ROAD TO 2026
Amelia Kyambadde Anne, the former minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (MTIC), has devised an elaborate plan to uproot Hillary Kiyaga Innocent aka Dr Hilderman from the Mawokota North parliamentary seat she once occupied.
Kyambadde, now a senior presidential advisor on trade and industry, is already on ground working to revive her mobilization network in Mawokota North located in Mpigi District.
For example, at the weekend she presided over a graduation ceremony for youths and women who had spent days undertaking a skills training course. These acquired skills in making liquid and bar soap, foods, drinks and adding value to agricultural produce.
Here, youths beseeched her to come and represent them in Parliament come 2026, saying that Dr Hilderman of Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine’s main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) party had not helped them.
The youth even decorated Kyambadde with dry banana leaves (esanja) signifying their endorsement to her for another term.
Kyambadde was clad in a yellow gomesi. Yellow is the color of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).
Kyambadde, a former principal private secretary to President Yoweri Museveni, then knelt down (a sign of humility) and thanked the people of Mawokota North for not forgetting her. But she told them she had not come for politics but had just bypassed to check on them, making it clear that time for politics would soon come.
Mawokota North forms part of Buganda Kingdom’s Mawokota County. Allegiance to Buganda is key in politics of the area. At the ceremony, Mawokota County chief Kayima Sarah Nanono was present. She praised Kyambadde.
Kayima Nanono praised Kyambadde for empowering and “loving the king’s subjects.”
Kyambadde lost her seat to Dr Hilderman in 2021 as a political wave by Bobi Wine’s NUP swept across Buganda, felling bigwigs from the NRM and opposition parties like the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
Hilderman (Kiyaga) garnered 31,817 votes to beat Kyambadde who got 12,519 votes. David Tebusweke Mayinja of the Democratic Party (DP) polled 2,666 while independent candidate Joseph Mugwanya Zzimula got 331 votes. But will Kyambadde beat Hilderman, a singer who once sang at her campaign rallies, in 2026?
Kyambadde was one of the ministers Museveni dropped from cabinet in 2021. But the president ‘consoled’ her former PPS with a senior advisor job. She has previously said she wanted to concentrated on entrepreneurship and her PhD. (Read Stories Here and There).
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