Prime
How Museveni is trying to win back Buganda’s love
Ms Hadijah Uzeiye Namyalo (right) addresses NRM party supporters during celebrations to mark Women’s Day at Bigasa Stadium in Bukomansimbi District on Tuesday. PHOTO | AL- MAHDI SSENKABIRWA
What you need to know:
- In the previous election, Mr Museveni lost the Buganda vote for the first time to his main challenger Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, of NUP.
What was meant to be a belated celebration of the International Women’s Day in Bukomansimbi turned into a donation bonanza by the National Resistance Movement (NRM), through the Office of the National Chairperson (ONC), a gesture seen by political analysts as an attempt by the party to win back the most populous region ahead of the 2026 polls.
Following its dismal performance in the central region in the 2021 presidential election, the ruling party has been mulling over how it can win back the region with the highest number of voters in the country.
At the fete, the manager of ONC, Ms Hadijah Uzeiye Namyalo, also the lead campaigner of the “Jajja mmalako tova ku main” slogan and coordinator of Bazzukulu Group, that is fronting President Museveni for his seventh elective term come 2026, dished out items under the guise of special wealth empowerment projects.
Party officials who spoke to the Monitor following queries into the actions of Ms Namyalo say the party is employing different tactics to mobilise and win back regions they lost, including Central. We were unable to verify if the resources utilised are from the party envelope.
Ms Namyalo gave out to each beneficiary 200 birds, feeds for eight weeks, veterinary care, and others to got two goats each. Other individuals received salon equipment; hair dryers, haircut machines, electrical sewing machines, and other salon accessories to start small enterprises.
“The President adores you so much and tasked me to bring to you sustainable household wealth creation projects,” Ms Namyalo is quoted in a statement by the ONC
In an interview with this publication yesterday, Ms Namyalo said: “The other ones are government programmes, this programme is chairman’s [Museveni] programme as a person, this is not a party programme. This programme is for his supporters, not the party.”
The programme she said is targeting voters who have not been able to benefit from government programmes.
“Whether we are mobilising people or not, people are badly off and need help. We are not only doing this in Buganda, we are also going to do this in Busoga during the weekend, so it is not that it is only people in Buganda who need help, so we are looking at people who vote Museveni as a person, and they are his people, he fought for their peace. We want to see that in every region, someone can say this goat, I got it from the NRM chairman, and I now have livestock,” Ms Namyalo said.
Bukomansimbi Woman MP Ruth Katushabe said such interventions will enable NRM to win the next election with ease.
Mr Kiwanda Ssuubi, the NRM vice chairperson - Buganda Region, is quoted to have welcomed efforts of the ONC “to bring back all the Bazzukulu (youth) to NRM from the Opposition that misleads them with myopic selfish ill objectives”.
After the donations, the people present at Bisanga Grounds are said to have expressed support for the call to President Museveni to contest in the 2026 elections as the NRM sole candidate.
President Museveni is expected to camp in Masaka District next month for his zonal tours to popularise wealth creation programmes, before covering Kampala and then Busoga Sub-region.
Mr Museveni lost the Buganda vote for the first time to his main challenger Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, of the then newly birthed National Unity Platform (NUP) party. Mr Museveni got 838,858 votes against Mr Kyagulanyi 1,453,535.
The NRM also lost at least 10 parliamentary seats to NUP. Some of the casualties included Mr Museveni’s vice president of 10 years, Mr Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, and more than six members of the previous Cabinet.
Analysts have cited shortfalls, including continuous land conflicts, unemployment, and poor service delivery, failure to fulfil pledges and brutality by security agencies as key factors to NRM’s undoing in the region.
Ms Rosemary Senninde, the NRM director of mobilisation, told this publication that the party is being guided by findings of a research that interrogated its performance in Busoga and Buganda.
“We came up with a number of findings and, of course, recommendations, and we submitted the report to the national chairman. If the chairman has found it fit for his office to do ABC, to do that programme, it is not a problem. We work as teams, and we all put our energies to mobilise and whatever way we do it, and with whom, it is all good for the party,” Ms Seninde said
The director of communications at the NRM secretariat, Mr Emmanuel Dombo, said President Museveni can delegate Ms Namyalo in a number of mobilisation exercises.
“Parties are supposed to be involved in continuous mobilisation, and this comes in a number of ways by either recruiting members or updating members’ registers or mobilisation about support of government programmes, or fight against backward forces that are intended to bring negative publicity or negative information to the public. So, political work is continuous mobilisation and what Namyalo did or is doing is mobilisation,” he said.
Mr Tanga Odoi, the chairperson of the NRM electoral commission said they have set up a team that beginning next week, interrogate issues that denied them victory, among them queries into the work done by their agents who manned the elections as to whether they did the right thing.
Mr Odoi alleged that in parts of Buganda like in central Kampala, NRM results were overturned, with most of the ballots rendered invalid yet they had won.
Mr Robert Migadde, the Buvuma Island MP, tipped the NRM to ensure good relations with Mengo, as a sure way to regain Buganda.
Explaining the President’s political game plan, Investment Minister Evelyn Anite, who is one of the coordinators of the wealth creation tours, said: “Just like other parts of the country, Buganda’s problem is poverty, land evictions and poor service delivery. The President is mobilising the country to join the war against poverty and youth unemployment.”
2021 polls
Museveni Vs Bobi Wine
The Electoral Commission’s official data shows NRM received a paltry 35 percent in the central region, while Mr Kyagulanyi’s NUP cruised with 62.01 percent.
What some of the key players say...
Prof Venansius Baryamureeba, former presidential candidate.
Buganda is a state within a state. He [Museveni] needs to review the constitution and the one China policy/principle and allow Buganda to assume the status of Taiwan. So the least he can do is to allow a federal system of governance in Uganda where the Kabaka would be the supreme leader of the Federal Government of Buganda. Nothing short of that, he can give money etc. but he can never win Buganda’s lost love
Mathias Mpuuga, Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LoP).
We know and we are watching what NRM is doing. What they are involved in is not changing Buganda, they are involved in the usual political fraud. The people of Buganda are aware of this….the people of Uganda voted for NUP not for tokenism, they want a shift in the way politics is done, the nature of development that is desired has nothing to do with tokens. We cannot be moved by that, the people know why they want to change leadership.
Prof Wasswa Balunywa, MUBs Principal.
Buganda is a complicated region, both politically and culturally. It’s the region the British used to spread many things in Uganda and to break through, you need the support of the Kabaka. Without the Kabaka, it’s not easy to pacify Buganda. It’s big dilemma that majority Baganda are Catholics but Kabaka is Anglican. ... Whoever is going to rule Uganda must have both groups; the Kabaka and the Catholic community but preferably the Kabaka loyalists.
Prof Ogenga Latigo, former LoP.
It is too late now. The Baganda feel deeply betrayed by Museveni, and are hurting too much. Worse, his own people are too arrogant and insensitive to the feelings of the Baganda. The only viable option is for him openly acknowledging that mistakes have been made and that he had not been recognizing and responding positively to the Buganda sentiments. An offer to then turn a new leaf and start afresh may placate the Baganda. Unfortunately, the mistrust and pain now runs too deep.
