There was a deafening applause from party supporters as Ssemakula embraced the wheelchair-ridden Ssenyonga in a gesture of reconciliation.
A fence mending meeting geared at appeasing NRM aspirants who were angered by results of the party primary elections and other supporters who claim to have been ignored for a long time has been held at Mukono Summer Terrace Gardens, to bring them back on board in the assignment to mobilise support for President Museveni ahead of the 2026 general elections.
The meeting organized on Friday by the Beautiful Uganda Development Group, was also intended to identify reasons for the NRM’s gradual dwindling support in the district, and to come up with remedial measures to revamp its support.
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Among notable souls brought together as a result of the engagement include Mukono district NRM Chairman, Haji Haruna Ssemakula and longtime NRM supporter and mobiliser, Andrew Ssenyonga Ruzindana, who was badly beaten into coma by Mukono police when he had gone to Mukono main police station at night to find out the reasons that had led to the arrest of NRM registrar for Goma Division.
Mukono NRM party leadership alleged that in the elections where Ssenyonga battled with Dr. Daisy Sarah Nabatanzi Ssonko in a bid to unseat NUP’s Betty Nambooze Bakireke from the Mukono Municipality seat, a polling official for Goma Division was arrested for allegedly trying to manipulate the election by altering DR Forms to favour Ssenyonga.
Senyonga’s team stormed Mukono police to try to establish reasons that led to the official’s arrest, whereupon duty policemen pounced on them and thoroughly beat them up, and Ssenyonga ended up in Kenya’s Aga Khan Hospital where he spent several days under intensive care.
Ssenyonga’s team pinned Haji Semakula for allegedly ordering for his assault and although Dr. Ssonko has since been declared the winner, Ssenyonga who filed a petition is swearing to stand as an independent candidate if the NRM tribunal unfairly judges him.
In a meeting chaired by Col. Charles Ndawula from the office of the Director General for ISO, the two were advised to be exemplary by burying their differences for the sake of ensuring victory for President Museveni and other NRM flag bearers, under the banner of restoring the district back to the NRM.
There was a deafening applause from party supporters as Ssemakula embraced the wheelchair-ridden Ssenyonga in a gesture of reconciliation.
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Among other promises Haji Ssemakula made as a matter of winning Ssenyonga’s heart back, was to lobby the NRM National Party Chairman, President Museveni to help him cover the hospital bills.
“I have taken so long minus coming out to address this becuase people were wrongly pinning me for what happened to Ssenyonga which was not the fact. I learnt about what happened to him from one of the journalists who was also assaulted, he approached me with a ton pair of trousers and when I asked him was had happened, I laughed. Unfortunately, the journalist who was recording turned the intention of my laughter that I was instead laughing at Ssenyonga!” he explained.
Senyonga did not rule out his intention to stand as an independent, while Ssemakula pledged to lobby President Museveni for a befitting assignment for him as further reconciliation.