Moses Kaliisa Kalangwa has defeated former State Minister Aidah Erios Nantaba in a tightly contested and highly secured election to become the new National Resistance Movement (NRM) district chairperson for Kayunga.
The high-stakes election was conducted at Kayunga Police Station under heavy security presence. The Uganda Police Force, Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), and the Special Forces Command (SFC) were all deployed to ensure peace during the voting process.
Security was heightened early in the day, with roadblocks and checkpoints set up on all routes leading to the polling station.
By 9:00am a mammoth of NRM members had swarmed at the polling station waiting to witness who between Kalangwa and Nantaba would become their party chairperson. Later, vehicles—mostly Costa buses and commuter taxis—began arriving, ferrying NRM members. Their arrival was marked by chants and songs praising their candidate, Moses Kaliisa Kalangwa.
The arrival of Nantaba at the venue sparked a brief standoff. A scuffle broke out between her SFC guards and other security personnel, who attempted to withdraw them from her to restore order. Some members of the public demanded the withdrawal of the SFC from the venue, a call Nantaba rejected.
The situation was only defused by Kayunga Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Mr. Trevor Solomon Baleke, who intervened and advised that Nantaba’s SFC guards be allowed to stay, since they had already gone through all the three checkpoints.
“If we didn’t want them (SFC) here, we would have stopped them at the first checkpoint as we had earlier planned. Since you left them to enter with her, let them stay. I don’t want any scenes of confrontation here,” said Baleke.
Mr. Baleke was later seen speaking privately with Nantaba and her team, helping to restore calm.
NRM electoral officer Mr. Jamadah Kivumbi then called for calm and urged all candidates to mobilize their supporters peacefully. The main contenders—Karangwa, Nantaba, and Mr. Livingstone Kyagaba—addressed their voters and agreed to proceed with the election. A fourth candidate, Ms. Nalubwama Agatha, withdrew from the race, encouraging her supporters to vote as they wished.
Voting proceeded smoothly, and the counting process was carried out without incident. The final results gave Karangwa a landslide victory, with 415 votes. Nantaba trailed with 38 votes, while Kyagaba managed only 3.
The NRM district election registrar officially declared Mr. Karangwa the new chairperson.
In his victory remarks, Karangwa expressed gratitude to the voters for their confidence in him and pledged to work towards strengthening the party’s presence and unity in Kayunga.
Despite conceding defeat, Nantaba criticized the process, alleging that Karangwa employed tactics to hide and manipulate voters. She cited voter intimidation and procedural irregularities as having undermined a fair contest.
The Kayunga NRM chairperson race, though marked by moments of tension, concluded peacefully.
