NUP’s Sebuwufu wins KCCA speakership

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National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate John Mary Ssebuwufu has been elected as the new speaker of the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) council.

During a hotly-contested election presided over by Buganda Road chief magistrate Ritah Neumbe Kidasa at City Hall today, Ssebuwufu garnered 18 votes to beat the National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate, Ali Kalule, who got 16 votes. There was only one invalid vote.

Ssebuwufu, a former NUP election management committee member, is the Lord Councillor representing Nakawa I, while Kalule is a councillor representing persons with disability at city hall.

Ssebuwufu replaces Zaharah Luyirika, another NUP member, who served as the speaker in the previous council. Luyirika has since been elected as the Member of Parliament for Makindye Division West. In the previous council, Ssebuwufu served as the Executive Secretary, Human Resource and Administration.

KCCA council composition

Currently, there are 25 directly-elected lord councillors and eight special interest group representatives (two youths, two for persons with disability, two for workers and two for older persons). This is in addition to the lord mayor. This will bring the total number of KCCA council members to 34.

Of the 25 directly-elected lord councillors, eight belong to the NRM, while 17 belong to NUP. Also, all the eight special interest group representatives belong to NRM.

The Lord Mayor, Ronald Balimwezo, who was sworn in on Wednesday, belongs to NUP. This, therefore, implies that NUP has 18 elected council members, while NRM has 16.

It should be noted that the number of councillors has reduced from 54 in the previous council – 46 directly-elected and eight special interest group representatives.

New Vision has learnt that the council size was reduced after the Electoral Commission merged several electoral areas in Kampala, many of which were deemed too small.