Kyagulanyi denies disagreements in NUP

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The President of the National Unity Platform-NUP Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu has described as propaganda the news that there is infighting within the party.

Kyagulanyi, the runner-up of the 2021 presidential election says the government is the source of the propaganda which is intended to divert the public from the real issues affecting the country. A story published in the government-owned New Vision newspaper on Monday alleged that NUP has disagreements that could lead to its downfall.

But Kyagulanyi who was addressing a press conference at the party offices in Kamwokya said the government is using the state-owned media to divert the attention of the public away from the soaring fuel prices, abductions of members of the opposition, and the bad leadership in the country. He said NUP shall not be diverted by propaganda, and that they are still committed to the cause of rescuing the country from what he called NRM misrule.

Kyagulanyi further added that the regime has co-opted some members from the opposition whom they are using to fight NUP. However, he added that anyone no matter their party affiliation, whose words and actions help to speed up the downfall of President Yoweri Museveni, is their friend. “And anybody who; no matter where they come from, no matter which religion or tribe, no matter who they are, for as long as their words and actions are helping the dictator to oppress us further, that person is an enemy to Uganda and Ugandans, remember that,” Kyagulanyi said.

He appealed to those in the opposition but aided the government to realize the impact their actions have on the struggle for change.

Speaking at the same press conference, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga also refuted the existence of internal fighting in NUP also calling the allegations diversionary from the challenges faced by Ugandans. Mpuuga said that the propaganda is an attempt to scatter NUP, a young party whose hey days are clearly ahead.

For his part, the Opposition Chief Whip in Parliament and Manjiya County Member of Parliament John Baptist Nambeshe said that what is happening to their party is the handwork of President Museveni who has in the past vowed to obliterate the opposition.

Although party officials have vehemently denied the existence of these ideological differences between pacifists led by Mpuuga and activists who appear to be having Kyagulanyi’s blessing, sources independently told URN in a story published yesterday that actually these differences exist and are intense.

A number of NUP MPs and party leaders told us that they believe Mpuuga is steering the house in the wrong direction by choosing to be conciliatory to the NRM other than aggressively attacking them. These MPs said this is not what their people voted them for.

“Mpuuga’s style of leadership is too gentle and that is not what we are as NUP; a party of young people. Even the people who inspire us like Julius Malema [South African opposition politician who leads the Economic Freedom Fighters] don’t handle every matter in a dialogue form. With the government we are dealing with today, we must be very aggressive because this is a government that doesn’t believe in dialogue or democracy,” an MP said.

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URN