Seeking to strengthen their efforts to rekindle the country’s democratic fabric, Mathias Mpuuga, the coordinator of the Democratic Alliance (DA), launched the civic platform’s coordinators at the DA head office in Namirembe on March 14, 2025.
This expansion marks a crucial step in spreading the DA’s agenda across Uganda with a focus on promoting constitutional, electoral reforms, and national transition.
The mega launch was attended by DA chief promoters including Samuel Lubega Mukaaku, Micheal Mabikke, Henry Lubowa, and MPs including Kimaanya-Kabonera’s Abed Bwanika, Juliet Kakande (Masaka City Woman), Micheal Kakembo Mbwatekamwa (Ntebbe Municipality), and Moses Kasibante, the former Lubaga North MP, etc who reiterated their commitment to the cause.
Mpuuga emphasized the importance of this initiative, stating, “It’s a duty of this generation to rethink the model of this country. There is something wrong with our political DNA, and this generation must correct it.”
Mpuuga urged the coordinators to rally the nation, demanding minimum reforms. He asserted, “We must work to undo this kind of misrepresentation. General Museveni should be the last dictator to preside over this nation and to abuse our generosity as a people, and to abuse our sacrifice as a nation.”
The DA coordinator emphasized the need for purposeful unity among change-seeking forces of opposition, saying, “Ahead of us, there is a duty of unseen unity that we desire as people who want change… but the question is, must we unite only around elections? Should our unity only come at elections?”
He cautioned the opposition actors against merely uniting to address the symptoms rather than the root causes, stating, “Of uniting to pull a dead body out of depression instead of uniting to stop a death, I think we are handling the wrong side of the knife.”
Mpuuga explained to the coordinators that the DA is a “big tent” that welcomes different political persuasions, all committed to working together to bring about change, stressing, “the opposition desiring change must think deeply that our unity should not be around elections but also be around processes that lead to elections because the processes are as important as elections.”
He asserted that the “elections from Kawempe North and other places where we have had by-elections should have been strong enough to remind us how we are stuck. Part of your duty as coordinators from today onwards, is to go and rally the nation into demanding minimum reforms.”
The coordinators, who will work in all traditional regions of Uganda, including Central, Western, Eastern, and Northern, were tasked with spreading the DA agenda. Their primary focus will be on pushing for constitutional and electoral reforms and national transition.
Mpuuga emphasized that it is not too late to push for reforms, saying, “We still have time, we can still push. No one should deceive you that it’s too late to go for reforms. I have heard strangely, some leaders from the opposition claiming that the quest for reforms is late and that General Museveni and his parliament will not allow them, and here is a question how is a Museveni who doesn’t want reforms then declare you as a winner?”
“So, we implore you that whenever you are going as our coordinators across the country, is to go and amplify the voice for reforms and the transition,” he said.
Mpuuga said that as DA, they are not interested in escorting NRM’s President Museveni at his swearing ceremony through participating in a presidential elections short of the needed reforms.
“In DA, we want to participate in a consequential election that is our essence. If we summoned the same capacity, the same unity that was exhibited in by-elections behind us and we used to raise the momentum of the nation to call upon everyone to say, we want to undertake minimum reforms before the elections, I can tell you, General Museveni and his people have no capacity stopping that,” he said.
“We don’t want to be escorts at Museveni’s swearing-in ceremony. That not our aspiration. If we lost a free and fair electoral process, we would say, we have lost…we cannot just go into an election without challenging Museveni’s actions,” he added.
The DA coordinator urged the coordinators to engage with impoverished NRM supporters in the countryside, showing them the bigger goal and duty of nation-building.
He emphasized that the DA is not seeking revenge but justice, and that everyone must be held accountable for their actions.
“Go and tell them that we are not out for revenge, but we are for justice. If you are the person who beat people in Kawempe, we must come for you take you to court, and explain yourself. We want everyone to be part of this agenda, and we will speak to whoever matters,” he said, “I want to ask you, go and talk to everyone and we shall come to you in all your areas.”
Mpuuga concluded his remarks by appreciating the coordinators for their sacrifice and commitment to building a new Uganda per DA’s aspirations.
Source:Fact Files
