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Since the year 1996, Vet doctor Beatrice Wabudeya Mukhaye had comfortably served her people as Woman MP initially for Mbale and later on Sironko district but as of 2011, she had become too confident to the extent of thinking she would freely switch constituencies and win anywhere in Bugisu.
That’s how the pride-driven Beatrice Wabudeya, who had done 5 years as Mbale Woman MP (1996-2001) and another 10 years as Sironko Woman MP (2001-2011), arrogantly abandoned safer Sironko Woman MP job to go and antagonize FDC strongman Nathan Nandala Mafabi in Budadiri West still in Sironko District.
The Woman MP seat was still very comfortable for her but the desire to demonstrate to President Museveni that she was very powerful and politically very capable to the extent of deflating Nandala Mafabi, who (as PAC Chairman) had become such a big thorn in Museveni’s fresh, blinded her.
Encouraged and cheered on by fortune-hunting NRM cadres in Sironko and Mbale towns (the type who thrive on chewing money from such pride-blinded politicians by always telling them what they want to hear as opposed to the truth), Wabudeya took the gamble and in the end, Nandala Mafabi (whose popularity State House had underestimated) had the last laugh. Imagine she abandoned the Sironko Woman MP job at the time everything was going well for her to the extent that she would even bounce back unopposed!
Even when she was the Presidency Minister as of that time with plenty of State House resources and SFC escorts, by the time the last vote was counted and proclaimed, Wabudeya had only managed to get only 9,336 votes against Nandala Mafabi’s 23,702! Two other peripheral candidates (Livingston Giruli & Geoffrey Simon Gidongo), believed to have been instigated by Wabudeya herself, only polled zero and 49 votes respectively.
That was the end of the political Wabudeya whose lukewarm polling performance that year inadvertently demystified the Presidency and the military mambas that had been deployed to overcome Nandala Mafabi inside the trenches of Budadiri West.
Having been Minister in several lucrative dockets before (namely at Gender, Health as State Minister & Kampala Affairs) money had never been a problem for Dr. Beatrice Wabudeya who, as of that time, had effectively distinguished herself as the President’s blue-eyed girl in Elgon/Bugisu sub region. But all that didn’t prevent the organically popular Nandala Mafabi from prevailing.
Nandala Mafabi became an instant celebrity by leveraging all the media publicity that was attracted as local and international journalists (including Julius Roy Odeke Muganda) traveled to pitch camp in Sironko to cover the heightened political violence that Wabudeya’s political madness had invited for the Budadiri West race.
Several factors explained the victory of Nandala Mafabi who enjoyed unanimous support across Bugisu sub region; some of it from senior NRM cadres to whom Wabudeya’s decision to abandon a safe constituency didn’t make much sense.
Many felt Wabudeya’s madness amounted to depriving Bugisu and even diminish the sub region’s visibility at the national level in Kampala having to antagonise Nandala Mafabi at the time he was doing very well and shinning nationally as the PAC Chairman who Ugandans were unanimously celebrating for his tough stance against corrupt officials.
Across the country, there was well pronounced anger as to why anyone would seek to oust Nandala Mafabi who was leading the Parliament fight to catch government thieves in Kampala. This naturally cultivated a lot of hatred for Wabudeya across Uganda!
Even fellow NRMs and actors in the security system nationally and within Bugisu clandestinely worked against Wabudeya whose blind and crude political pride they felt deserved to be cracked up.
Fellow ministers from Bugisu felt she was trying to overblow her own trumpet and political relevance to the President-to their own detriment. It therefore became their prayer and duty to work towards the victory of Nandala who also doing well as Bugisu Cooperative Union Chairman.
Wabudeya’s dramatic defeat by Nandala in 2011 humiliated the President and his entire political establishment and the man from Rwakitura (feeling bruised) furiously reacted by throwing the vanquished Wabudeya under the bus. And this was inevitable because the Budadiri West defeat had demonstrated to the H.E how politically disposable and insignificant his Vet Doctor Beatrice Wabudeya was.
In the subsequent Cabibet reshuffle, Wabudeya was discarded from the Presidency Ministry and replaced by Frank Tumwebaze who also inherited and took charge of the Kampala Affairs docket from her.
This essentially was the end of Wabudeya’s role and visibility in the national elective politics of Uganda. Gen Museveni, years later, specifically in 2014 consoled her with an obscure posting to serve as a member on the Presidential Awards Committee which recommends recipients for Presidential medals.
Months later, Wabudeya, who as Presidency Minister had grown into a larger than life political figure nationally, got some additional rehabilitation intervention in her rapidly-deteriorating social standing when the President appointed her the chairperson for the Governing Board for the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) through which the Ugandan army does business. This too was an obscure role and virtually nothing compared to the enormous powers Wabudeya wielded when still serving as Minister for Presidency.
Her decision to controversially abandon the Sironko Woman MP seat, which was very safe, paved way for Nandala-instigated Femiar Wadada (of FDC) who easily cruised to victory that same year 2011. She polled 37,062 votes against Patience Wibule’s 23,658 and Josephine Nafuna’s 1,501.
Apparently, Sironko residents and voters got into a riotous mood by voting for FDC candidates (including Budadiri East’s Isaiah Sasaga) in order to punish the NRM leadership at Kyadondo in Kampala and Gen Museveni for failing to prevail over his daughter Beatrice Wabudeya as she moved towards digging her own political grave.
And by the way as of 2011, when she made the notorious political goof and miscalculation of meandering into someone else’s constituency, Beatrice Wabudeya (now 69) wasn’t that old as yet. She was just 55 years old but the Nandala-instigated political fall was so profound, she never rose up again.
The humiliation was too much to the extent that Wabudeya (who narrowly survived sinking into depression as she nationally became a laughing stock on all media platforms) got to permanently hate elective politics and indeed never stood again up to this day. Her experience (which Lira City voters could replicate in 2026 by doing a Nandala Mafabi on equally controversial Betty Amongi Ongom) demonstrated and validated the universal belief and adage that pride always precedes a big fall.
THE AMONGI FATE:
Today almost 15 years later, Gender Minister Betty Amongi is busy justifying her decision to abandon safer and more predictable Oyam County South MP seat for unpredictable Lira City Woman MP office, which as of now is synonymous with lots of unknowns.
Even when she has been MP since 2001 (implying she will have served for 25 years as of 2026), the 2021 polling results officially authenticated by EC indicate that Oyam was still predictable and an achievable prospect even in 2026.
In 2021, Amongi polled 27,024 votes against several others including Queen Dorothy Amolo (14,883), NRM’s Patrick Obong (5,504), Isha Otto Amiza (1,205), Willy Odongo (1,032), Bernard Awuko (358), Alfred Oketch (140) and FDC’s Godfrey Odongo (140).
And in 2011, ten years earlier, Amongi still comfortably kept her Oyam County South MP seat. She had 12,111 votes against Otto’s 4,573; Alfred Oketch (312), Dennis Okello (1,471), Jackson Ojok Ojoka (7,402), Sam Otto Ocola (8,450) and FDC’s Giles Dennis Ongar (873).
Whether the UPC First Lady (who ironically has no problem being simultaneously considered NRM and could compete for Speakership should she bounce back) manages to escape the Beatrice Wabudeya political embarrassment or not, only time will tell-and after all, Ugandans are just months away from the next elections when the people of Lira City will have the opportunity to have the last word on her fate.
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