The National Resistance Movement (NRM) Election Disputes Tribunal has nullified the victory of Mahad Kaweesa as the party’s flagbearer for Kampala Lord Mayor and declared Kizito Moses Nsubuga as the rightful candidate for the 2026 elections.
The Tribunal, chaired by lawyer John Musiime, delivered the ruling after reviewing multiple petitions arising from the July 24, 2025 party primaries.
Four aspirants imcluding Kizito Moses Nsubuga, Mayambala Yosamu, Dr. Thadeus Nagenda, and Katongole Abdul Hakim initially contested Kaweesa’s victory.
However, Mayambala and Nagenda later withdrew their cases, while Hakim’s petition was dismissed for failing to gather the required 50 signatures.
This left only Nsubuga’s petition to be decided on its merits.
The petition against Kaweesa was centered on allegations that Kaweesa did not possess valid academic qualifications, which are a legal requirement for anyone contesting for Lord Mayor.
Kaweesa was accused of using school certificates belonging to another individual, one Solomon Kaweesa.
In his defense, Kaweesa argued that he had changed his name from Solomon to Mahad after converting to Islam, and presented a deed poll dated June 2025, a statutory declaration, and verification letters of his Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE).
However, the Tribunal found significant inconsistencies in his evidence.
It noted that Kaweesa had applied for a national ID in 2020 under the name Mahad Kaweesa, years before his purported legal name change.
A newspaper article from 2003 also identified him as Mahad Kaweesa, yet the UCE certificate of that year was issued to Solomon Kaweesa.
The Tribunal further pointed to conflicting national ID records, with one from 2014 showing his education level as only Senior Two.
Handwriting differences in old school visitor logs, phone records linking him to a separate Solomon Kaweesa, and his inability to recall basic details about his schools all cast further doubt on his testimony.
The ruling highlighted that Kaweesa could not identify any of his former teachers, classmates, or even the denominational affiliation of his A-Level school.
He wrongly described Maryland High School, where he claimed to have studied, as a Catholic institution, when in fact it is Seventh-day Adventist.
“These inconsistencies render the respondent’s testimony evasive, unreliable, and not credible,” the Tribunal stated, concluding that the academic documents Kaweesa presented did not belong to him.
Because holding an A-Level certificate or its equivalent is a mandatory qualification for contesting the position of Lord Mayor, the Tribunal ruled that Kaweesa’s nomination was invalid from the start.
It further noted that his irregular candidacy substantially affected the outcome of the primaries, making the entire process unfair and unlawful.
As a remedy, the Tribunal set aside Kaweesa’s victory and declared Nsubuga who polled 43,505 votes to emerge second in the primaries as the duly elected NRM flagbearer for Kampala Lord Mayor in the 2026 general elections.
Reacting to the ruling, Nsubuga welcomed the decision, saying justice had finally prevailed. “The truth has come out, and I am ready to serve the people of Kampala with integrity and dedication under the NRM banner,” he said.
