In a brief telephone interview with The Observer on February 26, two days after the Supreme court responded in writing to his request to take over the petition, Mayambala sounded excited but lacked specifics on the resources and witnesses he will use to present a competent legal fight. He lacked clarity on the way forward.
“I want to take over this petition as an interested Ugandan, not as a former presidential candidate,” he said.
Asked why he is keen on inheriting the petition that casts the January 2021 general election as a fraud yet he was the only presidential candidate who accepted defeat and said the poll was free and fair, Mayambala was quite doggy in his answer.
“Go back and watch that clip if you hear me saying the election was free and fair, then come here I’ll give the interview (you are asking for) and Shs 10,000 because it’s what I have,” he said in reference to a video clip that showed him picking a certificate of acknowledgement from Electoral Commission Chairman Justice Byabakama on January 16 at Kyambogo University, the designated tally centre.
Pressed on whether he has his own evidence and witnesses to produce before court, he curtly responded: “Me, I am an engineer; so, those details and such tasks will be for my lawyers.
”Mayambala’s inheritance of the petition is provided for under election petition rules sub sections (2) and (3), which give court powers to allow a ‘substitute’ applicant to continue with the petition in case of a withdrawal. In response to Mayambala’s letter expressing his desire to take over the petition last week, the Supreme court advised the former presidential candidate to get a lawyer who can draft and file an application for him.
Interviewed on Monday, March 1, Solomon Muyita, the judiciary principal communication officer, explained that Mayambala’s application must be filed before Thursday, March 4, when the Supreme court is set to hear and decide the fate of the withdrawal application by Kyagulanyi.
Whether the justices of the Supreme court, led by Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo, allow Mayambala to take over the petition or not, the hitherto little-known former presidential candidate has already stirred debate.
WHO IS MAYAMBALA?
Mayambala was born on March 12, 1987. He thrust himself into Uganda’s political limelight last year when he announced his presidential bid. His symbol was a pot. His late father Sergeant Johnson Ssempala was an NRA bush war veteran. Accordingly, Mayambala got his elementary education at Makindye and Masindi military schools for primary level in the 1990s.
In 2001, he joined Nakasongola Army Secondary School for his O-level. At A-level, he switched to Lubiri SS from where he enrolled at Kyambogo University to pursue the Bachelor of Science Technology (Physics) in 2007.
After graduating in 2010, Mayambala joined one of his university peers to found Kamol Engineering Services Ltd. In 2015, he quit Kamol and founded his own company, JohnSemp Ltd, which offers engineering consultancy services. Around the same period, he joined elective politics as a challenger to Abraham Byandala for the Katikamu North parliamentary seat in the 2016 elections.
He contested on the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) ticket, and lost. The following year (2017), he ventured into commercial agriculture by setting up a mixed coffee and cocoa farm at Kimega in Mukono district. Kimega has since become his permanent home. He said he earns well from the coffee and cocoa venture, although he declines to disclose the amount. He is married to Margaret Nabwire, a qualified nutritionist.
The couple is blessed with three children. Commenting about his presidential bid before the January 14 poll, Mayambala asserted: “My dream is to make Uganda a First World country where there’s efficiency in all services.” His dream was to deliver free quality health services for all Ugandans.
He said his presidential ambition was induced by the fact that he became disabled after receiving an expired polio vaccine jab. He also wanted to create jobs for the youth.
However, his presidential dream reduced him to one of the biggest jokers in the race; he barely campaigned due to lack of transport and other key logistics. But he insisted it was his tactical strategy to abandon direct campaigns and use social media, text messages and electronic media, especially radio to reach the voters.
It is, probably, such limited campaigning that earned him a paltry 15,014 votes (0.15 per cent), according to the official Electoral Commission (EC) results. He was, in fact, the worst performing candidate among the challengers to President Museveni, who was declared winner of the poll with 6,042, 898 votes or 58.3 per cent.