At least 20 members, who claim to be followers of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) in Kabembe Trading Centre in Kyampisi Sub-county in Mukono District, have switched to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).
The group said they made the choice because they were “tired of opposition lies and unfulfilled promises.” Hamis Kabaya, a well-known NUP supporter in the district, headed the gathering.
During a campaign event on Sunday at Kabembe Trading Centre, former Mukono North MP Mr. Ronald Kibuule welcomed the “converts” amid cheers from NRM supporters.
Mr. Kibuule gave the converts NRM T-shirts during the rally after they took off their NUP ones, describing their choice as “seeing the light.”
Given that Kabembe Trading Center is one of the opposition party’s strongholds in Mukono District, the development can cast a pall over the opposition camp.
In an astonishing statement given at the same rally, a number of locals who claimed to have been abducted by state security agents in the run-up to the general elections in 2021 said that the opposition had “politicized” the reports of their alleged kidnapping in order to damage the government’s reputation.