Hajji Nasser Ntege Sebaggala rose from obscurity to political prominence. Previously, his popularity was confined to Kampala where he was only known as a versatile businessman owning a chain of enterprises in the city. But beyond the city confines, virtually nobody knew about Sebaggala, now the city mayor, who wanted to take the DP top seat to usher himself into the race for national presidency.   

His intention to campaign for political office as city mayor riding on a ticket as a voice of the wretched of the earth was his master card. Where other contenders chose to ride in cars, he chose to walk with the ordinary voter. Where others preferred to eat from expensive hotels, he dined with the downtrodden in makeshift restaurants. His strength lay more in dining and associating with the downtrodden than with a sound policy programme. This is the brand of politics that a man commonly known as seya says he wants to take  to his new party. 

He has twice given a shot at the DP’s top post without success. The latest attempt was during the February 18-20 Delegates Conference in Mbale after which he announced his intended departure or call it breakaway from DP. His recent pronouncements that he had given the party two weeks to declare the results of the February 18-20 Delegates Conference elections null and void, have been described by political pundits as hollow. They say he wants a new political party so that he can achieve his dream of running for the country’s presidency.

Will his departure kill or free DP?

“We are happy that he’s left. Actually he had introduced a brigade [of unruly people] in the party. It has never been heard of in DP. His brigade went on beating people,  not in other parties but in the DP itself,” says Prof. Joseph Mukiibi belonging to the Reiner Kafire faction.

Sebaggala’s former close friend, Mao’s faction legal adviser, Mukasa Mbidde, has low opinion about him. “We may miss him as a friend but he has left at a time when he’s no longer popular.”

Party historical stalwarts like Paul Ssemogerere declined to comment on Sebaggala’s exit from DP. But there is one thing you cannot take away from Sebaggala- ability to mobilise for spontaneous action. In November 2000 a party faction led by Zachary Olum and Mariano Drametu held a “delegates’ conference” and elected Francis Bwengye as DP president and took over the party headquarters at City House.

Sebaggala organised his militants and ejected Bwengye and reinstated the then DP president Ssemogerere who had literally been overthrown. The Bwengye faction disintegrated and it’s no more today.

However Mukiibi says DP won’t miss Sebaggala’s mobilisation potential. “People have been loyal to the party even before Sebaggala. “The founders of DP were civil servants who did party work even without standing on podiums,” he says.

None of the top elite in town or DP appears to be in Sebaggala’s faction. Observers believe his new party will most likely comprise members with modest education whose strength is having been shrewd businessmen in town. But the party’s strength will hardly stretch beyond the city bounds.

As Sebaggala nurses the pains of election defeat, Norbert Mao, the man who beat him in the Mbale polls, convened the party’s first National Executive Committee meeting on February 25 and laid down a master plan for the first 100 days.

In the plan, the party has scheduled regional workshops to market its candidate. Two, Mao will seek to meet the Interparty Cooperation as a precursor to joining the IPC. This issue of joining other opposition parties had come up during the last delegates conference but had been referred to the party’s National Executive Committee. Mao will also meet religious and cultural leaders in the country.

Will rival faction work with Mao?

Betty Namboze, a senior DP official under Reina Kafiire’s faction, says Mao has been talking about reconciliation but there are no actual efforts to support his statements. “The mediation committee formed under the outgoing party president Ssebaana Kizito’s reign to bring together all warring DP factions may continue with its work up to the next presidential elections because the process is long,” says Mukasa Mbidde.

But given the replication of the factions, Ssemogerere and Prof. Fredrick Ssempebwa’s committee may hit a dead end. This inference is based on the consideration that all their earlier recommendations for the various warring parties have been ignored or rejected outright, including the one on deferring the recent delegates conference in Mbale until the internal wrangles had been settled.

Kafiire says the Mao group held “their so-called delegates conference in hurry without following the party’s constitution and if he comes back and wins, nobody is against him.” What Kafiire means is that she can  work with Mao only after he stands and wins in the April delegates conference of her faction. Mao will not do that. This implies that Kafiire is unlikely to join Mao      

However Kampala Central MP Erias Lukwago supports  the reconciliation process to bring together the factions and is opposed to the April delegates conference of the Kafiire group. “We all belong to one DP, therefore there’s need to work together for the good of the party.”

As the party factions get consumed in internal squabbling, other opposition groups are covering ground towards selecting a joint candidate for 2011.  By the conclusion of the DP reconciliation talks, the IPC might have sealed their pact. It may be too late for DP or else it will go it alone.

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