The current leadership of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party has acknowledged that the party does not currently operate under its own constitution but rather follows the one passed down from John Kibalama in 2020.
A statement released by NUP on their social media handle X noted that there are misleading statements indicating that they don’t run on a constitution as a party, stating that is not true since currently, the party is running on the constitution inherited from Kibalama in 2020 when they took over the leadership.
“The constitution we currently use was inherited when we took over leadership of the party in 2020, and as we have repeatedly said, this constitution has several defects that need amendments,” a statement reads in part.
NUP further states that, currently, they do not own a gazetted constitution by the electoral commission since they have yet to complete the necessary administrative steps to have an amended constitution. They state that they are in the process of doing so and will avail the amended constitution to the public.
However, NUP supporters are not taking the revelation lightly, as they accuse the party of deception. Stella Nyanzi, an opposition political activist, has rubbished the NUP leadership’s explanation of Kibalama’s 2020 constitution as having defects. She claims that Lewis David Rubongoya, the secretary general of NUP, misled Robert Kyagulanyi by forging a new constitution, stealing Kibalama’s original from the electoral commission, and replacing it with a forged one.
“Rubongoya forged the current constitution submitted to the electoral commission and hid the original one, and you know that is why NUP cannot avail its constitution to the public because of what was tampered with in the original constitution; the current one favors Kyagaulanyi, and the original one does not; it has the vice president as the decision maker, not the president; the president is just ceremonial,” Nyanzi said during a Twitter space.
Abed Bwanika Member of Parliament Kimaanya Kabonera Masaka, on the NUP ticket, stated that he is analyzing the said constitution and cross-checking its real contents so as to understand how and why the current leadership is making certain decisions.
“What kind of constitution is that that allows someone to wake up and sit in his bedroom and fire people from the party at will? Whatever we are hearing could be right—that the original Kibalama’s constitution was switched to fit an individual’s family interests,” Bwanika said.
Bwanika claims that the party is being administered as if it has no constitution, which he strongly opposes, claiming that the individuals who inherited the party and its constitution do not comprehend it, which will result in the party’s downfall.
According to Uganda Electoral Commission laws, political parties are required to have a written constitution that sets out the structure and organization of their party, like party governance and rules for carrying out business.
NUP’s admission of not implementing the amended constitution and instead using Kibalama’s 2020 one, which they claim is defective, has prompted many political observers to forecast additional instability in the party and its demise in the near future.
