Bobi Wine party NUP team starts vetting 2026 general election aspirants

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The National Unity Platform (NUP) election management committee has started vetting all party aspirants for the next 2026 general election.

The vetting exercise kicked off today, July 28, 2025, at the NUP headquarters in Makerere-Kavule, Kampala city, with LCs 3 and 5 aspirants from Lubaga North, Kawempe South and Nakawa West.

According to a brief statement by the party, the exercise will continue for the rest of the week in adherence to the earlier communicated schedule.

Medard Sseggona, who is seeking re-election as Busiro East MP on NUP ticket, said the party’s vetting process is a test of their commitment to the struggle and the kind of leadership they want to give to the country.

“We look forward to a fair, transparent and successful vetting exercise,” he said while appearing on one of the morning TV talk shows in Kampala on Monday.

The party’s maiden vetting exercise of 2020 saw over seven seasoned Opposition politicians overlooked as flag-bearers for the 2021 parliamentary elections in Kampala.

They included two-time former Makindye East MP Michael Mabikke, former presidential candidate Samuel Lubega Mukaaku, former Democratic Party (DP) spokesperson Kenneth Kakande and former Kampala deputy Lord Mayor Sulaiman Kidandala.

Others were Moses Kasibante, the then Rubaga North MP and his Makindye-Ssabagabo Municipality counterpart Emmanuel Ssempela Kigozi.

All of them, save for Kasibante, were among DP bloc members who did all it took to depict NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine as the de facto Opposition leader in anticipation of his patronage.

So, when they officially crossed over to NUP in August 2020, they expected automatic party endorsement because of that and the positions, academic qualifications and political experience they had.

However, the party’s election management team instead endorsed fresh-faced youth, including Joel Ssenyonyi, a former TV news anchor who was then aged 32 and Derrick Nyeko, the then youth councillor for Makindye Urban Division, aged 28.

Ssenyonyi beat Kakande to the newly created Nakawa West constituency flag, while Nyeko trounced Mabikke and about five other aspirants to become NUP flag bearer for Makindye East constituency. 

Nyeko had defected from the ruling National Resistance Movement party.

This saw the Kakandes cry foul, questioning the rationale of the endorsement procedure by NUP’s executive committee. They went on to unsuccessfully contest as NUP-leaning independent candidates in the 2021 election.