Prime
2026 Polls: NRM plots to recapture Buganda’s political heart
The NRM Secretary General, Mr Richard Todwong launches the Kisoboka Emwanyi Maanyi Campaign in Wakiso District on May 16, 2024. Photos/ Noeline Nabukenya
What you need to know:
- Analysts say unfilled pledges, enforced disappearances coupled with rampant land evictions, amid growing corruption and impunity among government officials partly contributed to NRM’s dismal performance in Buganda during the last general election.
- Mr Richard Todwong, the NRM Secretary General, said the difference between NRM and other political parties is that the former is solution-oriented.
The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has laid out strategies to recapture the Buganda region, among which is fighting household poverty through promoting coffee growing, a widely planted cash crop in the region.
According to Ms Rose Namayanja, NRM Deputy Secretary General, NRM partly lost in Buganda during the 2021 general elections because of the COVID-19 pandemic which could not allow proper mobilisation and reaching out to individual members of the electorate.
“The campaigns that we had in 2021 were very unprecedented. Our people in Uganda here are used to massive mobilisation where we organize campaign rallies, but this never happened in 2021,” Ms Namayanja said during the launch of Kisoboka[It is possible ] Agricultural Expos-2024 at Kavumba Recreation Centre in Wakiso District on Thursday.
Unlike in previous elections, Ms Namayanja said NRM which has been in power since 1986 when its national leader Yoweri Museveni shot his way to State House, will focus on mobilisiling the electorate for production.
“This time we have all the time and resources to reach out to people and we want to first tackle household poverty and once we sort out that. People will be able to look after their families and live dignified lives. In that line, NRM will not fail to win massively in regions like Buganda,” she added.
Mr Godfrey Kiwanda Ssuubi, the NRM Vice Chairperson in Central Region and the chief driver of the Kisoboka Emwanyi Maanyi campaign in Central Region, said it is targeting mostly youth who have received Parish Development Model (PDM) cash and encouraged them to invest it in commercial farming.
“Before I tell someone to vote, they must have something to produce and that is why we are talking about coffee. By the end of the campaign in July 2025, we expect each youth to have at least 100 coffee trees,”Mr Kiwanda said.
NRM leaders with party secretary general Mr Richard Todwong after the launch of Kisoboka Emwanyi Yamaanyi campaign in Wakiso District on May 16 ,2024. Photo/ Noeline Nabukenya
He asked the people in Buganda to always consider President Museveni’s call of calculative farming (Okulima Kwe Kibalo).
“Ask yourself what you should produce depending on the size of your land. Market that product both nationally and internationally and you will be assured of getting money,” Mr Kiwanda advised.
He said during this campaign, they will advocate for the use of quality seeds, irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, and weed control, among other modern farming techniques.
“We are going to use influential people like artistes in a drive to push the campaign to every youth in Buganda region,” he added.
Mr Richard Todwong, the NRM Secretary General, said the difference between NRM and other political parties is that the former is solution-oriented.
“When you go to other political parties, they speak about problems of the people every time. In NRM, we don’t only identify the problems, but we go ahead in prescribing solutions to those problems,” he said
After the official launch of the Kisoboka Agricultural Expos, now the campaign will extend to different districts of Buganda. Mr Kiwanda said youth who have already ventured into coffee farming will be supported with free coffee seedlings.
During the January 2021 violent presidential elections, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine who was the National Unity Platform (NUP) flag bearer, defeated Mr Museveni in his so-called Mecca of Luweero and indeed the entire Buganda region, where the latter used to gather substantive number of votes in previous five elections. Analysts say unfilled pledges, enforced disappearances coupled with rampant land evictions, amid growing corruption and impunity among government officials partly contributed to NRM’s dismal performance in Buganda during the last general election.
In the process of trying to mend fences with the electorate in Buganda, the NRM is currently sending teams, crisscrossing districts to endear
the party to the voters.
Tomorrow Friday, Hajjat Hadijah Namyalo , a senior presidential advisor and also head of the office of the National NRM Chairperson will be in Masaka City,an Opposition stronghold to drum up support for NRM which has been in power for nearly four decades.
