Abdu Katuntu, the legislator representing Bugweri County and a renowned opposition politician has defected to the ruling National Resistance Movement party.
MP Katuntu is one of the Forum for Democratic Change founders and a former UPC supporter who is serving his 5th term in parliament was welcomed to the NRM caucus on September 6, 2023, by President Museveni during the NRM caucus meeting.
Katuntu, a politician who has been in Parliament since 2001, is an experienced legislator and astute lawyer with a good record of participating in drafting several bills in parliament as well as chairing different committees of parliament successfully.
Before the 2021 elections, Katuntu had complained of the confusion in the FDC and castigated opposition leaders like Besigye for conducting party business like personal organizations.
Without a doubt, Katuntu joining NRM is a big catch for the ruling party in its struggle to consolidate support in Busoga and the surrounding areas. It is also a sign of a lack of vision by the opposition, something that has made historical and senior founding members of the opposition parties quit.
Katuntu has been one of the strongest brains in the opposition and a legal consultant whose contribution to the opposition politics in the country has been immense.
The principled Katuntu was let down by other selfish and hypocritical opposition leaders whose goal is to amass wealth and attain positions using parties as a ladder.
The fact that politicians of goodwill like Katuntu officially left the opposition exposes the opposition in Uganda and shows how it is a waste of time for the young generation to join the opposition and be misled by self-seekers.
Katuntu is not a meal card politician; he is a principled politician with values whose aim was to build the opposition but later realized there was no future for the opposition in Uganda.
Katuntu did not join the NRM caucus alone but went along with the Bardege-Layibi Division MP Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, a former FDC supporter.
The continued defections by strong opposition leaders of goodwill depict a bleak future for the opposition and truly send a signal to the Ugandans that the current opposition has nothing to offer and should be ignored since they won’t take the country anywhere.
Severally, opposition leaders have come out to express their regret and loss of hope in the opposition parties in Uganda and their leaders. Lack of ideology and focus has caused these parties to disintegrate, with some giving birth to new parties and others disappearing into political oblivion.
With these strong opposition leaders defecting to the NRM, opposition parties are left weakened with no hopes of recruiting new serious supporters to steer these parties. This strengthens the NRM with its broadbasedness and hospitality alongside the core principles of patriotism, pan-Africanism, social economic transformation, and democracy.