Minister Hajjat Minsa Kabanda’s political strategists have alleged that State House operative Maj Emmanuel Kutesa is the one financing and mobilizing for political support for former Owino market boss Suzan Kushaba to frustrate their person’s efforts to secure National Resistance Movement (NRM) ticket for the position of Kampala Central Member of Parliament come 2026.
Maj Kutesa is a household name in Kampala ghettos and has been coordinating State House with ghetto youths.
He is looked upon as a very strong person in influencing the decisions of ghetto youths and his name dominated the recent violence in Kawempe North by election.
Because of his political influence in Kampala politics, minister Kabanda’s political strategists are scared that Kushaba might use her financial muscles and his connections to Maj Kutesa and his connections to outsmart her for the party ticket.
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Apart from Maj Kutesa, Kushaba is a strong member and supporter of Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and his Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) a political civic organisation which also wants to be in control of Kampala city politics.
David Kabanda the PLU Secretary General guided members that since their organisation is not a political party, they should use NRM as a political vehicle to win political offices come 2026.
“It’s true we have started feeling the political heat and the minister has no time to be in the office, she is always on the ground to help us to secure our coming victory,” one of the strategists said.
On Thursday, the Minister was expected to preside over a meeting organized by traders under the leadership of John Kabanda of FUTA to explain to Kisenyi market traders the response they received from president Museveni’s young brother and also the chief coordinator of the Operation Wealth Creation Gen Salim Saleh concerning the piece of their land which city mafias want to grab hiding behind Gen Saleh’s name.
However, the engagement was cancelled at the last minute because the minister was on the ground campaigning.
Both minister Kabanda and Kushaba are very sure that the one who will control the grassroot leadership of their party will have more chances of winning the party card even though insiders in Kushaba’s camp are threatening that if their candidate unfairly losses in the party primaries, she will contest on independent ticket.
The NRM party leadership banned independent candidates who decide to contest against the party candidate after losing in the primaries.
However, lawyers insist that it is not illegal for a person who loses in the party primaries to contest in the national elections as an independent.
The Minister is feeling the political heat and has abandoned her official office because she knows that she might lose her ministerial position in the next cabinet reshuffle if she does not win a parliamentary seat in the coming elections.
The minister is very confident that she will win the day because she is a city born from Kisenyi. She recently boasted that Kushaba is wasting her time in claiming that she is the commander of ghettos in the city especially Kisenyi.
Kushaba further boasted of having cemented a strong political base in Kampala where she plied her trade as a market vendor in Nakasero market when she was still a young girl and was promoted to become a market master.
During her leadership, she made a number of friends who are still working in Nakasero market and those that left gave their stalls to their children and grandchildren while others relocated to other markets like Owino market, Bugolobi market, Wandegeya market and many others.
On the other side, Kabanda claims that because of her popularity, she has been voted several times as a city councillor and represented the city at city hall and at the division level where she performed well by defeating opposition candidates even though she was contesting on the NRM ticket in a region many claim is an opposition stronghold.
She also boasts of having a strong support in the sports fraternity noting that she was a board member of Nakivubo stadium and has helped many Owino market vendors by increasing their capital that is why they are the ones mobilizing support for her.
This website has established that Kushaba declared her interest to contest in Kampala central because she wants revenge on Kabanda who she accuses of being behind her eviction from Owino market chairmanship.
Insiders also claim that former Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Executive Director Dr Dorothy Kisakka and her deputy Eng Edward Luyimbazi Ssali are also behind Kushaba and they are financing her political activities against minister Kabanda as a way of getting back to her for fighting them when they were still at city hall which resulted into them losing their jobs and being criminally prosecuted.
Minister Kabuye has also abandoned his office to concentrate in Nakaseke Central where he is planning to contest as a Member of Parliament to oust National Unity Platform’s Allan Mayanja.
Kabuye contested and won during the NRM grassroot elections and he is now rooting for the NRM ticket.
He knows that once he becomes a legislator, his ministerial position will be protected in the next government if president Museveni wins the presidential elections.
