Nyanjura bid for Butiime seat shakes up Mwenge Central, Kyenjojo politics
Kampala Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura remains upbeat that she can unseat tourism minister Tom Butime.
Kampala Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura (pictured). (File photo)
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A week after nominations for constituency positions closed, Mwenge Central is fast turning into a political battleground.
Situated in Kyenjojo District in the Tooro sub-region, the area has consistently voted yellow in previous elections.
In the last general election alone, President Yoweri Museveni of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) secured 110,869 votes (85.78 %), followed by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, alias Bobi Wine of the National Unity Platform (NUP), who garnered 15,158 votes (11.73 % ). While Mugisha Muntu of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) scored 728 votes.
Kyenjojo District, with a population of 543,998, was carved out of Greater Kabarole in 2000 and comprises three constituencies.
Mwenge North, represented by David Muhumuza (NRM), Mwenge Central, represented by Tourism Minister Tom Butime Rwakaikara Ateenyi (NRM) and Mwenge South, represented by Donald Katalihwa (NRM).
Tourism Minister Tom Butime Rwakaikara Ateenyi (NRM).
Despite these scary statistics, Kampala Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura remains upbeat that she can unseat tourism minister Butime, who is said to have big support from a section of the ruling party district leadership.
Butime, a historical figure in the region’s politics, joined the National Resistance Army (NRA) bush war in 1981 at 33 years. He is among the fighters who reportedly trained in Libya.
Robert Mutunzi, the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) co-ordinator for the Toro region, told New Vision Online that the emerging convergence between the Opposition and the NRM was on full display during Nyanjura’s nomination on October 23, 2025.
The move, he added, signals that the Opposition’s long-awaited breakthrough in the district might be unfolding.
Going into this election, it should be noted that earlier in July this year, ANT and PFF signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Hotel Africana in Kampala to deepen cooperation. With the possibility of fielding joint candidates forming part.
Minister responds:
However, in a phone interview with New Vision on October 24, 2025, Col (rtd) Tom Butime, the incumbent Mwenge Central member of parliament (MP) and tourism minister, expressed ignorance about the convergence between a section of district NRM leaders and the opposition.
“I think it is politically unfounded and mere speculation. But you know politics is about blowing one’s trumpet,” Butime intimated.
“I doubt whether the party secretary of the district can support and nominate a candidate who is not NRM,” he added.
Butime, a mainstay in Tooro sub-region politics boasts of a thick political CV having previously served as minister of Internal Affairs, State minister for refugees and disaster preparedness and State Minister for International Cooperation.
Earlier on, while campaigning in the district on October 24, 2025, Muntu, who is having a go at the presidency for the second time, had stirred political waters by telling Hapuuyo Town Council residents that they had got a raw deal for supporting NRM all long. He cited the poor state of roads in the area.
“We have just come from the Bunyoro sub-region. Yesterday we were in Kagadi, the previous day in Kakumiro and Kibaale. We used the road from Karuguuza, it’s in a terrible state,” Muntu stated last Thursday.
“We passed through here before; I think some of you were still young in 1983. Back then, we were heading to the Rwenzori region. Many young people may not know that at that time, we had left Luwero, where we had spent three years, to open another front in Rwenzori. From there, we went on to capture Fort Portal, Kasese, Mbarara, Masaka and Katonga,” the former army commander added.