Kavule and the so-called NUP kingmakers in Busoga. It wouldn’t have been those people [NUP top leaders] to discard us the way they have done in favour of newcomers,” cursed Manjeri Kyebakutika.
“For all those five years I was the only NUP MP and I did very well holding forte for the party in the whole of Busoga. They even gave me a nonexistent position in Parliament but I still served because I loved my party but see how they paid me back in the end with total betrayal. Those new comers they are praising today were nowhere when we were struggling to pioneer People Power among the Basoga who were originally skeptical.” A fire-breathing Kyebakutika promised a more structured interview once she comes back from her Kenyan errands. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com.
