The Kampala City Lord Mayor, Eng. Ronald Balimwezo Nsubuga, has broken his silence on the growing internal rifts within the leading opposition party NUP, saying he had long warned fellow leaders about the conduct of what he calls ‘unruly’ party foot soldiers.
Balimwezo who is known for his gumite nature as he takes no prisoners and unapologetically speaks his mind, reveals that the ongoing war between foot soldiers and MPs was predictable, given the soft stance that the Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya and his Kavule counterparts unleash when the foot soldiers go unruly.
Speaking in an interview held with a YouTuber Kisitu John Bosco at his City Hall office this morning, Balimwezo said the toxic political environment now playing out in NUP, where MPs are openly attacked, abused and threatened by party bloggers and grassroots mobilizers, was predictable and avoidable.
“I warned MPs about the unruly character of those foot soldiers. I told my colleagues that if we don’t regulate our base and create discipline, this same group will turn against us. Now it is happening,” Balimwezo said.
“When I said shabby foot soldiers shouldn’t come to my office, I saw people like Dan Magic abusing me on Twitter. Unfortunately, Rubongoya never came out to stop such attacks and now we are paying the heavy price of indiscipline,” he added.
The remarks come at a time when several NUP MPs have complained of being targeted by party foot soldiers on social media for holding divergent views or for contesting decisions made by the party leadership.
Balimwezo, who has himself been at the center of controversy said he had become a victim of the same culture he warned against. Another NUP MP, Hon. Sheilah Amaniyo said the radical conduct of foot soldiers is what stopped her from going to the party headquarters in Makerere Kavule, while Hon. Ayagalaki Jamal Mukuve and Maseruka Robert complained about the begging character of foot soldiers.
“We give the party money every month. We even contributed 20m from our car grant but still these foot soldiers keep begging from us. We mobilized 800m and we are just 48 NUP MPs. Why are we being harassed? We need breathing space,” Mukuve said.
“When you build a political movement on insults, intimidation and blackmail, you lose the ability to have honest internal debate. Many MPs are quiet not because they agree, but because they fear being branded sellouts by foot soldiers who don’t even understand party ideology,” Maseruka added.
Balimwezo noted that the commercialization and intimidation in Ugandan politics that he recently decried on national television is being fueled by undisciplined structures that thrive on character assassination rather than policy competition.
He called on NUP President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine, and the party’s top leadership to rein in the excesses of social media activists and restore internal democracy.
“We need to differentiate between support and cultism. Foot soldiers should be empowered to defend the party, not to become a weapon to silence leaders. If we don’t address this, we shall lose good leaders,” Balimwezo stated.
The Lord Mayor insisted he remains committed to NUP but said he will not be intimidated by any foot soldiers who don’t want to understand how politics operates. “I’m in good relations with the Executive Director Hajat Sharifa Buzeki and I saw some foot soldiers complaining about it,” he said. “I will not succumb to blackmail,” he warned
Efforts to get a comment from NUP leadership on the matter were futile by press time, as the Secretary General David Lewis Rubongoya was not available on his official phone contact.
