Sebaggala, the voice for ‘seeyas’
When Al-hajji Nasser Sebaggala faces west, his mind is searching east,†observed a member of the Democratic Party (DP), Sebaggala’s party.
By Joshua Kato
When Al-hajji Nasser Sebaggala faces west, his mind is searching east,†observed a member of the Democratic Party (DP), Sebaggala’s party.
One moment he is fighting the Museveni regime with all the strength he can muster, the next, he is receiving cash from State House to sponsor his studies.
After his course at Ruskin College Oxford, he was expected to come out of the plane waving his academic papers for all to see, but he did not. His seeyas (low-income earners that support him) started doubting if he had really completed his studies at Oxford College in Britain.
Sebaggala has already declared his intentions to stand for the presidency in 2006. He launched his manifesto and is already on the campaign trail.
He is a cobweb of controversy. He normally hinges his comments on the suffering of the poor.
“I am here for the uneducated,†he said.
During the mayoral campaigns in 1998, his rivals sought to use his poor education level as a tool against him. Instead, he used the veil of the uneducated against them. These he knew were the voting majority. Before his opponent Wasswa Birigwa knew it, Sebaggala was mayor of Kampala.
“He speaks about poverty more realistically than most politicians do,†says Sulaiman Kizito, a teacher at UMEA Primary School in Kampala.
To emphasise this, his manifesto motto is, “Forward with the common man’s revolution.â€
He promised to take hundreds of people to do kyeyo in the US. This is the kind of language that people understand. Such language, punctuated by strolls to St. Balikuddembe Market for lunch, won him hearts of the city poor.
While celebrating the mayoral victory, he was arrested and found guilty of dealing in fake dollars in Boston, US. However, even his 18-month prison sentence did not change his political ambitions.
His seeyas called his arrest a political plot to destroy him.
Others reasoned that unlike
others, he stole from the whites
and brought the money back home. To him, the prison sentence was a stepping stone to better heights. Instead of lamenting the sentence, he turned around and boasted about his achievements in prison.
“I studied a lot of politics. I was in the cell where prominent people like Charles Taylor of Liberia were once imprisoned,†he said.
His comeback from prison went down in history as the most memorable trek from Entebbe to Kampala. Thousands of his seeyas literally carried him from the airport to Kampala. The journey that normally takes 30 minutes lasted eight hours!
As soon as he arrived, he affirmed his intentions to run for the presidency in 2001. Indeed, he tried to submit his nomination forms but the Uganda National Examinations Board ruled him out because of inadequate academic qualifications.
Determined, he went back for studies in the UK, ironically partly sponsored by State House.
However, the fact that nobody has ever confirmed his papers from Ruskin College Oxford lays credence to allegations that he never completed his course.
Rumour has it that he failed the English interview.
But in recent months, his popularity within the city seems to be waning. Previously, just the sight of seeya on the streets drew hundreds of people, clamouring to talk to him. At the moment, however, most people simply glance at him.
Apparently many of his seeyas are not happy that he tried to divide DP by fighting the party president, Dr Paul Ssemogerere.
In response, Ssemogerere called him a Movementist, who had been bought to destroy the DP Party.
“I think he underestimated Ssemogerere’s fighting power. He also mis-conceived the seeyas’ support for him to be individual.
Yet, the seeyas had DP first and Sebaggala second,†said Umar Magala, one of his supporters.
Even with a slight drop in support, Sebaggala is a gem that any party would like to grab, a gem that can bring in votes.
His ability to mobilise was seen in the way he changed Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye’s campaign. Before he switched over to the camp in the popular Haji Alagidde (Haji has directed us to vote for Besigye) campaign, Besigye was inconsequential, especially in the central region. But once Sebaggala advised his supporters to vote for him, hundreds of youths, especially in urban areas joined the campaign.
Observers, however, think his lack of leadership experience is just one of his many un-doings. While most famous politicians began their journeys in schools as headboys or guild presidents at universities, Sebaggala has got none of that. The only experience he has is a one-month stint as Mayor of Kampala.
Although he claims to be an astute entrepreneur, a closer look at his life indicates that he has achieved nothing significant in terms of consistent management. His businesses Ugantico Supermarket (1980-86), Kisaasi Coffee Growers (1986-1993) and Kisaasi Forex Bureau (1993-1998) collapsed before he turned to the crimes that eventually saw him imprisoned in the US.
Sebaggala graduated from a young vegetable seller at Nakasero Market in the 1960s to a general merchandise dealer. He had a short stint as a sales manager with Uganda Dairy Corporation (1971-72). In the late 1970s, he was one of the most happening and rich young men around town.
He was arrested and tortured during Amin’s regime for being showy and rich. In the 1980s, he joined DP and started politics.
Sections of the opposition are wary of his sincerity, especially after news came through that he received money from State House.
Sebaggala has never accepted or denied that, but the opposition fear that any person of his high standing who can accept $2,500 from a person he is fighting is not worth giving a second thought.
He is not the favoured candidate for DP, especially among the old guard and leading executives of the party.
They argue that a party whose motto is “Truth and Justice†cannot field a person, whose background is littered with untruths and fraud.
This means that his declaration as a candidate on the DP ticket is likely to bring more divisions in DP, rather than unity. Many of the young Turks in the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD) support Sebaggala. In fact, most of the people who attended his manifesto launch were members of the UYD.
On July 21, UYD members clashed with other DP supporters as the party celebrated the receiving of their registration certificate and this did not go down well with the mainstream DP.
In the wider opposition, Sebaggala is not mentioned among the likely candidates, from which a single opposition candidate would be selected. However, most of them agree that he is a factor in the politics of this country.
He has support, especially among the youth in the central region. Observers think that if he is not handled properly, he can stand on his own and in the process spoil the vote equation.
Sebaggala was born to Haji Shaban Sebaggala in the late 1940s. Until he came out to contest the Kampala mayoral election, the Sebaggala family of Kisaasi in Kawempe Division, was not political. They were more known as business people. His brother Meddie Sebaggala owns one of the largest electrical appliances store in Kampala, while another, Latif Sebaggala ownes a school.
However, since Sebaggala joined politics, Latif Sebaggala became Member of Parliament for Kawempe North. Now that Sebaggala is gunning for the highest seat in the country, the family’s political prospects might fly through the sky–if he makes it.
MANIFESTO
-Sebaggala wants a government of only 25 ministers and a Parliament of only 250 MPs.
-To carry out tax reforms by tackling rampant smuggling, introduce a tax regime attractive to foreign investment.
-Set up a Constitutional Review Commission to restore presidential term limits and introduce federalism.
-Train doctors, introduce hospital emergency systems and mobile clinics.
-Invest in scientific research, technical education and improve Universal Primary Education.
-Direct more money into sports.
-Introduce mechanisation in agriculture, irrigation, mulching and agriculture subsidies.
When Al-hajji Nasser Sebaggala faces west, his mind is searching east,†observed a member of the Democratic Party (DP), Sebaggala’s party.
One moment he is fighting the Museveni regime with all the strength he can muster, the next, he is receiving cash from State House to sponsor his studies.
After his course at Ruskin College Oxford, he was expected to come out of the plane waving his academic papers for all to see, but he did not. His seeyas (low-income earners that support him) started doubting if he had really completed his studies at Oxford College in Britain.
Sebaggala has already declared his intentions to stand for the presidency in 2006. He launched his manifesto and is already on the campaign trail.
He is a cobweb of controversy. He normally hinges his comments on the suffering of the poor.
“I am here for the uneducated,†he said.
During the mayoral campaigns in 1998, his rivals sought to use his poor education level as a tool against him. Instead, he used the veil of the uneducated against them. These he knew were the voting majority. Before his opponent Wasswa Birigwa knew it, Sebaggala was mayor of Kampala.
“He speaks about poverty more realistically than most politicians do,†says Sulaiman Kizito, a teacher at UMEA Primary School in Kampala.
To emphasise this, his manifesto motto is, “Forward with the common man’s revolution.â€
He promised to take hundreds of people to do kyeyo in the US. This is the kind of language that people understand. Such language, punctuated by strolls to St. Balikuddembe Market for lunch, won him hearts of the city poor.
While celebrating the mayoral victory, he was arrested and found guilty of dealing in fake dollars in Boston, US. However, even his 18-month prison sentence did not change his political ambitions.
His seeyas called his arrest a political plot to destroy him.
Others reasoned that unlike
others, he stole from the whites
and brought the money back home. To him, the prison sentence was a stepping stone to better heights. Instead of lamenting the sentence, he turned around and boasted about his achievements in prison.
“I studied a lot of politics. I was in the cell where prominent people like Charles Taylor of Liberia were once imprisoned,†he said.
His comeback from prison went down in history as the most memorable trek from Entebbe to Kampala. Thousands of his seeyas literally carried him from the airport to Kampala. The journey that normally takes 30 minutes lasted eight hours!
As soon as he arrived, he affirmed his intentions to run for the presidency in 2001. Indeed, he tried to submit his nomination forms but the Uganda National Examinations Board ruled him out because of inadequate academic qualifications.
Determined, he went back for studies in the UK, ironically partly sponsored by State House.
However, the fact that nobody has ever confirmed his papers from Ruskin College Oxford lays credence to allegations that he never completed his course.
Rumour has it that he failed the English interview.
But in recent months, his popularity within the city seems to be waning. Previously, just the sight of seeya on the streets drew hundreds of people, clamouring to talk to him. At the moment, however, most people simply glance at him.
Apparently many of his seeyas are not happy that he tried to divide DP by fighting the party president, Dr Paul Ssemogerere.
In response, Ssemogerere called him a Movementist, who had been bought to destroy the DP Party.
“I think he underestimated Ssemogerere’s fighting power. He also mis-conceived the seeyas’ support for him to be individual.
Yet, the seeyas had DP first and Sebaggala second,†said Umar Magala, one of his supporters.
Even with a slight drop in support, Sebaggala is a gem that any party would like to grab, a gem that can bring in votes.
His ability to mobilise was seen in the way he changed Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye’s campaign. Before he switched over to the camp in the popular Haji Alagidde (Haji has directed us to vote for Besigye) campaign, Besigye was inconsequential, especially in the central region. But once Sebaggala advised his supporters to vote for him, hundreds of youths, especially in urban areas joined the campaign.
Observers, however, think his lack of leadership experience is just one of his many un-doings. While most famous politicians began their journeys in schools as headboys or guild presidents at universities, Sebaggala has got none of that. The only experience he has is a one-month stint as Mayor of Kampala.
Although he claims to be an astute entrepreneur, a closer look at his life indicates that he has achieved nothing significant in terms of consistent management. His businesses Ugantico Supermarket (1980-86), Kisaasi Coffee Growers (1986-1993) and Kisaasi Forex Bureau (1993-1998) collapsed before he turned to the crimes that eventually saw him imprisoned in the US.
Sebaggala graduated from a young vegetable seller at Nakasero Market in the 1960s to a general merchandise dealer. He had a short stint as a sales manager with Uganda Dairy Corporation (1971-72). In the late 1970s, he was one of the most happening and rich young men around town.
He was arrested and tortured during Amin’s regime for being showy and rich. In the 1980s, he joined DP and started politics.
Sections of the opposition are wary of his sincerity, especially after news came through that he received money from State House.
Sebaggala has never accepted or denied that, but the opposition fear that any person of his high standing who can accept $2,500 from a person he is fighting is not worth giving a second thought.
He is not the favoured candidate for DP, especially among the old guard and leading executives of the party.
They argue that a party whose motto is “Truth and Justice†cannot field a person, whose background is littered with untruths and fraud.
This means that his declaration as a candidate on the DP ticket is likely to bring more divisions in DP, rather than unity. Many of the young Turks in the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD) support Sebaggala. In fact, most of the people who attended his manifesto launch were members of the UYD.
On July 21, UYD members clashed with other DP supporters as the party celebrated the receiving of their registration certificate and this did not go down well with the mainstream DP.
In the wider opposition, Sebaggala is not mentioned among the likely candidates, from which a single opposition candidate would be selected. However, most of them agree that he is a factor in the politics of this country.
He has support, especially among the youth in the central region. Observers think that if he is not handled properly, he can stand on his own and in the process spoil the vote equation.
Sebaggala was born to Haji Shaban Sebaggala in the late 1940s. Until he came out to contest the Kampala mayoral election, the Sebaggala family of Kisaasi in Kawempe Division, was not political. They were more known as business people. His brother Meddie Sebaggala owns one of the largest electrical appliances store in Kampala, while another, Latif Sebaggala ownes a school.
However, since Sebaggala joined politics, Latif Sebaggala became Member of Parliament for Kawempe North. Now that Sebaggala is gunning for the highest seat in the country, the family’s political prospects might fly through the sky–if he makes it.
MANIFESTO
-Sebaggala wants a government of only 25 ministers and a Parliament of only 250 MPs.
-To carry out tax reforms by tackling rampant smuggling, introduce a tax regime attractive to foreign investment.
-Set up a Constitutional Review Commission to restore presidential term limits and introduce federalism.
-Train doctors, introduce hospital emergency systems and mobile clinics.
-Invest in scientific research, technical education and improve Universal Primary Education.
-Direct more money into sports.
-Introduce mechanisation in agriculture, irrigation, mulching and agriculture subsidies.