The National Unity platform (NUP) party secretary general David Lewis Rubongoya has said that the Party has set up a team of lawyers to represent Kampala traders recently affected by floods.

According to Rubongoya, the team led by Kampala Woman MP, Shamim Malende and Council Samuel Mugisa of Peace and Company Advocates will spearhead the court process inorder for the affected traders to be fully compensated for their losses.

He made these remarks while addressing the press at the party headquarters at Makerere Kavule on November 3rd, 2025.

“As a party, we are going to stand with the traders and take legal action until the traders are compensated,” Rubongoya said.

He mentioned that the government did the compensation ‘illegally’ which is unjust in the payback process.

The Party spokesperson, Joel Ssenyonyi who also doubles as the Leader of Opposition (LOP) in Parliament argued that from the passed Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) council resolution, it was clear that the developers had to follow a due process in developing Nakivubo channel.

“As NUP leadership we had a meeting with our councilors and they told us that there was a resolution to develop and upgrade the Nakivubo channel under the guidance and supervision of the KCCA and NEMA,” Ssenyonyi said.

Scheduled later in the day, Ssenyonyi hopes that the meeting will issue transparency and credibility for the HAM project in downtown Kampala.

Lukwagi Rashid, one of the leaders of traders at Shawuriyako, a commercial building in downtown Kampala, said that on Friday morning, traders were called to the site only to find the area which includes more than 10 buildings with basements housing over 1,000 shops completely submerged in water, something that had never happened before the recent developments.

“Before they built the channel water used to flow well but since Ham decided to build the channel the water had been a big issue. Those selling clothes, shoes, mattresses and other items didn’t get anything out, many have lost property worth billions and we need your help to have us compensated,” Lukwago said.

The recent heavy rains on October 31 and November 1, 2025, caused severe flooding, destroying merchandise worth millions of shillings and resulting in several deaths.

The NUP party president Robert Kyagulanyi said that the impasse in Kampala should all be blamed on President Museveni.

“We all saw the directive by President Museveni ordering the giveaway to Nakivubo channel to Businessman Ham and we all know that all this has Museveni written over it,” Kyagulanyi said.

Traders and the Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) primarily blame the ongoing Nakivubo Channel construction project by businessman Hamis Kiggundu for blocking drainage and worsening the situation.