The Director-General of the Internal Security Organisation (ISO), Colonel Charles Oluka presented a group of youth to President Museveni at the statehouse, Entebbe with compliments that they had been converted into better citizens.
 
 “Your excellence, I can assure you that the time they have spent with us has not been put to waste. They are now very different people,” Colonel Oluka said.
 
 According to the video, Museveni was meeting former members of the National Unity Platform's 'Kikankane Group' that had renounced their old allegiances.
 
 While speaking on their behalf, their leader, Muhammad Ssebugwawo assured Museveni of loyalty.
 
 “Your excellency, we will not do the thing we did previously because we have achieved our goal,” Ssebugwawo told the President.
 
 But, how did they get here? Why is the National Unity Platform (NUP) dismissing its links with the so-called Kikankane group?
 
From our archives, we established that “Kikankane” is a brainchild of former Kawempe South member of parliament, Mubarak Munyagwa.
 
 As evidently seen in these videos, the group members moved hand in hand with Munyagwa during his time as a member of parliament.
 
 “I got Ssebugwawo after he had just sat his S4 at Naggalamma Islamic institute. He wanted me to pay for his A-Level school fees. I told him in 2010 that I did not have the money. I told him that since he was a young man, he should join us to fight this dictatorship. We promised to send him back to school after the struggle,” Munyagwa says.

He added, "I gave him a task to look for all those bits who are trained in martial arts and kickboxing. He gathered them from Nansana and Kawempe. We took them for political training. I appointed Ssebugwawo as their commander. I started the Kikankana squad. We used to call them the Shadow Diehards.”
 
 Munyagwa says the emergence of musician Robert Kyagulanyi and his candidacy in the contest for the Kyadondo East Member of Parliament seat in 2017 ended a relationship built over a decade.
 
 “Ssebugwawo was an asset. When Bobi Wine and the People Power came, Ssebugwawo told me point blank that he was leaving. He told me that he believed that People Power would win,” Munygwa told NTV Uganda.

According to Ssebugwawo, there was no future for the Forum for the Democratic change party in its bid to capture the presidency.
 
 “What separated us from Munyagwa was the never-ending squabbles. I was tired of being arrested, as well,” Ssebugwawo says.
 
 Ssebugwawo says he took on a role as a member of Bobi Wine's security group in 2017.
 
 “I worked for Kyagulanyi when he was a musician. I worked for him during his first rally as he contested for MP,” Ssebugwawo says.
 
 Following Kyagulanyi's landslide victory then, Ssebugwawo says he was convinced that Bobi Wine would win the contest for Presidency.
 
 “I talked to Munyagwa once, alone. I told him to register as a NUP member because Bobi Wine was going to be President,” he says.
 
 As Robert Kyagulanyi clashed with security agencies on his presidential campaign trail in 2021, Ssebugwawo ended up in the hands of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), then headed by Major General Abel Kandiho.
 
 “There were different security agencies that arrested us. For us, we were arrested by CMI. Some were arrested by CI. Those, we left them there,” Ssebugwawo recalls.
 
 Ssebugwawo and several others only reappeared last week in a video by the state declaring their loyalty to President Museveni and denouncing the National Unity Platform.

“I met Valentine Ogwang, the presidential assistant in charge of the youth. She asked me for details about my group. She called me after a few days and told us that the President had accepted to help us. She added that we had to go through training,” Ssebugwawo says.
 
 NUP vehemently denies any links to the Kikankane group.
 
 “People come to our headquarters to take pouters and ask for selfies. Hon Kyagulanyi takes a lot of selfies with various people, he doesn’t need to know them. He is generous to give it. I do not know if that means that there is now a relationship, NUP Spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi says.
 
 We asked Ssebugwawo to explain if his Kikankane group was known in the NUP structures and this is what he said.
“I joined NUP as an individual and not with Kikankane. Nobody called me to offer me money to join. I slowly brought in the other members of Kikankane,” Ssebugwawo says.
 
 Joel Ssenyonyi says some people often use their political affiliation to try and get some rewards from the government.
 
 “If someone wants to make money, they hatch that plan and they take youths to Mr Museveni and he releases money. Because, for him, as long as he feels that someone is leaving NUP, he doesn’t care,” Ssenyonyi told NTV Uganda.
 
 Politics is a fragile play area with fleeting loyalties, only time will tell whether the Kikankane group has finally found a permanent home.