Mathias Mpuuga a Member of Parliament representing Nyendo- Mukungwe Division on the National Unity Platform ticket and also the current Leader of opposition (LOP) in the 11th parliament is known for intellectual debates and discussions with other political parties but has recently changed strategy in expressing his differences by adopting his party’s idea of propaganda and blackmail.
Mpuuga has faced allegations of being a mole and incompetent from fellow party members to lead as LOP and questioned for not running the agenda that NUP believes in, politics of defiance and blackmail.
According to Mubarak Munyagwa, these differences seem to have piled pressure towards Mpuuga’s mode of operation, forcing him to bend his principles to suit NUP’s narrative of propaganda and blackmail.
“In 2016, Mpuuga while working as national coordinator for the opposition betrayed them, by reporting Besigye’s group to the government that wanted to use civil disobedience to remove Museveni. What has changed now is that the diplomatic Mpuuga is the one flooding social media with a campaign of alleged missing persons and not attending parliament plenary,” said Munyagwa.
Munyagwa noted that these pressures mounted on Mpuuga by most NUP activists, especially Hilary Tailor who resides in America, coupled with his need to bounce back as LOP, have pushed him on the edge forcing him to bend and adopt NUP’s tactics he had shunned.
However, some sources reveal that Mpuuga’s change of tactics might have come too late, as Bobi Wine has already started fronting and introducing John Baptist Nambeshe to external funders as the next LOP.
“Bobi Wine can never trust Mpuuga with the position of LOP, for the second term, he has actually been having private talks with Dr, Besigye concerning who the next LOP should be. Besigye has on several occasions warned Bobi Wine, about Mpuuga’s loyalty,” stated the source.
According to sources, Besigye warned Bobi Wine about Mpuuga and advised him to change a LOP, as Mpuuga is more popular among the elites and most MPs from other opposition political parties, who seek his guidance in bridging the gap between them and the government.
However, Abed Bwanika MP Kimanya Kabonera said that, Mpuuga has quietly been growing his own power base, once he noticed that, Bobi Wine and Besigye don’t trust him.
“He has for some time been running a campaign for 4 months and this is accompanied by local pressure from the pro-Bobi Wine group which has led to the creation of the Mpuuga faction and Bobi Wine faction,” Bwanika said.
Bwanika noted that, if one was keen, and has been following Mpuuga closely, through his secret sources, he initiated the “Mathias Mpuuga for NUP President 2026” campaign on different social media platforms.
According to Bwanika, Bobi Wine noticed what was going on, he called Mpuuga to explain, he denied and alleged that it was the Government running the campaign, he went on social media where he accused the Government of being involved in the campaign to separate his faction from the NUP ideology after citing controversies in the Bobi Wine leadership as NUP President.
“To us who understood Mpuuga’s strategy, we were able to experiment on his initial scuffle with NUP, where he requested accountability of the 3.1 Billion shillings that was allocated to the party by IPOD to run its activities and was diverted by Bobi Wine and a section of a few individuals who secretly diverted the money that was initially planned for setup of party structures at the National level,” added Bwanika
Mpuuga has been a self-speaking individual who is currently under pressure to fight for his second term or take another direction and maintain the Mpuuga faction, because his efforts to retain the LOP position seem slim as Bobi Wine is already introducing John Baptist Nambeshe to their external funders as one of his trusted persons in the struggle.
