Uganda’s main opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) has admitted it is still using a constitution it inherited from National Unity, Reconciliation and Development Party (NURDP), nearly four years after singer-turned-politician Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine acquired the political organization and baptized it NUP.
Efforts by those seeking to show the world how Bobi Wine was running NUP have raised concerns on the party’s constitution.
For example, some have argued that the NUP Constitution emphasizes the importance of the office of the deputy president and that the suspension of Nyendo-Mukungwe MP Mathias Mpuuga from this important position of deputy president meant more than meets the eye.
Now, the NUP has claimed that statements on the party’s constitution were “misleading.”
The party confirmed that it still uses the constitution inherited from Moses Kibalama’s group, and that the process to amend the important document had not yet been concluded. NUP also admitted there were major gaps in the current constitution Bobi Wine and his group are using to run the main opposition party.
“A political party cannot operate without a Constitution. The National Unity Platform has a Constitution which guides its operations. The Constitution we use currently is the one we inherited when we took leadership of the Party in 2020. As we have repeatedly said, that Constitution has several defects,” explained NUP in a statement.
“That is why in 2023, we amended and had it gazetted by the Electoral Commission. We shall begin using the amended Constitution and disseminate it widely as soon as the remaining administrative steps are concluded by the Electoral Commission. The Constitution we use currently and the amended one are both available and accessible at the Electoral Commission and at the Party Office.”
Bobi Wine’s NUP has in recent weeks remained under the spotlight. Bobi Wine and his group have suspended Mpuuga from his job as deputy party president over a Shs500m cash award. Activists also say Joel Ssenyonyi must apologize and resign over the Ssegirinya per diem saga. (See Details Here, There and Over There).
