Africa-Press – Uganda. John Kabeeho Kigungu has announced he will contest as an independent candidate in the 2026 LC5 elections for Ntungamo District, following a disputed NRM primary that he claims was marred by irregularities and vote rigging.
Kabeeho, the Rubaare Sub-county councillor, made the declaration during a meeting with his supporters at his home.
He said the decision follows deep dissatisfaction with the manner in which the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) handled its primary elections.
The NRM primaries saw incumbent LC5 chairperson Samuel Muchunguzi Rwakigoba declared the party flag bearer.
But Kabeeho alleges the results were manipulated in Rwakigoba’s favour.
“NRM is my party and I do support it, but I blame its arrangements,” Kabeeho said.
“When I contested as LC5 chairman, I knew that NRM has no power to manage this exercise. The NRM will lose because of such kind of arrangements.”
He said by midnight on Thursday, he was leading in tallies across various sub-counties and town councils. However, he claims that between 1am and 1pm on Friday, things changed drastically.
“When all the votes were collected, we had already counted at sub-counties and town councils and had the figures,” Kabeeho explained.
“From 1pm to midnight, I had already won and people celebrated me. My downfall started from 1am to 1pm Friday.”
He accused unnamed “district mafias” of rigging the vote, saying the manipulation had begun even before the polling day.
“I almost won in every sub-county, especially in Rushenyi and Ruhama. The vote rigging started earlier, before the election, when all district workers got involved in this vote rigging. They used money from district mafias to steal my vote.”
Kabeeho insisted he had no choice but to run as an independent.
“Fortunately I won, but unfortunately they stole my vote. I blame the big mafias and I tell them to stop vote rigging,” he said. “With all that happened in this process, this is why I have to come back as an independent.”
Supporters at the meeting expressed similar frustrations. David Rwamutemba, a vocal backer from Rubaare, accused a clique within the party of orchestrating Kabeeho’s defeat.
“We saw what happened in the LC5 elections. This was planned by a few individuals, but fortunately we are energetic enough to dislodge this group,” Rwamutemba said.
“We are going to mobilize for Kabeeho, whose win was disorganized, and organize Ntungamo as well.”
He rejected suggestions that Kabeeho’s supporters were abandoning the ruling party in favour of the opposition.
“People are saying we don’t support the Movement, which is not true. They say we are going to NUP or FDC. We now have a big task of explaining all that. Because of their selfish interests… Everybody is crying for this young man, but I know we are going to win.”
Kabeeho’s entry as an independent now sets the stage for a tense and potentially fractious LC5 contest in 2026, highlighting growing divisions within the NRM’s Ntungamo support base.
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