She angrily blamed her party’s vetting team for endorsing a fresh recruit from the NRM (Amaniyo), saying, “After endorsing Museveni as the sole candidate, they decided to reward her with my card, and barely six months, she is now singing ‘Kyagulanyi is my president’ and funnily, the NUP vetting team fell for her tricks,” Nabukeera said.
In a dramatic turn of events, Mukono Woman Member of Parliament, Hanifa Nabukeera Luswata who was denied the National Unity Platform (NUP) card to renew her term in 2026, has amazingly and angrily decided to stand as an independent candidate not on the same post but at the level of Mukono Municipality.
Currently, Mukono Municipality is occupied by Betty Nambooze Bakireke, the NUP chairperson for Mukono Municipality and deputized by Nabukeera. Though Nambooze managed to secure the NUP card to stand for the fifth term, Nabukeera’s bid to be backed up by the party for the second term was unsuccessful. She lost the ticket to Sheilah Draville Amaniyo.
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As it is, the seat is now being competed for by several aspirants but with exceptionally strong contenders including incumbent Nambooze, Mukono district chairperson, Rev. Dr. Peter Bakaluba Mukasa, NRM flag bearer, Dr. Daisy Sarah Nabatanzi Ssonko, Buganda Democratic Party (DP) Vice Chairperson for Central Region, George Fred Kagimu, former Mukono LC V chairman, Andrew Ssenyonga Ruzindana, and Mukono Division council speaker, Allan Mawanda standing on a Democratic Front ticket.
Nabukeera ascended into the parliamentary seat in 2021, after trouncing NRM’s Margaret Nakavubu.
In a press conference at her home at Lumuli Cell in Goma Division, Mukono Municipality on Tuesday October 21, 2025, Nabukeera told journalists that although she is unreservedly rallied behind Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu as the next President of Uganda, she is no longer affiliated to the NUP owing to what she referred to as an unfair manner in which she was stripped of the party card to contest in the 2026 polls.
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She insists that the modality followed in giving the card to Amaniyo fell short of the promised fairness of sticking to the dictates of the voters, and honouring results of the way the questionnaire was answered by aspirants, both of which in her opinion were not followed.
Nabukeera said that her four years in parliament have been a period of satisfying her voters of her capabilities, and that she expected her party officials to follow in the same footsteps but to her amazement, this never happened.
She angrily blamed her party’s vetting team for endorsing a fresh recruit from the NRM (Amaniyo), saying, “After endorsing Museveni as the sole candidate, they decided to reward her with my card, and barely six months, she is now singing ‘Kyagulanyi is my president’ and funnily, the NUP vetting team fell for her tricks,” Nabukeera said.
She attributed her woes to the principled stand of not trailing individual party candidates in the district who she said are forwarding their personal interests.
“My interests are different from those of a person with one constituency, since I have four constituencies, how were I expected to move behind such people?” Nabukeera wondered.
On why she has not honoured the party’s stand of not standing as independents, she said the party itself misled her by setting the example of not following the law, adding that there is no way she can be blamed for contravening the set regulations.
Omubaka Migadde Ayiye Bukadde mu SACCO Y’Abakulembeze e Ziiru-Buvuma