Kawempe North Lord Councillor Magala leads KCCA speaker polls

The Kawempe North Lord Councillor elect Magala Umar is leading the party polls as the race for speaker of the Kampala Capital City Authority polls heats up.

Magal, an ex political prisoner who just attained bail after serving two years on remand while facing trumped up charges of treason shot to prominence in 2025 when he vied for the Kawempe North MP byelection. Magala, a trusted loyal cadre of NUP battled with top city lawyer Luyimbaazi Nalukoola for the NUP flag for Kawempe North and eventually the latter was declared to hold the mantle. Being the loyalist he is, Magala did not relent and opted to rally behind the party candidate.

When 2026 approached, Magala showed his bid to run for Kawempe Division Mayor and he was eventually guided to vie for the Lord Councillor seat which he massively won with a margin of over 5000 votes after the rigging by the NRM party.

Presently, Magala is aiming for the NUP party endorsement for the position of speaker, and his clean track record positions him ahead of his other contenders like Godfrey Luyombya who is disadvantaged by the fact that even the Lord Mayor Eng. Ronald Balimwezo hails from Nakawa.

Though the NUP suspended campaigns for KCCA, all Lord Councillors interviewed by this publication say they will rally behind Magala Umar in the party primaries for the KCCA speaker polls. One from Lubaga who spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not authorized to disclose party secrets says, “Magala is the most experienced amongst all the contenders. He banks on his technical expertise at KCCA and he has been very loyal to the party and he is willing to work with all Lord Councillors irrespective of whether one supports him or not,” he remarked. “I am going to give him my vote and I will rally my other comrades to vote for him,” he added.

By the time of filing this report, we were not able to retrieve a comment from Magala Umar due to his busy schedule.