Outgoing Kira Municipality Member of Parliament and People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) Spokesperson, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, has urged Members of Parliament to remain committed to their legislative duties, calling on them to “come to Parliament, do the work and sign off as a good MP.”
Speaking during an exclusive interview with NBS Television on Wednesday, Ssemujju reflected on his time in Parliament following his defeat in the recently concluded January 15 general presidential and parliamentary elections that were held countrywide.
He lost the Kira Municipality parliamentary seat to National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate George Musisi, a seasoned Kampala-based lawyer, by a margin of 6,876 votes.
Despite the loss, Ssemujju said he harbours no regrets about his parliamentary journey, emphasizing that his entry into politics was driven by circumstance rather than personal ambition.
“First of all, I did not set out to become an MP, but eventually circumstances forced me to join politics. I went there to make a contribution,” he said.
Ssemujju argued that he used his tenure in Parliament as a platform to advocate for freedom and amplify the voices of marginalized Ugandans.
Ssemujju first joined parliament in 2011 representing Kyaddondo East under the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) ticket.
In 2016, Ssemujju swept the newly created Kira Municipality seat with over 70 percent of the vote, defeating NRM’s Juliet Najjuma by a margin of about 30,000 votes. He repeated the feat in the 2021 elections, surviving the then-surging NUP wave by beating NUP’s Ji Lukwago by roughly 28,000 votes.
“I have been using Parliament as a platform to fight for freedom, to speak for the voiceless, and that one platform has gone away. I will now continue the struggle outside Parliament,” he said.
Ssemujju downplayed the significance of losing his parliamentary seat, choosing instead to focus on what he described as the broader challenges facing the country, including the arrest of political colleagues and alleged irregularities in the electoral process.
“I would not want to place much focus on losing my parliamentary seat, but rather the problems our country is facing; colleagues have been arrested. Although I lost genuinely, some people won and the losers have been declared,” he said.
The outspoken opposition legislator also criticized absenteeism in Parliament, arguing that poor attendance by MPs is not necessarily linked to electoral defeat.
“Parliament is ordinarily run by not more than 50 MPs; the rest are just watching and enjoying the debates. So their failure to attend sessions after having lost their parliamentary seats is not because of their defeat in elections,” he said.
