JINJA – Robert Kanusu, a former Uganda People’s Congress stalwart has won the Jinja city mayoral National Resistance Movement (NRM) primaries with 8,619 votes beating his closest challenger Julius Zziwa who polled 6,041 votes.
Mohammed Ntuuyo and Jeff Bidandi trailed with 3,896 and 1,778 votes respectively.
Once a vocal critic of President Yoweri Museveni, Kanusu crossed from the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) and joined the ruling NRM party in 2017 at a rally in Jinja attended by President Museveni .
The President was campaigning for NRM’s Nathan Igeme Nabeta who was battling Forum for Democratic Change (FDC)’s Paul Mwiru in a by-election for the Jinja East MP seat.
Kanusu was a Go-Forward coordinator for the entire Eastern region in the 2016 general elections. He had twice unsuccessfully contested for the Jinja district chairmanship and once served as Press Secretary to then UPC president Olala Otunnu.
Kanusu will now face off with FDC’s Dr Frank Nabwiso and independent David Wakudumira, among others, for the right to be Jinja city’s first mayor.
