Muhammad Kibirige Mayanja is a Ugandan politician who founded and served as the first President of the

Justice Forum The Justice Forum (commonly referred to as JEEMA) is a political party in Uganda. The party was originally established as a pressure group in 1995 under the one-party system of the National Resistance Movement, as other political parties were no ...

party in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

. His first attempt at Politics was in 1994 when he contested for a Constituent Assembly (CA) seat in Kawempe North constituency, where he finished in second position. In 1996, the then little known Kibirige Mayanja took the country by surprise when he rose up to challenge President

Yoweri Museveni Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa (born 15 September 1944) is a Ugandan politician and retired senior military officer who has been the 9th and current President of Uganda since 26 January 1986. Museveni spearheaded rebellions with aid of then ...

for the country's presidenc

True to his promise, he traversed the country in a three-man presidential bid, putting up a spirited campaign to the end of the race in which he obtained at least 2.5 percent of the valid votes cast, and finishing behind the leading two candidates, Yoweri K. Museveni and Ssemwogerere Paul Kawanga. A director of Planning and development at Makerere University at the time, Mayanja returned to his University job, and laid new strategies for recruiting supporters to his newly found Party, Justice Forum, famously called JEEMA by most Ugandans. He bounced back in the presidential race in 2001, which attracted a double number of candidates than the earlier one of 1996. In the 2001 elections, he completed in the fourth position. President of Uganda, Ugandan Presidency . Given his humble background and the courage to challenge the present leadership, Mayanja inspired many Ugandans at all levels who were hitherto political spectators to stand up to the challenge. He brought several youths into his Justice Forum party. Two of these eloquent youths Asuman Basalirwa and Yususf Kiranda became guild presidents at Makerere University, under his party sponsorship. After 14 years of steering the young party, Kibirige stepped down, handing over the party leadership to the youthful Asuman Basalirwa in 2005. Before working for

Makerere University Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of ni ...

, where he spent ten years as a Planner, he had worked with the Ministry of Education for twelve years. He is now the Chairman of Justice Forum (JEEMA), and a Consultant in the East African region under a private company called Alphabeta project consultants for which he is the Chief Executive Officer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayanja, Kibirige Ugandan politicians Living people Year of birth missing (living people)