Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party secretary general Nathan Nandala Mafabi has announced his intention to cease funding Dr. Col. (rtd) Kizza Besigye’s offices located on Katonga Road in Kampala. This move is seen as an attempt to impact Besigye’s political aspirations in the lead-up to the 2026 elections.
Nandala expressed his surprise and disappointment at being dismissed by the extraordinary party delegates shortly after his nomination for another term in office. He alleged that former FDC party president Besigye, in collaboration with chairperson Wasswa Birigwa, orchestrated a coup during a top party meeting held at Najjanankumbi, the FDC’s main headquarters in Kampala.
Addressing the situation, Nandala stated, “I want to tell the people of Katonga that I’m priceless. Nobody can buy me because I saw money when I was not yet born and I shall leave it here, and I will never cheat anybody.”
He continued, “Now that Besigye accepted such a gathering to sack me and replace me with Harold Kaija, we shall stop funding Katonga, and Besigye will suffer. We have been there for them in times of need, especially when I used my money for Besigye to contest in 2001. The reason Katonga Road establishment offices cannot move ahead is that we are no longer there for them.”
The extraordinary delegates, who went on to replace party president Patrick Amuriat Oboi, did not receive funding from FDC headquarters Najjanankumbi. Delegates had to cover their own transportation to and from their homes to the Katonga Road offices, where they convened with Besigye.
In response, Besigye argued that it was not Nandala’s financial support that had allowed the FDC to challenge President Yoweri Museveni in every election since 2005. He asserted, “The regime has been using money to buy opponents in every election, but Ugandans have never genuinely trusted Museveni with their vote, and Nandala can never make any difference even if he was allowed to stay inside the Bank of Uganda.”
Besigye maintained that Nandala’s significance as an FDC leader lay in the trust he had garnered from FDC supporters since 2005, despite Museveni having substantially more financial resources to offer. He concluded, “Katonga offices have been standing without Nandala and Museveni’s ‘dirty money’ as long as people still yearn for change. People’s trust can’t be bought, and people will use Nandala’s money from Museveni and leave him a miserable man in the end, to live out his own story.”