President Museveni’s political party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) on Wednesday lost Butambala county MP by elections to DP’s Muwanga Kivumbi.

Muwanga Kivumbi polled 14,754 votes against his closest challenger NRM’s Faisal Kikulukunyu who polled 12,792. Uganda Federal Alliance’s Ibrahim Tomusage polled third with 150 votes while Independent candidate, Shafiq Sentamu came fourth with 124 votes and another Independent candidate Farouk Walungama polled 60 votes. The seat fell vacant after Court overturned the election of NRM’s Faisal Kikulukunyu over electoral irregularities.

But many people were left wondering why NRM lost this election yet its candidate was so popular in Butambala and above all an incumbent. However our informers on the ground have been told that Kikulukunyu lost the seat not because he was bad but because of the party that fronted him, NRM. The people of Butambala told us that when President Museven and his wife went to Butanbala they annoyed, embarrassed and reminded the people there why they should not and never again vote for NRM and people who are friends to Museveni’s family. The president’s convoy of cars that move at the expence of people’s money got stuck in the ‘very bad’, very dust in sunny times and very muddy roads in rainy seasons.

The people of Butambala told our informers that most roads in their area had not been repaired for the last 25 years only Museveni going there for votes. Museveni had last been in Butambala during the bush war that brought him to power in 1986, according to some of the people we interviewed in Butambala.

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The newly elected MP for Butambala County, Muwanga Kivumbi has a lot to do in his constituency. Butambala is so remote, people still stand on anti hills to get telephone network, and the roads in this constituency are hell.

Muwanga defeated NRM’s Faisal Kikulukunyu with a margin of over 800 votes. The seat fell vacant after the court nullified Kikulukunyu’s election victory over voter bribery.

DP has taken Butambala from the ruling party NRM. Gen Kayihura withdrew to the capital city of Uganda, Kampala for further instructions. This is the third pick up for DP now the second largest opposition party in parliament after FDC!

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In Butambala parliamentary by elections this Wednesday, two candidates, Muwanga Kivumbi of DP and Faisal Kikulukunyu of the ruling party NRM finished casting their votes.

But there was drama when Kikulukunyu and Muwanga Kivumbi met and each accused the other of sponsoring irregularities in the electoral process. Kikulukunyu accused Muwanga of using DP politicians, who he says included Medard Ssegona, Mathias Mpuga and Lulume Bayiga to give money to voters in the villages.

The Police has already impounded two cars belonging to DP supporters and taken them to Kabasanda Police station until the voting exercise is over. Kikulukunyu cast his vote at Kasanda Ssaza ground at 11:00am.

However Kivumbi confronted Kikulukunyu that it’s his ruling party which is sponsoring voter bribery and using state terror machinery to rig elections in favour of its party candidate in the race.

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The National Resistance Movement (NRM) leaning independent candidate in Butambala parliamentary by elections, who is also Butambala district Deputy Speaker, Faridah Nakiboneka has withdrawn from the race after president Museveni reportedly telephoned her today morning telling her to stand down for Kikulukunyu.

Sources privy to this information told us that Museveni promised her to stand in 2012 parliamentary by elections.

But this is not new for NRM leaning candidates to step down for official NRM candidates. In the recently concluded Kasese district woman MP by elections, an NRM leaning candidate had to stand down for NRM’s Rehema Muhindo after the intervention of president Museveni but this didn’t compel FDC’s Winfred Kiiza from humiliating the ruling party.

In Bushenyi Municipality, one Katungwe had to stand down for NRM’s Nasser Basajjabalaba when president Museveni intervened but still FDC’s Odo Tayebwa floored NRM.

In Bukoto south parliamentary by elections, Robert Rutaro and two other candidates had to quit the race For NRM’s Alintuma Nsambu after again president Museveni’s intervention but that also couldn’t withstand DP’s Mathias Nsubuga to floors Museveni’s candidate in the race.

Now people are waiting to see on 12^th September whether the voters in Butambala will not reject NRM by voting DP’s Muwanga Kivumbi.

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Butambala County parliamentary by election nominations starts on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

The electoral commission is done with updating the voter’s registers and the registers are being displayed in the constituency to remove the names of the dead or people who shifted from Butambala.

The Butambala district returning officer, Mark Muganzi is in charge of manning this by election exercise.

Muganzi says that the commission will nominate Democratic Party’s Muwanga Kivumbi, independent’s Faridah Nakiboneka, Uganda Federal Alliance’s Tomusange Batemyeto, Forum for Democratic Change’s Shalif Ssentongo, National Resistance Movement’s Faisal Kikulukunyu  and Farouk Walungama, a journalist with radio Bilaali.

The seat fell vacant after the High Court in Kampala nullified the election of Faisal Kikulukunyu over voter bribery.

Kikulukunyu was jointly sued with the Electoral Commission. Kivumbi accused the electoral commission of having failed to restrain Kikulukunyu from bribing voters during the campaign period leading up to the February 18th general parliamentary elections. The main factors all candidates claim to have is having the support of Kabaka and being Muslims.

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The Electoral Commission (EC) has rejected the Democratic Party demands to extend the number of days for campaigns in the Butambala parliamentary by-elections.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday in Kampala, the party DP Secretary general Mathias Nsubuga demanded the commission to extend the period saying that the time allocated for the exercise is too little for their candidate Muwanga Kivumbi to travel all the villages in the constituency.

Nsubuga said that Butambala has eight sub counties divided into 25 parishes with over 174 villages- an area which is too big to cover in a short period of time.

But the deputy spokesperson of the electoral commission, Paul Bukenya says that it is impossible to extend the time because the law provides that for every by-election at the Parliamentary level it should be conducted within 60 days of the falling vacant of a seat.

“The electoral commission is on time and it has sent a list of different programmes that would be run in that period to all registered political parties in Uganda.

The campaigns for Butambala parliamentary by elections would start on 28th August 2012 and the elections would take place on 12 September. The nominations are set on the 20th of August. The seat fell vacant after the Court of Appeal nullified the election of the Butambala County MP, the NRM’s Faizal Kikulukunyu over voter bribery. Kikulukunyu was dragged to court by his political rival, the DP’s Muwanga Kivumbi.

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 The Butambala district Chief Administration Officer, Joseph Byaruhanga says that they wrote to the RCC head offices asking for payment for the gravels but the company has declined to respond positively.

According to Byaruhanga, RCC says that there is no law that gives the district mandate to ask for compensation when the materials mined are going to benefit the general public.

Reynolds Construction Company uses the gravels it gets from the quarries in Butambala for constructing roads.

Byaruhanga now says that the district will devise other ways to ensure that this God given treasure benefits the people of Butambala in a special way.

He says that RCC gets a lot of money from government therefore it has to pay for the gravels.

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