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Suspended founder and president of National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED), Joseph Kabuleta, has accused his party's National Executive Committee of working closely with former Leader of Opposition Mathias Mpuuga to frustrate him.
He vowed to contest for the presidency in the 2026 general elections, even if it means running as an independent candidate.
The remarks follow a decision by his own party’s National Executive Committee to suspend him for 90 days.
“There is no way they can claim to push me out without a legally binding provision in the constitution. I will go ahead to contest as a presidential candidate even if it means coming as an independent candidate as I did in 2021,” he told New Vision.
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Joseph Kabuleta
NEC Members in bed in Mpuuga
Kabuleta accused the party’s NEC members of working against him under the influence of prominent names like Mathias Mpuuga, who recently founded the Democratic Front and the Democratic Party president and Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Hon. Norbert Mao.
“They have been working closely with Mpuuga’s Democratic Front party, claiming they are long-time friends under the Uganda Young Democrats, a youth branch of the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Norbert Mao,” he told New Vision before adding.
“There is no political party in the world which can allow its senior leaders to don t-shirts of rival parties with party cards and reach an extent of voting in and competing in rival’s delegates conference under my watch without a memorandum of understanding or cooperation agreement.”
According to Kabuleta, NEED’s spokesperson, Moses Matovu, who announced his suspension last week, has been hobnobbing with other influences working against him.
He claimed that he dismissed Matovu from the party over the same.
However, NEED claims Kabuleta is suspended over indiscipline after he allegedly pronounced himself as the presidential candidate party’s flag bearer for the 2021 general elections, among other irregularities.
Kabuleta polled 45,424 votes in 2021, accounting for 0.44% of the total votes cast, while eventual winner Yoweri Museveni got 6,042,898 votes, which was 58.3% of the votes cast.