Hon. Rose Nalubowa, the National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate for Masaka City Woman MP, has sparked fresh political debate after openly disclosing that she held a meeting with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni following the 2026 general elections.
Her revelation has brought renewed attention to divisions within the opposition party, the relationship between opposition politicians and the presidency, and the bitter electoral contest that ended with her losing the parliamentary seat to incumbent Justine Nameere.
Speaking during an interview on Sanyuka TV, Nalubowa revealed that Museveni had called her for a meeting after the elections. She explained that she attended the engagement because, in her view, declining the invitation was not an easy option. She also alleged that approximately 12 other individuals who contested on NUP tickets had equally met the President.
According to Nalubowa, she encountered her political rival, Justine Nameere, who currently serves as Masaka City Woman MP and State Minister for Local Government, when she arrived at the meeting. She disclosed that Nameere was seated next to her, although the two reportedly did not exchange words throughout the engagement.
Nalubowa further made a controversial claim that obtaining a parliamentary position effectively requires the approval of the President. However, this assertion remains her personal account and has not been independently established.
Her remarks prompted an immediate response from NUP, which moved to distance its leadership from the reported presidential engagement.In a statement released on November 7, 2026, the opposition party clarified that it had neither been informed about the meeting nor consulted before Nalubowa attended it.
The statement read: “Our attention has been brought to comments made by Hon. Rose Nalubowa by which she stated that she met with Gen. Yoweri Museveni, who according to her, summoned her after elections. We wish to clarify that as a Party we were never consulted on this matter, and were not aware of any such meeting.”
Although the party has not publicly announced any disciplinary measures against Nalubowa, its communication clearly establishes that the meeting was not an officially sanctioned party engagement.
Nalubowa, on her part, has indicated that her lawyers knew about the arrangements and had been tasked with communicating with the party headquarters. However, the party’s statement maintains that its leadership was not consulted or informed about the presidential meeting.Meanwhile, Nameere has presented a different account of how the encounter came about.
She reportedly explained that she accompanied Nalubowa and her husband to meet Museveni, with the intention of encouraging reconciliation following the heated parliamentary contest. Her explanation presents the gathering as an opportunity to address grievances and ease political tensions rather than an encounter resulting from a presidential summons that Nalubowa felt unable to decline.
The conflicting accounts have consequently raised questions about who initiated the meeting, what was discussed and the actual purpose of bringing the two political rivals together.The controversy cannot be separated from the disputed Masaka City Woman MP election, which produced a dramatic reversal of the initial results.
On January 15, 2026, Nalubowa was initially declared the winner after securing 25,443 votes against Nameere’s 20,324. However, Nameere challenged the declaration, arguing that results from several polling stations had not been included in the final tally.
The dispute proceeded to Masaka Chief Magistrate Albert Asiimwe, who ordered a recount of the ballot boxes. The exercise subsequently changed the electoral outcome, giving Nameere 25,502 votes while Nalubowa’s tally fell to 23,176.
Unwilling to accept the revised results, Nalubowa petitioned the High Court, challenging the credibility of the electoral process. Her petition raised concerns about allegedly compromised ballot boxes, inadequate security of election materials and the exclusion of votes.
However, on October 21, 2026, Justice Bernard Namanya dismissed her petition, leaving Nameere’s victory intact. Although the judge identified shortcomings in the handling and protection of electoral materials and acknowledged that irregularities had occurred, he ruled that Nalubowa had not demonstrated that the identified failures substantially affected the final outcome.
The court further observed that even if all 1,353 disputed votes had been added to Nalubowa’s tally, she would still have remained 973 votes behind Nameere. The petitioner was also ordered to meet the costs of the case.Nalubowa’s legal team subsequently indicated that it intended to challenge the decision through an appeal.
Her latest revelation about meeting Museveni has now added another dimension to an already complicated political dispute, particularly among NUP supporters who have questioned the circumstances under which opposition politicians engage with the President.
Some opposition supporters have questioned the appropriateness of such private engagements at a time when other party leaders and supporters continue to raise concerns about arrests, prosecutions and alleged human rights violations.
Others argue that political engagement across party lines is not necessarily evidence of disloyalty, particularly when meetings are intended to resolve disputes or address individual grievances.
