Government returns Muslim council property

Brian Keitira has vowed not to bow out of the race for Kyamuswa constituency in Kalangala district in the 2021 general election where he hopes to contest as an independent candidate after he was trounced by Carol Nanyondo Birungi in the NRM primaries.

Birungi who is also the incumbent MP was declared the winner with 7,740 votes against Keitira who managed to garner 1,779 votes.

Keitira points out what he termed as anomalies in the party primaries like smuggling voters onto the register, intimidation of the electorate, and voter bribery among others.

"My opponents even bought liquor for my agents and electorates on the polling day, which cost me a lot of votes as they remained drunk the whole day," Keitira said.

He further alleged that his agents' appointment letters had been confiscated by Birungi's agents.

"I will therefore contest as an independent candidate because the NRM leaders in this constituency are no longer promoting the party ideologies," Keitira announced.

However, when contacted, Birundi refuted all allegations saying Keitira who does not hail from the island district of Kalangala, only spent a few weeks traversing for votes and hence could not convince the electorate to vote for him.

"He is right to claim that voters were smuggled onto the register because for the short time he spent on the islands, he cannot tell the number of voters in the constituency," said Birungi.

According to her, Keitira does not hail from, nor does he own any residence in the constituency hence his inflation of expectations.

Julius Nganda the NRM registrar for Kalangala district said Keitira would have a valid claim if backed up by with DR forms.

"He did not have agents at almost half of the polling stations in Kyamuswa. How did he expect to protect and follow-up on his vote?" asked Nganda.

He, however, expressed concern that vying on the independent ticket, Keitira was likely to divide the NRM vote in the constituency. There are four sub-counties in Kyamuswa constituency with over 50 polling stations and less than 20,000 voters.