After the breadth of the responses from Benon Kigenyi were much shorter than might have been anticipated, Ugandans were looking forward to Tuesday’s sitting of the House Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE). Medard Lubega Sseggona, the committee’s chairperson, had instructed Kampala Capital City Authority’s Deputy Executive Director to return with others members from City Hall’s technical and political wings in a bid to flesh out how the Nakivubo Drainage Channel ended up in the grasp of Kiham Enterprises. Also summoned for the Tuesday showdown inquest were ministers in charge of the Kampala and Internal Affairs dockets as well as the Inspector General of Police. A 19 August 2025 letter from the House Speaker’s office, however, left Ugandans wondering whether they have been left with yet another fiendish puzzle that their leaders never look like solving. The letter, Sseggona said, barely hiding the stab of regret he felt, constituted a fact-finding team of four NRM party lawmakers that has been tasked with doing what COSASE intended to do—get to the bottom of how Kiham Enterprises stated furthering its business interests of a drainage channel whose length in nine kilometres and breadth 72 acres. Lawmakers on the House committee protested, arguing that Speaker Anita Among’s directive runs counter to set procedures that guide on how either a select or ad hoc committee can come into existence. Procedurally, they further noted, the House has also not been known to work with so-called fact-finding teams. Regardless, the fact-finding team Speaker Among constituted has a fortnight to find answers to the fiendish puzzle that is the future of Kampala’s principal drainage channel.
Sam Mugumya, a former aide of opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye, was on Tuesday morning ushered into a dreaded vehicle popularly known as a Drone. Security operatives, some in what bystanders identified as military fatigues and others in plain clothes, descended on Mugumya—who was having breakfast at a hotel in Nyamitanga, Mbarara district. Moses Byamugisha, a fellow activist who— like Mugumya—hails from Rukungiri district, disclosed later on Tuesday that Dr Besigye’s former aide was believed to be at the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) in the leafy Kampala suburb of Mbuya. In 2022, Mugumya was freed from Ndolo Prison in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after spending a little over 3,000 days under incarceration. He only recently returned to Uganda after making known his intentions to stand for the Rukungiri Municipality parliamentary seat on a People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) ticket. Rukungiri is the home district of Dr. Besigye, who is currently incarcerated and facing treason charges. PFF, only formed this year, is the political vehicle of Dr. Besigye’s choice after he left the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) in acrimonious circumstances last year. During next year’s parliamentary polls, Gen Henry Tumukunde will fly the ruling NRM party’s flag in Rukungiri Municipality after he safely came through a primary in July.
In what is being described as a classic case of jumping before being pushed, Lydia Wanyoto Mutende sensationally dropped out of one of Tuesday’s blue riband Special Interest Group (SIG) elections. This as delegates from the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party continued to participate in an electoral process at the Kololo Independence Grounds that is shaping the outlook of their top organ, the Central Executive Committee (CEC). Wanyoto Mutende, the hitherto Women’s League incumbent, opted out of the race at the 11th hour on account of irregularities. This paved the way for Adrine Kobusingye to soundly defeat a field of competitors that included Faridah Kibowa, Faridah Nakalawa , Ms Sarah Ochieng, and Ms Rehema Kyanika. The NRM’s Special Interest Groups or SIGs are made of women, veterans, workers, elders, persons with disabilities, entrepreneurs, and the youth. The SIGs typically tap into the powerful organs that is the CEC. While the leader of the youths will be elected tomorrow, the entrepreneurs’ vote had to be back-burnered after a litany of complaints were made about dark arts employed in the lead-up to the electoral process.
Mike Sserumaga, whose cultured left foot enchanted Cranes fans since June of 2008 when he made his debut for Uganda’s senior national football team, was hospitalised on Tuesday night. Sserumaga, who scored half a dozen goals en route to getting 34 caps under his belt, was checked into the national referral hospital at Mulago after suffering a stroke. The player, who only turned 36 this month, is believed to have damaged his skull from the impact of the fall triggered by the stroke. Local media reports also indicate that he was grappling with blood flow complications and is nonverbal after biting his tongue during the headlong fall. A journeyman by any measure, Sserumaga played for a string of Ugandan clubs after turning out for the youth side of Swedish outfit Helsingborgs IF between 2008 and 2009. He also played for Rwanda’s Rayon Sport and Ethiopia’s St George.