Mukono Municipality parliamentary seat, currently occupied by Betty Nambooze Bakireke, continues to be a hot cake attracting more aspirants by the day. Today, close to ten wishfuls think Nambooze has had enough and are all swearing to defeat her come 2026.
They include; George Fred Kagimu, the former Mayor for Mukono Municipality, Mike Ssegawa, the deputy Resident District Commissioner for Kassanda district, Andrew Ssenyonga, the former Mukono district chairperson, Dr. Daisy Ssonko, the former Mukono Municipality mayoral race candidate on NRM card, Ivan Ssentongo, Lawrence Mayanja and George Musisi.
As Kyaggwe TV is running a series of articles on politicians seeking to be the next elected leaders come 2026 at various levels, today, we are looking at former Mayor for Mukono Municipality, George Fred Kagimu who is also Mukono district chairperson for the Democratic Party (DP) and Vice president for Buganda Region.
Kagimu is the proprietor of Festino City (Festino Beach Mukono), the famous motor rallying venue in Mukono, a fellow of the charter association of certified accountants of the UK. He has a wide experience in sales, marketing, administration, training and finance issues, and has worked for local and international oil companies here and abroad.
In 2021, he abandoned his position as mayor and took on Nambooze for the parliamentary seat, and public opinion is that voters still wanted him in the mayoral seat where he had made tremendous achievements by way of development.
However, the soft-spoken former mayor was of the view that he would be exposed to more lobbying opportunities in the august house, as he would be exposed to a wide variety of sources for assistance in the form of government agencies, department heads, and other philanthropists.
Kagimu avers that although Mukono has some of the best schools in the country, most of those are private and government aided ones are trailing, which has not helped development take its positive course.
“Instead of organising available resources to serve as an instrument of going forward, we are entangled in a lot of wars, corruption and lies; under the circumstances, what is lacking are leaders who can rally colleagues from the other side to forge ahead,” he says.
True, he continues, in his term as mayor, a lot was done which he highlights; garbage trucks were procured, civil servants were empowered, an ambulance for the Mukono General Hospital was bought, the youth centre at Nakabago was constructed, classrooms and staff houses were constructed, trees were planted along Seeta-Namugongo road and in the town centre. Unfortunately, Kagimu says that though he managed to fulfil a list of things, there was lack of teamwork, which would have helped to achieve even more.
He blamed unnamed counter-productive colleagues who he said frustrated the project for constructing an access road extending from Kigombya through Ggulu, to Kayunga road to provide an alternative for easing congestion on the main Kampala-Jinja highway.
He added that, “many of my projects were killed as more time was spent in battles with those opposed to development so I decided to opt for the MP seat.”
On how he intends to circumvent obstacles he was confronted with in 2021, Kagimu had this to say: “In 2021, voters were not steady as they voted basing on hatred instilled in them, their focus was based on making changes right from presidency and tended to neglect the grassroot, but today they have realised that they never benefitted and are now ready to vote wisely”.
Asked why they, as the opposition, do not join forces and field one formidable candidate instead of so many people swarming to race, he concurred that this is a weakness on the part of the opposition. He is of the view that unless the opposition learns to do this, they may as well forget ever unseating the NRM.
Giving an overview of his working experience, the former mayor said he spent 25 years working in Caltex and Total oil companies in several countries, and is a senior partner of the Nyendo Total Highway service station in Masaka, and worked as a treasurer for Nsambya Catholic Deanery.
For two terms he was the President for the motor rally fraternity of FMU and was a councillor under the then Resistance Councils (present-day LCs) in Banda in Nakawa Division, and a board member of the Uganda Red Cross Society.
Fred Kagimu is also the chairman for Kyaggwe county Tourism Board and board chairman of Gombolola Mituba IV Kyaggwe.