Author: Asuman Bisiika. PHOTO/FILE.
I asked a well-placed friend whether there was anywhere in the NRM where leaders were discussing the 2026 elections. “None,” he responded curtly, and added “at least I have personally not yet been involved in any.” “Very instructive”, I thought to myself.
I had wanted to know if there were any issues of national importance the NRM was taking into the 2026 Elections. Uganda is a country of questions. There is the Karamoja Question, the Bunyoro Question, The Teso Question, the Buganda Question, The Rwenzururu Question, etc.
The way things stand now, there are no longer intractable national issues. In Kasese, the main issue has always been the Rwenzururu Kingdom. Let us just say that Omusinga Charles Wesley Mumbere, the Rwenzururu king, is back home.
Political leaders in Buganda always rallied the population behind the Buganda Kingdom. But right now, disagreements among the political leadership in Buganda are very conspicuous.
Naturally, there was (had been) some kind of unwritten rule that political leadership in Buganda would not outshine Mengo (the seat of Buganda Kingdom). But we are now witnesses to a situation where political leaders challenge Mengo and even project themselves as more representative than Buganda’s traditional centre of gravity.
On the part of Rwenzururu, we did some paperwork. Our study group developed a paper on which political parties could base their engagement with the people of Kasese. This document (sans political innuendoes) is said to have reached Mr Muruli Mukasa, the honourable minister for Public Service.
I was told our work was adopted by the government as a working document. And I bet there must be some correspondence between Kasese District Local Government headquarters at Rukoki and Mr Muruli Mukasa in Kampala.
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The Electoral Commission must have issued its roadmap for the 2026 Elections. That means the resources for the electoral process will be reflected in the budgetary appropriations for the Financial Year 2025-2026. Yet this could be the first election into which Ugandans are running fwaa. No noise from civil society demanding this or that. There are no recommendations (or demands) of the non-legislative socio-political stability processes like the Uganda National Dialogue (organised by some civil society groups).
There is no expectation of a Constitutional Review process (organised by the state). Basically, Ugandans are falling into the 2026 elections fwaa… Please note that recommendations of the Uganda National Dialogue and the Constitutional Review Commission would require to be adopted as part of the legislative and constitutional regimes (under which the electoral process would be run).
And by the way, there were also the demands or orders of the Supreme Court of Uganda issued in the judgment or determination of Electoral Petition No.1 of 2016. These were specific orders that were supposed to have been addressed before the 2021 elections. Most of them have not yet been addressed.
There seems to be a moratorium on the creation of local administrative units. Yet the creation of districts (and now town councils and municipalities) is (was) part of the electoral engineering (or campaigns).
But now there is no talk of the creation of this or that district. Could it be because Mr Museveni now feels very confident of an easy victory? Just a wild idea: maybe Ugandans should just postpone holding the 2026 elections to 2031?
Save the money for tangible service delivery. Yet I realise if Uganda doesn’t hold those elections, her economy would suffer.
You know, politics has been turned into an industry and elections are the activities that drive that industry. Politics in Uganda is such a big economic activity that it unites both those in power and the Opposition in sharing spoils.
Mr Asuman Bisiika is the executive editor of the East African Flagpost. [email protected]
