The former Leader of opposition in Parliament and the Nyendo-Mukungwe Member of Parliament Mathias Mpuuga recently launched the Democratic Alliance, a coalition aimed at uniting the opposition parties in Uganda against President Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Movement (NRM).
While officiating at the Launch, Mpuuga narrated that the Democratic Alliance will soon turn into a political party that will front candidates including a presidential aspirant in the 2021 elections.
While it is Mpuuga’s right to form a political party or join any coalition, it is imperative to note that the plan to form the Democratic alliance was hatched after Mpuuga’s fall out with Bobi Wine and the subsequent bitter relationship with the National Unity platform (NUP) that saw him lose the two positions of Leader of Opposition in Parliament and Deputy President in charge of the Central region respectively.
In fact, the entire speech at the launch of the Democratic Alliance was premised on how Bobi Wine has mismanaged the opposition. Both Mpuuga and Abed Bwanika highlighted how the current biggest opposition party is in a deep slumber and how the leaders are pursuing their own interests including supporting homosexuality, clearing showing that the enmity between these politicians and NUP is irreparable.
The biggest unanswered question is whether Mpuuga and team will include NUP in the unity being preached. It is now public knowledge that there will actually be no unity but as usual the Democratic Alliance will fish some politicians from NUP since Mpuuga and Bwanika have been having allies in NUP.
Important to note is that Mpuuga has been in different political formations each electoral cycle and has not been known to be a peacemaker but a merchant of chaos and disunity.
In 2011, he was in the Suubi pressure group, in 2016 he was in DP and in 2021 he was in NUP. He will be in the Democratic alliance come 2026, a clear indication that he is a political nomad pursuing his interests and not ready to unite with others for a common goal.
Predictably, some opposition parties will not join the alliance given the selfish nature of the politicians involved in the parties. The fight for positions and finances as well as many of them fighting to be fronted as presidential candidates cannot allow any unity in Uganda’s opposition.
It is not the first time opposition in Uganda tried to unite but later failed. We have seen coalitions like TDA (The Democratic Alliance) spearheaded by John Patrick Amama Mbabazi in 2016, The United Forces of Change championed by Bobi Wine and Kizza Besigye recently but none of them came to see the light of the day.
Without a doubt, Mpuuga’s Democratic Alliance is just another political outfit created to serve people’s ego and selfish interests using their supporters as conduits. It is politically impossible for NUP leaders to mend their relationship with Mpuuga and team. Even the DP faction that is working with Mpuuga is a splinter anti-Mao group.
It is not a public secret that the FDC at Najjanakumbi cannot unite with the Katonga group as they wait for the formation of Kizza Besigye’s PFF.
The Democratic Alliance is a hoax that will just divide the opposition further but as usual some people will get positions both in the party and parliament and later benefit from government money. Ugandans seeking change should tighten their belts for more scams in the name of the opposition.
