Kasese – The National Unity Platform (NUP) has lost its designated candidate for Kasese District LC5 chairperson, Gadi Mbayahi, who passed away Sunday night at Kilembe Mines Hospital, party officials confirmed Monday. He was 52.
Mbayahi, a retired civil-engineer turned businessman, had been hospitalised for two weeks with complications linked to acute pneumonia, according to family spokesperson Justus Kule. “Doctors did all they could; his lungs could no longer cope,” Kule told reporters outside the hospital.
NUP Secretary-General Lewis Rubongoya described Mbayahi’s death as “a devastating blow” to the party’s western-region mobilisation. “Gadi was more than a candidate; he was the heartbeat of our grassroots structure in Kasese. His vision of clean water, better roads and zero tolerance for corruption inspired thousands,” Rubongoya said in a brief statement posted on X.
Local party chairman Saul Maate said the electoral road-map will decide next steps, but hinted at an internal primary to pick a successor before nomination day. “We owe it to Gadi to keep the momentum,” Maate told supporters who gathered at Bwera play-ground for an impromptu candle-light vigil.
President of the opposition-leaning Rwenzururu cultural institution, Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere, sent condolences, praising Mbayahi’s “unifying spirit” in a region often split along ethnic lines.
Mbayahi is survived by a widow and five children. Burial is scheduled for Thursday in his ancestral village of Kyarumba, Kisinga sub-county. The party has asked supporters to wear NUP colours and observe a minute of silence at 3 p.m. on burial day in honour of “a fallen comrade who fought for change to his last breath.”
