Tibyaze smiles to Parliament after crying in NRM primaries

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July 17, 2025, still lingers in Peace Tibyaze’s mind when she yelled inside the tally centre protesting the outcome of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party primaries for Members of Parliament.

The 32-year-old contested with current Jinja district speaker Monic Namukose and incumbent MP Loy Katali for the Jinja District Woman MP seat.

Confident with the outcome that was putting her in the lead for the party flag, Jinja district NRM registrar Paul Kiwanuka Kabale would instead declare Namukose as the party’s flag bearer with 33.941 (49.1%) votes.

The July 2025 race saw Katali coming second with 6,441 (9.3%) as Tibyaze, a lawyer by profession, trailed with 28,739 (41.5%), causing uproar in the tally centre at the Kagoma town council premises.

As Kabale declared Namukose as the duly card-bearer upon polling the highest percentage, Tibyaze disputed the victory.

Having collected the declaration forms quietly, she complained of Mpungwe polling centre, saying the results had been altered.

The 32-year-old, who was being blocked by Police officers from reaching Kabale, cited Munyegera zone in Buwenge town council, where Namukose polled 85, but a zero was added, inflating the result by 765 votes to 850.

She also reported a similar case at Buwala A Nakakulwe in Butagaya sub-county, but upon verification, she had polled 702 votes while Namukose and Katali got 62 and 2 votes, respectively.

Tibyaze said they recorded a video as evidence to back their concerns at Buweera in Nkondo, where the results were not submitted at the tally centre.

As she kept complaining, Namukose’s supporters asked Kabale to proceed with the declaration process and advised Tibyaze to petition court if she wasn’t satisfied with the outcome.

A crying Peace Tibyaze said it was inevitable and doesn’t regret her act because she was on the right track, which earned her the flag until she fought her way to parliament. (Photo by Jackie Nambogga)

She composed a little before raising up and out of anger, she burst into tears for denying her victory as she accused Kabale for not being ethical.

“God knows and he is seeing you for this broad day cheating,” Tibyaze said as she was cried.

She took another step of petitioning the party’s tribunal, which withdrew the flag from Namukose and handed it to her.

In an interview on January 19, 2026, four days after the 2026 General Election, Tibyaze said she didn’t regret her act of crying, which exhibited her plight and earned her victory.

“Some people who were close kept pulling me back in my seat that I was embarrassing them by crying, not knowing that I had victory in my hands, it was about altering results, yet all my records suggested that I had won the race,” she said.

She said politics was about being aggressive by using different approaches, provided one was on the right track.

Namukose, along with Katali, Priscilla Oliver Sanyu, Sharita Namulinda and Rehemah Mujoma Namujehe Van, all independents as well as Forum for Democratic Change’s Betty Byuma Tuuse and NUP’s Miria Nambi, including Tibyaze faced off for the district woman seat.

She defeated them with 28,733 votes, followed by Namukose at 14,854, while Katali came third with 9,632.

Meanwhile, Nambi, Byuma, Namulinda, Mujoma and Sanyu got 9,504, 1,020, 509, 402 and 231 votes, respectively.

Whereas Tibyaze had hated Kabale with a passion, the Thursday victory to Parliament brought smiles to her face and caused her to forgive her.