Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga has said that NRM should not attribute the voting patterns in Buganda on tribalism but address candid issues.
President Museveni and several of his former Ministers that contested for different parliamentary seats lost in Buganda region to the National Unity Platform (NUP) party led by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu during the 14th January elections and some voices pointed to sectarianism as one of the reason why people voted the way they did.
Speaking to NBS Face Off, Mayiga said such talk is divisive and fronted by people who want to make ‘political twists.’
He said: “I don’t think the talk was necessary, look in 1996, the people of Buganda voted for NRM, in 2001, they voted for NRM, in 2006, in 2011, in 2016, they are the same voters, the people who voted in 2021 did not come from mars, they are the same and they must have grievances.”
Mayiga said that whoever has anything to say about the voting patterns in Buganda should look at addressing the grievances of the people and not make political statements.
“It is as straightforward as that, address the grievances of the people.”
Asked if his comments urging Buganda to vote leaders who are strong on the five aspirational core values of Buganda (ensoga semasonga)were not divisive, Mayiga said that there were not.
“What is divisive about that? What I saw out of the election results, the people in Ankole voted some people, how do you explain that? The people in Ankole voted in a particular fashion, the president won in Ankole by a very big margin, how do you explain that?”
He said that the people in Buganda voted in a way the voted, because of reasons he can understand.
“Buganda’s interests are permanent. They have been like this since 1962, so I don’t see anything divisive unless someone wants to give it political twists,” Mayiga said.
