News
Bobi distances self from NRM after ruling party claims his victory
Bobi waves to his fans
The newly elected Member of Parliament for Kyadondo East Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu, better known for his musical career name as Bobi Wine, remedy has dismissed as baseless and false claims that he was working for the ruling NRM, which is why top party executives are claiming his victory.
Following his landslide win in which the singer turned politician scored 77% of the vote and defeating both FDC and NRM candidates, top executives from the ruling party rushed with congratulatory messages for Kyagulanyi more to the surprise of many people.
This forced many to spin that Kyagulanyi was actually indirectly bankrolled by NRM to defeat and embarrass FDC at the home of Dr. Kizza Besigye.
In celebratory mood, NRM’s Secretary General Kasule Lumumba, said that Kyagulanyi’s win was a blow to Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leader Dr. Kizza Besigye whom she said had been embarrassed by voters in his own backyard by refusing to vote for the FDC candidate Apollo Kantinti.
Just before the poll, Lumumba had said that: “This election is a contest between us in the NRM and Dr Kizza Besigye because it was held in his own constituency and getting him defeated in his own constituency will be very good for us.” It was no surprise that after Bobi’s victory she duly congratulated him when she tweeted that: “Congratulations to the people of Kyadondo East, congratulations to @BobiWineOmuband Kyagulanyi Robert Sentamu.”
NRM’s Lawrence Mulindwa’s added to speculation when he said that Kyagulanyi’s win Kyadondo was shared victory with the ruling NRM Party.
NRM’s Lydia Wanyoto, now working as Deputy Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission to the AMISOM stated that NRM was particularly happy that despite Besigye’s spirited participation on the same trail canvassing for Kantinti’s support, he trailed behind the NRM candidate having garnered only 1,832 votes.
“It is true that our candidate did not win but we are happy that we managed to beat the FDC candidate with a big margin moreover within Dr. Besigye’s backyard,” Wanyoto gloated.
But Kyagulanyi has come to deny he has links with the ruling party at all, except that its supporters in Kyadondo share in the ‘suffering brought by its failures’.
Kyagulanyi told The Sunrise when asked about the claims that NRM executives are just opportunists. “I have no time responding to such lies since I am not a politician. It is politicians who operate on lies, manipulation and blackmail,”
He added: “It is only those NRMs, DPs, FDCs and members of other parties who are suffering the same injustices and concerns I suffer and advocated for who should rightly own my victory. Other than those, the rest are sheer opportunists and liars.”
The NRM’s candidate garnered 4,566 votes second to the Kyagulanyi’s 25,659 votes (77%) of a total number of 32,999 votes which were cast.
FDC leaders have not allowed their rivals to claim what they consider undeserved victory. The party’s National Chairman Wasswa Biriggwa has dismissed NRM’s claims as hollow and opportunistic.
He stated that Kyagulanyi has always been part and parcel of the defiance campaign which he says is an expression of the same pain and aspirations championed by FDC leaders including Dr. Besigye.
“This like a wedding where both invited and uninvited guests attend but in this case the NRM people claiming Kyagulanyi’s victory all pass for the uninvited ones,” Biriggwa said.
Some political analysts have argued, perhaps in agreement with FDC, that Kyagulanyi’s victory was a vote against the status quo.
Comments
