Mukono NUP councillor thumped for attending Mpuuga Thanksgiving

A councillor attached to the Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) in Mukono was on Saturday dragged out of office by irate party supporters.

Mr Fred Kiyimba was also thumped to pulp in a chaotic dance with the wrath of the so-called NUP foot soldiers.

Mr Kiyimba's crime?

He travelled to Masaka to attend Mathias Mpuuga's Thanksgiving on Friday.

Mr Mpuuga fell out with the party over the controversial service award in which he pocketed Shs500 million that he claims was deserved gratuity.

The party insists it was proceeds of abuse of office, corruption and immoral. It suspended Mpuuga from his position of Deputy President for Buganda.

Mpuuga has remained defiant and kept his head without blinking in public except maybe when doing so behind the sunglasses he so often steps out in.

But the party supporters appear to be unforgiving and if Mpuuga had any further doubts even after the Thanksgiving fell short of what he had envisaged it to be, the chaotic events in Mukono Municipality and Kiyimba's bruises will scream out the reality.

Kiyimba, the councillor for Mukono Central Division, tasted the wrath of the municipality's foot soldiers who rained kicks and punches as they dragged him out of the division offices on Saturday.

Before the fight, the NUP foot soldiers held a press conference to to express their disappointment to councillors who went to Masaka, including Allan Mawanda, speaker of Mukono Central Division, Betty Nakasi, speaker of Mukono District and Kiyimba.

The meeting turned chaotic when Kiyimba tried to defend himself only to break the patience of the party supporters who decide to knead their fists to his face.

Kiyimba was badly beaten and thrown out of the NUP office.

Angry NUP leaders led by Moses Mabira said they cannot tolerate some party members who are against the party principles and support corrupt officials.

“The fight against corruption is among the core values of the party, therefore we cannot be silent when members dine with the corrupt,” Mabira noted.

Rogers Bazanya, the Mukono Municipality deputy speaker, said they followed the footsteps of their president Robert Kyagulanyi, who pronounced that Mpuuga had betrayed the party by receiving the service award and should be isolated.

"From today, the three are not members of the party because they went against the party stand,” Bazanya added.

However, a furious Kiyimba said the people who beat him up were planted in NUP by the state such that they cause chaos with intention to taint the image of the party.

"There are just three to four people doing all this and today they have achieved their goal and someone out there is waiting to pay them for their acts,”  Kiyimba said.

Efforts to speak to the Mukono NUP top leadership were futile as most of them were not picking their phones.