NUP MP Tebandeke’s Double Standards Exposed: Why NUP Cannot Trust Him Again

The National Unity Platform (NUP) is coming under attack from one of its own, but the loudest critic, Charles Tebandeke, the Bbale County MP in Kayunga District, may not be the saint he pretends to be.

In a video that has since gone viral, Tebandeke claims that NUP’s Electoral Management Committee (EMC) asked him for Shs 300 million to retain the party flag. He rushed to brand the committee “fake and corrupt.”

But for those who know him back home in Bbale, his outburst is nothing new—it is the usual Tebandeke style: spit venom, court sympathy, and play victim whenever he senses his political ground shaking.

This is the same politician who has built a reputation of doing anything, saying anything, and cutting deals with anybody, as long as it secures him a seat in Parliament and makes him get money. His double standards are legendary. The very corruption he is accusing NUP of is exactly what defines him.

Back in Kayunga, Tebandeke has been mentioned in multiple shady land deals and land grabbing schemes, where he uses his influence to intimidate the vulnerable. When it’s an issue between Bibanja holders and a landlord, he exaggerates the situation to squeeze cash out of the vulnerable in the name of helping them get justice. He has made pepople sell their cows to facilitate him have their issues tabled in parliament. He is fond of writing treating letters to land owners and charging land conflict meetings, something completely out of his mandate as an MP. He does this whenever he is paid. To him, politics is a marketplace where loyalty is up for sale to the highest bidder. When he doesn’t get what he wants, he quickly turns his gun against the same system that lifted him.

Today he is attacking NUP, tomorrow he will be praising it again if it serves his personal interest. This is the hallmark of a political mercenary, not a principled leader.

For a party that is trying to build a culture of discipline, integrity, and sacrifice, Tebandeke represents everything that should never be rewarded. He cannot be trusted with the party flag again. The people of Bbale and Uganda at large deserve leaders who stand on values, not gamblers who thrive on blackmail and double-dealing.

Tebandeke’s latest rant is nothing but a desperate attempt to cover up his own failings. NUP must not bow to his threats of standing as an independent—it should instead let him go, because the party has no space for betrayers who trade loyalty for survival.