NRM Unveils Reasons for Mbwatekamwa’s Disqualification from Mbarara Mayoral Race

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) has finally broken its silence regarding the disqualification of Igara West MP Louis Gaffa Mbwatekamwa Rukamba from contesting in the party primaries for Mbarara City Mayor. The party’s Legal Department, through its head Enoch Barata, revealed that the decision was based on issues of residency and alleged fraudulent alteration of party registration records, not a lack of a land title as Mbwatekamwa had claimed.

According to Barata, Mbwatekamwa is officially registered as a resident of Gongo Village, Kyamuhunga Sub-county in Bushenyi District, a registration confirmed during the March 2024 NRM party register update. While acknowledging Mbwatekamwa’s history of shifting constituencies (from Kasambya in Mubende to Igara West, and now seeking Mbarara), Barata clarified that geographical shifts alone are not grounds for disqualification. The key requirement, he stressed, is proving registration in the NRM register for the intended contesting area.

The NRM’s investigation revealed that on June 10, 2025, the day he picked up nomination forms for Mbarara City, Mbwatekamwa was issued a voter identification slip confirming his residency in Gongo Village, Bushenyi. However, later that same day, he allegedly bribed a data entry official to alter his details, making it appear as though his NRM registration had been transferred to Mbarara. This bribery case is currently under internal review by the party.

Barata further cited Section 129 of the Local Government Act, which mandates that a candidate for district or city chairperson must be “ordinarily resident” in that area – a requirement distinct from parliamentary election rules. A query was raised when Mbwatekamwa submitted his forms, prompting the party’s probe.

The NRM’s internal system showed that the cut-off date for register updates was January 2025, by which time Mbwatekamwa was still registered in Igara West. Furthermore, during village-level NRM elections on May 6, 2025, Mbwatekamwa neither participated nor raised any objections when registrars audited registers for residency confirmation. Hard-copy registers for both Mbarara and Bushenyi confirmed his continued registration in Gongo Village, with no record of him in the Mbarara register.

Crucially, NRM system records indicated that Mbwatekamwa’s name was “irregularly and fraudulently inserted” into the Mbarara register on June 10, 2025, just after noon, the very day he collected nomination forms.

“Mbwatekamwa knows the law very well,” Barata asserted, dismissing the MP’s public claims of disqualification due to lacking a land title in Mbarara. “The disqualification was based on our investigations and the applicable laws.”

As a result, Mbwatekamwa is deemed ineligible to contest in the Mbarara City mayoral race under the NRM ticket. The Mbarara City mayoral primary, scheduled for July 16, 2025, will now proceed with other nominated candidates, including incumbent Mayor Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi and Seth Murari. This clarification from the NRM comes just days before the June 30, 2025, deadline for the nomination of mayoral and parliamentary candidates.