By Our Reporter,
REGIONAL
Whereas the incumbents in Bushenyi district continue to publicly flirt a 2026 comeback, radical plans to unseat them are flourishing from Igara East to Igara West, Bushenyi-Ishaka municipality and at the district topmost seat.
The 2026 elections in the country’s role model district looks a good film to watch as strong men and allies start building grounds for the race.
The reporting for this series draws on extensive interviews over a period of more than three months with more than two dozen people close to the incumbents, and others who have firsthand knowledge of the work underway to prepare for political changes in the district. Most spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive planning and avoid incumbents’ ire.
Well-organised groups are already developing lists of candidates selected often for their animus against the incumbents and a few of these names can be heard being sung in public gatherings, in the mainstream media and on several social media foras.
In Igara East, one of the strongmen speculated to cause unwavering change in 2026 is Mugura Dan Karukiiko who lost to the incumbent Hon. Micheal Mawanda Maranga in the previous election. Mugarura according to dozens of electorates has never left the constituency and he uses each opportunity he encounters majority at functions like parties, church congregations and burials as a platform to spread his political ambitions. Residents say he is a strong man for the seat and they cannot hesitate to spit on the ground and throw dismissive hands to the skies against Hon. Mawanda.
Another person you cannot raise over eyes is Cohen Kyampene, a generational Lawyer of Igara West who different political wings in the constituency are describing as generous as an oasis of Khalahari. He is said to be seriously engaging constituents in various social-economic activities to give his political career a rising foot. Many voters have vehemently confessed he is an ideal to unseat the incumbent Hon. Gaffa Mbwatekamwa. Although some groups still think that Hon. Mbwatekamwa should be given a second last term, there are change-thirsty groups bravely hyping Kyampene’s candidature. These argue that his kindness will help to lobby for the constituency and Bushenyi district at large.
At a very big wedding reception for Tanka Byakyaro in Kyamuhunga, one of the opinion leaders told this publication, the crowd could be heard whispering while others spoke as loud as their voices could go begging Cohen to contest in 2026 chanting his name as a ‘Strong man’s of Igara West.
Another source whose contributions influenced Hon. Mbwatekamwa’s victory in the previous elections confessed his candidate will have no any fertile ground in the 2026 elections owing to the mobilization activities that Cohen is undertaking at the grassroot. He for instance revealed that at baptism party for Cohen’s child more than 3,000 people were in attendance majority the locals an indicator that he is gaining political momentum than the incumbent who chooses to sit in Kampala AC and wheeled-chair office only to return home for a chosen few activities. Other residents did not comment as though they looked that everything was neither right nor wrong. But, majority of the respondents agreed that Lawyer Cohen Kyampene is a suitable person to defeat the incumbent MP Mbwatekamwa.
That’s not the only important “radical faces” likely to influence 2026, though. The District LCV race has become such vast and encompassing competition that a list of such “strong men” could stretch indefinitely.
The most speculated person eyeing the district topmost seat is popular journalist, Twebaze Prosper of 92.2 BFM Radio in Bushenyi.
Twebaze who has long built his name on the walls of fame in Bushenyi has the influence of the media and many forces are determination of a tortoise that he will unseat the incumbent Jaffar Basajjabalaba. It is predicted to be a hot race come 2026.
Many factors that will shape the 2026 contest, of course, remain impossible to know almost three years before the voting. But it is possible with greater confidence to identify the questions whose eventual capabilities will exert the most impact on the result.
