By KT Reporter
Assistants involved in his Kampala central MP campaigns have leaked NUP secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya’s future plans. They say that he is planning to become NUP president in the near future, whether Kyagulanyi’s supporters like it or not.
One of his campaign managers for Kampala central says that they are motivated to work hard for Lewis because better days are lying ahead. He says that after winning the Kampala central MP race against Minsa Kabanda, Lewis will be made the leader of opposition, which he will use to market himself nationally to more Ugandans.
NUP insiders are sure that Kyagulanyi can’t defeat Museveni in 2026 and the best they can get is the position of LoP and lead the opposition in parliament.
After that becoming lop, Lewis will use the facilities of that office to prepare to succeed Kyagulanyi as the second president for NUP. He will also keep the title of principal for NUP. Kyagulanyi is supposed to leave the party presidency towards 2030 because they have to be 10 years he can serve.
Medard Lubega Ssegona wanted to be the one to come after Kyagulanyi but that wasn’t going to be accepted because that position belongs to Lewis. Insiders say that whoever Lewis sees as a threat to his throne will have to be dealt with decisively, just like Nandala Mafabi did to those Besigye loyalists like Ingrid Turinawe, Mubarak Munyagwa, Habib Buwembo and others after he saw them as threats to him insise FDC.
Insiders say that Muwanga Kivumbi of Butambala is someone now Lewis sees as a big threat and he is determined to contain him.
Sources add that Muwanga Kivumbi will have a hard time after elections as was the case with Mathias Mpuuga because Lewis fears he will shine in the 12th parliament a lot and threaten his future plans.
The two have already been clashing at Kavule about flag bearers for NUP. One time Lewis told Muwanga to know his limits and avoid thinking he is a very important person in NUP decisions.
Exactly like Nandala did in 2021 candidates selection, Lewis has ensured that his personal loyalists are given party tickets even if they are personally weak and don’t have much history in the struggle.
Examples include Nattabi Maria of Butembe in Jinja district, Martin Ssejjemba for Mawokota south in Mpigi, Yusuf Kiruluta Nkeretanyi for Kalungu east in Kalungu district, Maseruka of Mukono south, Frank Kabuye of Kasanda south, Sulaiman Kiwanuka for Nakifuuma, the very talkative Mpigi LC5 flag bearer Simon Peter Kawuki, Mpigi NUP registrar Sheikh Umaru Abbas Magezi, registrar Tamia Kamyuka and others.
These are his personal flag bearers who will be using parliament as an avenue to promote his project while spying on his enemies inside NUP. Sejjemba who is also the Mpigi LC5 chairman, was supposed to be expelled from the party after state house soldiers arrested and charged him corruption and extorting money from job seekers in Mpigi district service commission but Lewis defended him. There are recordings of him discussing these things but Lewis ignored all that. Sejjemba spies for him on all NUP leaders from greater Mpigi.
Ssejjemba is out on bail. Instead of being punished or investigated by the party, he was instead rewarded and made the coordinator of Kunga mobilisation for greater Mpigi covering Mpigi, Butambala and Gomba districts. Lewis wants him to become the MP for Mawokota south because he is his person and knows all his secret deals including why doctors Mirembe, Damani and Roy have to be destroyed and now.
Sources say that Lewis badly wants all these to win and become MPs because he has personally been propping them up to serve his future purposes as he plans to upstage the Kyagulanyi group and become the next leader of NUP. Sources say that Lewis has his list of flag bearers he is giving Ugx100m each yet the party officially won’t be funding candidates.
He is already a signatory to many party documents and has his informers everywhere including at Magere, parliament and in NUP’s Kunga structures.
At the same time, Lewis has personally ensured that those he sees as threatening, because of their charisma and better political qualities, are sidelined and politically destroyed early.
Examples include Dr. Roy Semboga, Dr. Ali Damani, Dr. Joyce Mirembe of Mawokota south in Mpigi. He doesn’t like Roy’s rival Fred Nyanzi either but he doesn’t feel threatened by him. Roy and Damani were hated by Lewis because he saw their strong points in the early days of people power.
The 35 original founders had many meetings to choose the executive secretary of people power before it became NUP. Roy and Damani were strong contenders and Lewis almost lost the secretary general position to one of them. This is something he has never forgotten. Roy wanted Kawempe south but he was frustrated and it was given to Nyanzi.
Damani who treats Kyagulanyi’s family members at his capital medicals clinic in Kasangati, wanted Kyadondo east and even resigned his senior consultant job at Mulago hospital but he was ignored in favour of Muwadda of whom Lewis isn’t threatened because he is already unpopular in the constituency. Joyce Mirembe was also a founder of people power.
He is the general secretary for Uganda medical association. He was sitting in NUP national executive committee NEC as the head of institutions. He was also fired from his job under a USAID by the ministry of health bosses because he refused to denounce people power yet Lewis’s people inside NUP have only persecuted him. He recruited many of the people into people power in Mpigi district.
He was recently forced out of the NEC and the post of head of institutions was given to Dr. Judith Nalukwago, a young girl from Makerere medical school who Lewis isn’t scared of. Allan Mutagubya is the other people power founder who Lewis feared and mistreated until he left NUP.
Jeremiah Kaaya Mwanje was also unwanted by Lewis and was forced out of the Bukomansimbi MP race until he felt demoralized and left the struggle to concentrate on being a lawyer.
Allan Mutagubya had been the UYD chairman for Makerere chapter and also headed the team which wrote Kyagulanyi’s manifesto for 2021.
He was among the first opposition boys who encouraged Kyagulanyi not to fear Museveni but to have courage and the raw to start people power pressure group and stand for president. He was the administrator of the secretive whatsapp forum called Kagugube fellowship.
It’s members at first were five people including Kyagulanyi. They used to meet at Faizal Mugayi’s pizza restaurant on Ham towers of Makerere for discussions which planned Kyagulanyi’s campaign in Kyadondo.
Allan Mutagubya was fought by Lewis who hated him because Kyagulanyi trusted him a lot, until he quit the NUP people power struggle and got the job of district entomologist in Kalangala district where he now works as a civil servant.
Sources say that by fighting all these young and loyal cadres of NUP, Lewis wants Kyagulanyi isolated so that when time comes to force him out like Nandala did to Besigye, there will be none of those strong fighters holding any powerful positions, which can be used to counter his moves.
Sources add that in the next five years, before 2031 campaigns begin properly, it will be clear to the whole country that NUP is Lewis’s party, and not Kyagulanyi’s. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
