Former Intelligence Boss Sejusa Exposes Anita Among And Tayebwa’s Unopposed Bids After Abducting Their Opponents

Former coordinator of intelligence services Gen. David Sejusa (Tinyefuza) has unleashed a scathing attack on Uganda’s ruling party leaders, accusing them of trampling on democracy after opposition candidates challenging Speaker Anita Among and Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa were blocked from nomination.

Sejusa described the unfolding events as “a shameful assault on democracy,” warning that Uganda’s political system is sinking into a toxic culture of fear and manipulation.

Both Among and Tayebwa — two of the most influential figures in Uganda’s Parliament — are now set to sail back unopposed, following what opposition politicians and analysts are calling a pattern of systematic exclusion by the Electoral Commission (EC).

In Mitooma District, political tensions reached a boiling point when Osbert Kato, the National Unity Platform (NUP) candidate for Ruhinda North County, claimed that he was deliberately prevented from completing his nomination despite meeting all the requirements set by the EC.

“I went to the nomination venue with my forms and seconding supporters,” Kato told reporters.
“After submitting my forms, they asked me to step outside. Later, they called me in and handed back my academic papers, saying they only needed forms bearing National Identification Numbers.”

According to Kato, EC officials then began verifying the NINs of his supporters “one by one until 1 p.m., when they broke off for lunch,” effectively running down the clock on what was the final nomination day.

The NUP candidate was due to be nominated at 10 a.m. on Thursday — the same morning Thomas Tayebwa was cleared unopposed to represent Ruhinda North in the 12th Parliament.

Local observers say the timing and the procedural delays appeared too convenient to be coincidental, fueling suspicions that the EC’s local staff may have acted under political influence.

Reacting to the mounting controversy, Gen. Sejusa didn’t hold back. He condemned what he termed a toxic culture of fear and manipulation within the ruling establishment, accusing senior officials of running away from accountability.

“And my brother Richard finds this funny? These UPC games are stupid and a shame. I don’t care whether those young people were bought out or kidnapped as alleged — it all stinks!” Sejusa said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

“Why would a politician want to pass unopposed in the first place? Absolute bonkers!”

The outspoken retired general — who once served as President Yoweri Museveni’s intelligence coordinator — argued that genuine leaders must earn their mandate through open competition and public debate, not through technicalities and exclusion.

“If President Museveni, who led wars that ushered in NRM, at his age, still subjects himself to the rigors of a national campaign — even carrying his wife, at her age, to explain their plans and seek opinions of the people — why would younger politicians want to pass unopposed without giving the population a chance to scrutinize them?” Sejusa asked.

He further urged the National Resistance Movement (NRM) to “clean its house” and restore internal democratic discipline.

“What type of leaders are these? NRM leaders? At that level?” he wondered aloud. “I hope NRM’s internal mechanisms can stop this nonsense.”

Sejusa’s fiery comments came just days after Speaker Anita Among was also declared unopposed for the Bukedea Woman MP seat, following a sequence of chaotic events that left the opposition reeling.

According to reports, opposition candidates were deleted from the voters’ register or mysteriously disappeared in the lead-up to nomination day.

Among’s main challenger, Asio Florence, who had been unveiled by NUP earlier in the week, vanished on her way from Soroti to Bukedea for nomination. Her whereabouts remain unknown, NUP officials confirmed.

“It’s becoming a pattern — one that normalizes uncontested power and silences alternative voices,” noted a Kampala-based political analyst. “When leaders stop competing, democracy stops functioning.”

The analyst’s warning echoed Sejusa’s sentiment — that Uganda’s democratic system is being eroded from within by unchecked political impunity.

The Electoral Commission (EC) is now under mounting public scrutiny, facing accusations of bias and incompetence. Opposition parties allege that the EC is operating under pressure from powerful state actors to guarantee unopposed victories for key regime figures ahead of the 2026 general elections.

EC spokesperson Julius Mucunguzi defended the institution, urging aggrieved aspirants to “tender their concerns with the electoral body for resolution.”

Still, the backlash has intensified, with both opposition and ruling party insiders questioning the legitimacy of unopposed wins in a country that once prided itself on grassroots democracy.

Both Among and Tayebwa are senior members of the NRM, though they both previously belonged to the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) before crossing to the ruling side — a move that critics say underscores Uganda’s fluid but fragile political loyalties.

In a powerful conclusion to his online statement, Gen. Sejusa issued a stark warning about Uganda’s political trajectory.

“A democracy that fears competition is already dying,” he said. “Ugandans deserve leaders who can face their people, not hide behind manipulation and fear.”

His remarks have since gone viral, sparking heated debates among citizens, activists, and political figures across the country. To many, Sejusa’s voice — once a symbol of establishment power — now resonates as a rare, unfiltered call for political accountability in a system critics say has grown increasingly intolerant of dissent.