Well after days looking,
searching on google and this forum
reading people with the same problem, and no one ever saying "its fixed".
even downloading the latest version
i decided to try to fix this issue myself.
its very simple, i add "key navigation" to some buttons, but it doesnt work correctly in the Android microconsole. nor with keyboard strokes.
so i tried a windows version, and it doesnt work either.
so i created a new scene, a new project, created 2 buttons, added 2 key navigations.... and it doesnt works either!!!.

so i disabled input by mouse and touch...
and still doesnt work.
then i noticed the small "debug" checkbox, and checked it.
run the program
the debug info reads: "Scheme: Touch"
press "up key"
and the debug info reads: "Scheme: Mouse"
and i can see in the UICamera script line: 1942 method: ProcessEvents (), that events are processed only for the specific input
so.... it seems to me like this a NGUI problem...
right now im working around the issue with
UICamera.controllerNavigationObject = Buttons[selectedbutton];
but it would be nice if you fix this.