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MENGO - The Katikkiro of Buganda Kingdom, Charles Peter Mayiga, has urged National Unity Platform (NUP) party MPs to have patience when dealing with each other and develop tolerance of contrary points of view.

He made the call on Wednesday (March 27) while meeting the MPs who paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Bulange-Mengo, which is the Kingdom’s administrative seat.

They were led by Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LOP) and Nakawa West MP Joel Ssenyonyi.

“Hon. Ssenyonyi has two children now; he is still a young man. You [Ssenyonyi) will see that those children are not the same, but when they are your children. What will you do? Will you throw one of them out? You have to learn to have patience with each other and give each other respect now when you are still in [the] Opposition,” Mayiga implored the MPs.

Katikkiro made the call on Wednesday (March 27) while meeting the MPs who paid him a courtesy visit at his office in Bulange-Mengo, which is the Kingdom’s administrative seat. (All Photos by Dickson Kulumba)

His advice will come in handy when internal wrangles are not only rocking the country’s main Opposition political party but also threatening to yield a splinter group and defections ahead of the 2026 general election.

Katikkiro wondered what would happen if the NUP leaders assumed state power without cultivating these virtues.

“If you don’t learn this, what will happen when you get power? You can’t kill whoever makes a mistake. I tell you this as your elder, the Katikkiro,” he said.

NUP, which was formed in July 2020, quickly gained influence in the politics of Buganda where they secured 55 out of 57 parliamentary seats they have.

However, disagreements between party president Robert Kyagulanyi and his deputy for Buganda, Mathias Mpuuga, that have been simmering for two years now boiled over last month when it emerged that the latter received a shillings 500 million one-off service award from the parliamentary commission in May 2022.

Mpuuga, who is also the Nyendo-Mukungwe MP, was given the award for serving as LOP even before his two-and-a-half-year-old term ended in December last year, whipping up a storm in the young party.

Kyagulanyi still claims that this “money-heist was illegal, immoral and wrong, and totally unexpected from a person we delegated to represent our values in Parliament and lead the charge against corruption and misuse of public resources”.

However, Clerk to Parliament Adolf Mwesige defended the pay, terming it ‘akasiimo', meaning a token of appreciation.

Mpuuga also said the payment was legal and denied allegations of corruption and abuse of office leveled against him by his party.