By Mulengera ReportersUnlike many who jumped on Bobi Wine after becoming politically powerful and capable of helping them win their political races, ex-Makerere Guild President (2016/2017) Dr. Roy Ssemboga embraced and began closely working with him much earlier on-long before he even became the MP Kyadondo East in August 2027.As Guild President, Dr. Ssemboga organized breast cancer awareness activities at the University’s Freedom Square to which Bobi Wine would be invited as his entertainment had been identified as capable of attracting students’ attention. Ssemboga was able to access him often and easily then as a singing celebrity because “Birangirangi,” one of the influential Mr. Wine assistants inside Fire Base, had been his OB & decker mate at Our Lady Secondary School in Mukono. Mr. Wine, who was already considering a shot at elective politics to be able to influence governance of his country more directly as opposed to merely outing pro-social justice songs, had admired Ssemboga’s ability to lead the young people at Makerere so effectively. He would see and admire his leadership credentials each time he came to perform at breast caner awareness concerts or even participate in the related student marathons as the chief runner.One weekend, as he travelled with his Fire Base crew members from a performance in Jinja, Mr. Wine saw a New Vision Street banner publicising that day’s major headlines in the newspaper. One of them declared: “Court Declares Kyadondo East Vacant.” They saw the banner as they entered Mukono town. As they struggled with the jam, the conversation shifted to the impending by-election. Aides like Ashburg Kato incited Mr. Wine with “Fadha you can win that one and be like [your fellow singers] Judith Babirye and Kato Lubwama,” who had joined the 10th Parliament months earlier.He was initially reluctant making it clear ‘you guys I don’t like those things.’ The debate carried on and Ssemboga was one of the few trusted friends Mr. Wine brought onto their internal Fire Base WhatssApp group where the Kyadondo possibility continued to be discussed. Ssemboga, who had already started a discussion forum called the ‘Now Generation’ whose objective was to rally like-minded young people who were no longer comfortable with Kizza Besigye’s opposition leadership, sided with those pushing for Mr. Wine to run.In the end, he offered himself, won the seat and the rest is history. Fast-forward, they founded the People Power Movement and as of that time, Mr. Wine created a WhatsApp forum called ‘the Patriotic Allies,’ which had strictly 9 members of his inner orbit. Ssemboga was on it and it’s there that the idea that morphed into People Power was first conceived. The group was gradually enlarged to 13 members.And it’s these 13 who made most consequential decisions regarding Mr. Wine’s political role as the country counted down to 2021.These included the decision to have countrywide music tours (which angered the regime into banning Bobi’s musical concerts), plunge into Jinja, Rukungiri, Bugiri, Nebbi and later on Arua by-election campaigns. All these were about testing Mr. Wine’s political popularity beyond Kyadondo East, Kampala and the Central region. You had the likes of Mabikke, Abed Bwanika, Lubega Mukaku, Gen Bigirwa etc who merely got instructions to go out and implement decisions PAT members would have made. Time came to determine how Mr. Wine was going to play his Presidential campaigns politics going forward-either as a leader of an all-encompassing political movement or political party. The debate on this went on among PAT members for roughly 2 years. In the end, it was agreed he leads a political party and that’s how Moses Kibalama Nkonge’s NURP was acquired through the brokerage services of Chairman Fred Nyanzi. That process culminated into name change from NURP to NUP.Once everything had been completed, the inaugural NUP delegates conference was held at Kakiri Guest House (in late 2020) and Ssemboga is the man through whom Mr. Wine coordinated that event. Out of Kakiri, Ssemboga emerged as the NEC member heading all academic institutions. This essentially placed him in charge of coordinating mobilization of millions of young people into NUP ranks.Months earlier, Mr. Wine had told members of his inner circle about how Cuban leader Fidel Castrol had a trusted aide whose role it was to fearlessly call him out and remind him “comrade you are human,” wherever he was about to get corrupted by power and go astray. In NUP/Poeople Power’s case, Dr. Ssemboga played that role after the same had been bestowed on him by none other than Mr. Wine himself. All these demonstrate the closeness between the Principal and his protege Dr. Roy Ssemboga. AND NOW: Ssemboga, who unsuccessfully warned and advised his party not to make the mistake of fronting Kazibwe Bashir for the position of Kawempe South in 2021, is back raising the same red flag on the suitability of Fred Nyanzi to carry he NUP ticket going into 2026.He says he understands Kawempe South so well having been born and raised there, specifically in the ghettos of Nakamiro, which is one of the notorious slums in Bwaise parish. In a Saturday interview, Dr. Ssemboga told Mulengera News that Fred Nyanzi is even harder to sell to Kawempe voters than Kazibwe was five years ago. Full Dr. Roy Ssemboga YouTube interview can be accessed and watched via this link: https://youtu.be/GxdmSu8ri1Y?si=XfIe70y_QbUK-XNU He says that Nyanzi’s approach is already alienating many influential area residents and it can only worsen. That Nyanzi’s approach and campaign style is characterized by deception of telling deliberate lies against his opponents and he fallaciously believes all one needs to win is getting the NUP flag.Dr. Ssemboga observes that the NUP flag is a big boost to whoever it’s given but one needs to do much more. That in Nyanzi’s case, even if he is given 10 NUP flags for the Kawempe seat, he will still be rejected by voters and lose. Ssemboga says that if the NUP flag was all one needed to win, Nyanzi would become Kampala Central MP in 2021 because he had the flag. He adds that Jimmy Lukwago aka Kiira Yanga (who lost to Semujju Nganda) would be Kira Municipality if carrying the NUP flag was all one needed.Ssemboga, who equally is eyeing the same Kawempe South MP seat, adds that Latif Ssebaggala was right blowing the whistle the way he did recently-implicating Nyanzi in underhand methods aimed at isolating and rigging out whoever doesn’t agree with his intrigue and mobilization style. That he is aware of many councillor position aspirants in Kawempe South who are finding it hard to mobilize for NUP because of Nyanzi’s blackmail. That whoever refuses to be part of his team is declared an enemy and subjected to character-assassination by Nyanzi camp-affiliated bloggers on social media.Ssemboga thinks that Nyanzi, being a senior leader, should have concentrated on the removal of the dictator and left small things like fighting for MP seats to junior party cadres. An old friend to Nyanzi, Ssemboga also considers it betrayal for the Chairman to abandon his Kampala Central, where he has done politics for over 30 years and suddenly relocates to Kawempe South yet his home is actually in Kawempe North.“These are the very things me and him used to despise Kassiano Wadri for and we never wanted Bobi to go campaign for him in 2018 because he had left Terego for Arua City. I in 2021 was asked by some people inside NUP Secretariat to go for Kampala Central but I declined because I wasn’t prepared to be used by anyone to antagonize my senior comrade Chairman Nyanzi who everybody knew was for Kampala Central,” Ssemboga explained. He says that Chairman Nyanzi doesn’t have any political cards to win in Kawempe South because area residents are tired of leaders who come from outside to impose themselves on the constituency.“We have had Mubarak Munyagwa and now Kazibwe Bashir. They both have given a raw deal to us the organic Kawempe South residents and the only organic leader we had was Sebuliba Mutumba and was able to perform and keep being voted back because he was a son of the soil and well settled in Kawempe as opposed to relocating there opportunistically.” Ssemboga says having learnt from Kazibwe and Munyagwa, Kawempe South residents can’t entrust their vote with Nyanzi, another alien, because they are 100% sure he won’t understand their problems because he is from away.He predicts that even if everyone else from the opposition side pulls or bows out and Nyanzi is left in the thing alone, he will be floored by NRM’s Masina Nsereko much as Kawempe South residents have always resented candidates from the ruling party.In the same interview, Ssemboga also made a few observations about Bobi Wine, a man he described as a very good leader who a lot of people haven’t been able to correctly understand. He says that, contrary to claims that he is in the struggle for self-enrichment, he personally has seen Bobi Wine empty his personal bank account to fund mobilization activities in the different parts of Uganda. That when he was still MP Kyaddondo East, much of the money that funded NUP work was from his salary as an MP. Ssemboga recalls going with Bobi Wine to withdraw Shs5m using his ATM and another Shs25m which had just landed there as salary from Parliament. The money was all invested in a young activist who was the NUP candidate in a by-election in one of the districts in Karamoja.He also rejects claims that Mr. Wine hires and facilitates bloggers to character-assassinate people he disagrees with or fellow NUP leaders who contradict his views in party meetings. “What is true is that he will give facts to you so that you can use them to respond to propaganda by NRM and that is legitimate yet some peddlers of fake news will say he facilitated bloggers to destroy so and so. It’s also true that some time, some assistants close to him can misrepresent his views, do personal things and those seeing it end up attributing it to him.”Ssemboga also says that Mr. Wine is full of humility and not greedy for positions, which is why he took long to buy into those who were pushing him to take on Gen Museveni. He has travelled with Mr. Wine in the same car and shared accommodation with him several times upcountry when they go for mobilization and he says the man is fan to be with. “He cracks endless jokes which is one of the many ways great leaders keep their teams united, committed, hopeful and unexhausted.”Dr. Ssemboga also says that Ugandans should stop being opportunistic and being driven by sense of entitlement. “In 2021, I desired to be the NUP flag bearer for Kawempe South but that never happened. It was given to Kazibwe Bashir and the party leaders had their own reasons. I would have grumbled and accused Bobi of being ungrateful on public media but I didn’t because I know I’m in this struggle because I want a better country, a better Uganda for my daughter. It shouldn’t be about positions and being rewarded by Bobi. We are in this on conviction and for our country and our children and not for Bobi Wine.”He adds that, in his view, Mr. Wine deserves eternal commendation because he was already leading a very comfortable life as a music star and he didn’t have to be party President or MP in order to lead a better life.“He already had good cars, a nice home and a good legacy as a successful family man with a powerful wife. These are the things we crave as young men. It’s a dream for many of us but the man had a dream car, house and wife which every young man aspires to and yet he left it all to come into the misery of the struggle. That’s one other aspect on which Bobi Wine needs to be appreciated for, notwithstanding the fact that he is human and has his own weaknesses like each one of us.”