The leader of opposition in parliament (LoP) Mathias Mpuuga has called on a section of Ugandans questioning why his National Unity Platform (NUP) leadership has not joined the commodity prices protests, saying they have a duty themselves to rise up and not wait for NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi.

Rtd former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president Kizza Besigye who has since been remanded to Luzira prison recently kicked off protests to pressurise the government to arrest the fast-flying inflation.

This week, FDC women leaders including Kampala deputy mayor Doreen Nyanjura and Soroti Woman MP Anna Adeke Ebaju and others staged another protest at Mulago roundabout demanding government intervention against the rising cost of living.

The FDC women were further remanded until next week when the court will determine their bail application. Amidst all these, some Ugandans have wondered why NUP, the largest opposition party in parliament, is silent over the issue.

“We issued the statement in parliament on behalf of our party relating to the running away of prices on essential goods. But the regime hasn’t considered anything. We asked them to cut on high taxes and to turn down their appetite for expenditure, but nothing has been considered,” Mpuuga told journalists at the NUP offices in Kamwokya Tuesday.

He said the government has left Ugandans to suffer, which should have compelled all Ugandans to rise up against the bad governance and stop questioning what opposition leaders are doing.      

"Stop questioning why we have not joined. Don't wait for Kyagulanyi to do anything, do it yourself. Kyagulanyi is a leader, equally, you're a leader in your own capacity because you head a family that is constrained. We want to invite fellow citizens to be alive. It is a matter of time. If you want change tomorrow, you will have it tomorrow. I want to invite you to participate in every activity that will quicken the new Uganda. Citizens we want to invite you to participate. All of us have a duty and that duty must be played by everyone who feels affected, who feels offended by the going ons in the country," said Mpuuga.

Interestingly, a section of NUP supporters has called Besigye's protests an orchestrated 'diversion' by the state. Jolly Mugisha, the NUP vice president for western Uganda appealed to some Ugandans to stop saying that things are okay in western Uganda since the president comes from that part of the country.  

“You know what is ironic in Uganda, most people think that everything is okay in western Uganda because the dictator comes from that side. I want to categorically say this, things are worse even in western Uganda. We’re dying alive,” Mugisha said.

She said people in western Uganda are not happy with the government's decision to construct roads in Congo and build schools in Tanzania, yet schools and roads in western Uganda are in a sorry state.         

Speaking about the just concluded Omoro parliamentary by-elections, Mpuuga said the exercise was marred by violence, vote bribery, and the highest levels of criminality, orchestrated by the NRM regime.

“Omoro is a crime scene for the criminality that took place there. The young man who purportedly claims to have won is also a witness to that crime. Bribery, torture, brutalization of citizens, arrests, and results that were declared by a militia group was a sign of how bad we have gone as a country,” Mpuuga stated.

The Electoral Commission declared the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party candidate, Andrew Ojok Oulanyah the winner of the Omoro County parliamentary by-election with 14,224 votes defeating his closest NUP rival Simon Toolit Akecha. The seat fell vacant following the death of Ojok's father Jacob Oulanyah in March 2022. - URN/The Observer