Late Wapakhabulo’s Daughter Joins the Race for Mbale City Woman MP

Our Reporter in Mbale City
Sarah Watsemwa

The daughter of the late James Wapakhabulo has joined the race for Mbale City Woman MP on the National Resistance Movement (NRM) ticket.

Sarah Watsemwa, who holds a master’s degree in public administration, says she will tap into her father’s networks and her own connections as an assistant town clerk in the city.




Steven Masiga, a researcher, says the race for Mbale City is crowded but not yet competitive, as there is no clear frontrunner. Masiga says the women’s vote is one of the most complex, as women do not have the same emotional attachment to candidates as men. For example, among men, if someone fails for a long time, they might be voted for on sympathy grounds. But with women, you can fail repeatedly, and they may not be swayed by sympathy.




“A woman can even refuse to vote for a fellow woman whom she shared a labor suite in the hospital,” Masiga highlighted. “But for men, anyone you have shared a knife during circumcision is a mukoki (initiate) or imbalu mate, and you are obligated by culture to vote for such a person. Even sharing a drinking tube or cigarette creates a permanent bond.”




Masiga further said that the candidate in the city woman race must have good English to impress the affluent and intellectual community and foodstuffs for the downtrodden in Namatala, who may not need good English but rather malwa (local brew), waragi (local gin), and salt, etc.

The City Woman race so far has about five candidates, with Wapakhabulo’s daughter becoming the sixth.

Having served as an enforcement official and town agent before rising to the rank of assistant town clerk of the division, she will mobilize the traders to her cause, building on the previous networks of her father.




Mbale City has two divisions, Northern and Industrial, with approximately 500,000 residents, of whom there are over 200,000 registered voters and several wards.

The best candidate should be able to address the needs of the mwananchi (citizen). One of Hon. Sarah Watsemwa’s campaign agents, who preferred anonymity for political reasons, says, “Our strategy is working very well. We are moving door-to-door, activating our old networks and cells.”

The late James Wapakhabulo, who represented Mbale Municipality for a long time, also served as Uganda’s Speaker and Foreign Minister, among other portfolios.




Hon. Sarah Watsemwa says, “The women’s groups we worked with then are the very ones I am going to rely on.”

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