Former Masaka District Woman Member of Parliament contestant Freda Mubanda Kasse has died at 76, a family source said.
Mubada, 76, died last night at the Aga Khan hospital in Nairobi, Kenya where she has been undergoing treatment.
She was rushed to Nairobi last month after developing breathing difficulties
Mubanda who was the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) flag bearer was reportedly first admitted to a private medical facility in Kampala after getting a cough, and flu before she was referred to Nairobi after her condition worsened.
The 76-year-old popularly referred to as Mama Masaka and Girl Mubanda represented Masaka District in the 9th Parliament but lost in the 2016 elections to Democratic Party’s Mary Babirye Kabanda.
She was also the current chairperson of the NRM Women’s League in Masaka.
Masaka NRM region administrative secretary, Mr. Umar Ssebulime told Uganda news outlet Daily Monitor that her death came as a shock to them.
“This is a great loss for the party in the Masaka region and the entire country. She has been a strong supporter of the party and a great politician who cannot easily be replaced,” Ssebulime stated.
Uganda heads to the polls as the incumbent president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni vies for a sixth successive term.
He is up against self-styled ghetto president Bobi Wine who is leading a spirited campaign against the former guerilla leader.
When he captured power on January 29, 1986, by use of the gun, Museveni famously wrote that “the problem of Africa in general and Uganda, in particular, is not the people, but leaders who want to overstay in power.”
Thirty-four years later, he is using the same weapon to silence the young generation, most of whom have lived their entire life under his rule, whose main crime is to demand change through the ballot.
The President of Uganda is elected using the two-round system, with candidates needing to receive at least 50% of the vote to be elected in the first round.
Chapter 142 of the Presidential Elections Act of 2000 stipulates that presidential candidates must be citizens of Uganda by birth and be qualified to be an MP.
Candidates are also required to be of sound mind and have no formal connection with the Electoral Commission of Uganda.
Term limits were abolished in 2005
