James Mubiru the Lubaga North KCCA councilor has denied allegations that he pocketed millions of shillings from Abubaker Kawalya of Lubaga North so as to softened his drive to secure the National Unity Platform (NUP) ticket for Lubaga North Member of Parliament.
He claims that he pulled out of the competition after high-level talks mediated by the party top leadership to avoid dividing their support after he was advised to concentrate on retaining his KCCA councilor position while Kawalya also retains his Lubaga South MP slot.
“I listened to them because they gave me a satisfactory explanation. First, they told me that contesting against Kawalya when he was just serving his first term was not fair, secondly the party has a policy that if a legislator has no issues with the party leadership, they should not be disturbed in the first term. I’m telling you there was no money that was given to me,” Mubiru said.
He further confirmed that he petitioned the party leadership with touching evidence placing Kawalya on the spot over clandestine dealing with Annet Anita Among the speaker of parliament which were threatening NUP survival.
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He insists that Kawalya should explain to the public why he is so close to Among a well-known person who is being used by the state to frustrate NUP political struggles to the extent of him accepting her invitation to attend Iftar dinner organized by herself and husband Moses Magogo the president of the Federation of Uganda Football Association (FUFA).
Hiding in development, Mubiru claims that Kawalya has invited Among as the Chief Guest at his thanksgiving ceremony on 17th May 2026. He thus wonders why he is holding a thanksgiving when their party president Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) was forced to run out of the country to save his life and a number of their party supporters and leaders are rotting in prison.
Ono Bwino has learnt that both Speaker Among and his competitor on the office of the speaker of parliament Norbert Mao are fighting for NUP’s forty plus votes to secure a win as Speaker of the 12th parliament.
The development comes at a time when Yusuf Nsibambi the defeated Mawokota South legislator is insisting that President Museveni through speaker Among is in talks with the newly elected NUP legislators to cooperate with him in the coming government.
He claims that when he recently visited him at State House Entebbe, he went with other opposition legislators including those of NUP but they declined to appear in the photo with the president for their personal safety.
Sources within NUP told Ono Bwino that a number of the party legislators are at crossroads and are pondering joining the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) thinking that Bobi Wine’s popularity in Uganda politics will not go beyond 2031.
Kawalya, a brother to controversial former Kampala district woman MP Nabilla Nagayi Ssempala declined to comment on the allegations when contacted.
