The Minister for the Presidency, Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda has directed the Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) in Busoga to start mobilizing communities ahead of the 2026 general elections by citing the NRM Manifesto Commitments achieved so far in Busoga sub-region.
“The political season is now on, with several people wanting to stand in the positions of Member of Parliament and others. However, I take the opportunity to advise you to desist from involving yourselves in the divisive politics in the region,” she said.
Hon. Babalanda made the remarks today through a message delivered by the Undersecretary– Office of the President, Mr. Emmanuel Walani during the closure of a 3-day capacity building workshop for RDCs/RCC, Deputy RDCs/RCCs, Assistant RDCs/RCCs, DISOs and RISOs in Busoga Sub-region held at the Source of the Nile Hotel, Jinja City.
The Minister explained that RDCs are unifiers and mobilizers and they should not be seen to divide up the population especially on grounds of politics, religion or even culture.
“Do not participate in political camps where your positions and roles will get compromised. You should be neutral in order to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process,”she implored the participants.
“For those of you that have made the decision to join active politics, I wish you all the best in your next call of duty and pray that we keep the spirit of working for Uganda and Ugandans wherever we are.”
She thanked the RDCs for managing well the just concluded NRM structures and primaries elections.
“I have been told that other political parties have also been holding their internal elections, but I have not heard of any serious clashes or fights, apart from what I saw in Jinja City where some NUP supporters were fighting with security. The rest of the areas were by-and-large very smooth and peaceful,” she noted.
“The good and bad lessons we have learnt from these elections should be used to improve our performance in the coming general elections in January 2026. I therefore urge you to record all these lessons of bottlenecks, inconsistencies, system failures and the host of irregularities that you observed which can inform the upcoming elections next year.”
Hon. Babalanda further tasked the RDCs and DISOs not to misuse their offices and mandate.
“RDCs are supervised and they get orders from H.E the President, the Minister for the Presidency, the Secretary, Office of the President and the Head, RDC Secretariat,” she affirmed.
“I thank those of you who are listening to our advice and instructions and have completely adjusted your working environments to allow for accountable decision making, good team work and cordial relationships. We are already seeing the fruits of this.”
Hon. Babalanda also expressed gratitude for the increased supervision and performance of the PDM and Emyooga programs throughout the region.
“However, we still have to deal with some of you that continue to commission projects which are not duly completed or fit for use. Others carry out monitoring from your desks, without visiting the field. Office-based monitoring denies us key field information and experiences and it is a big sign of corruption and incompetence of the officer. These concerns are being assessed for actions,” she said.
“On the matter of corruption, I urge you to continue fighting hard to eliminate these instances in your districts but especially for you to personally avoid any involvement in the same. As the Office of the President, we are champions of a corrupt-free country. We do not work with corrupt staff. If you are caught red-handed, no one will defend you.”
Furthermore, Hon. Babalanda called on the RDCs to take advantage of the media to mobilize the people.
“You should not keep silent when our people are denied services from the government. You have the information the people need to learn of how their government is intervening in their situations. Please share this information as widely as possible,” she said.
“I urge you to maintain the culture of team work and cordial office relationships. A poor office working relationship is a sign of ideological immaturity. It should not happen with people at your level. You should not work outside the public service standing orders or have issues associated with your function especially from the public eye.”
On the other hand, Hon. Babalanda tasked the RDCs to multiply effort in maintaining peace in the sub-region, in addressing the problem of laziness of the people, in dealing with the matter of poverty and unemployment in Busoga.
“You are also challenged to multiply monitoring efforts by working closely with the district, city and municipal authorities to understand how and where the public resources are being applied. We need, going forward; to emphasize the issue of impact of public investments and to capture especially the voices of the people on this.”
The former Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Hon. Daudi Migereko has urged the Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) in Busoga Sub-region to ensure peace and security in the 2026 general elections.
“The NRM primary elections were mock exams, they were meant to see how prepared you are for the forthcoming elections. If we are going to succeed in our mobilisation, we must sit as security teams and see what were the serious hurdles during the primaries,” he said.
Hon. Migereko urged that the RDCs should identify the problem areas in the recent NRM primaries and come up with solutions, saying that this tactic will help the nation to have a peaceful election come early next year.
“Mediate between opponents in the NRM primaries, agree with them that we all need peaceful elections.Reconciliation at this stage is one of the most important aspects during this period. You should engage people and talk about the challenges they faced during the primaries. This will help you to effectively manage the forthcoming elections. Mobilisation and reconciliation now go hand in hand,” he said.
“If you don’t do so, we shall have problems in the next elections. If people get a feeling that they will have a rowdy election, they will not turn up for voting in the expected numbers.”
Hon. Migereko further advised that every other day, RDCs must check how security is doing in their area, explaining that if security fails, mobilisation automatically fails.
“The most important assignment is to ensure peace and security in your area. Security is the most important thing as far as the NRM government and H. E the President are concerned. People say courtesy of the NRM, we are in a very peaceful and tranquil environment,” he said.
“Work with the DISOs and other security organs because they are the ones who feed you with information. Don’t disregard them because they hold shared responsibility as far as security is concerned. You can only succeed if you are working as a team, if you sideline any member of your team, you are going to be in trouble.”
Additionally, the Chairperson of the National Biofuels Committee called on the RDCs to engage the ghetto youths in order to neutralize any felonious ground ahead of the 2026 general elections.
“Anyone who wants to use the ghetto to cause any disorganization, he will have no ground because you already have them on your side,” he said.
“Thank God the President is already empowering the ghetto youth across the country.”
He also appealed to them to work with the Local Councils to ensure maximum security in their areas of jurisdiction.
“There’s no better security arrangement in our country than that which depends on the local Councils.”
On the other hand, Hon. Migereko informed the participants to rally the people of Busoga to take part in the various poverty alleviation programs for socio-economic transformation of Uganda.
“Hold leaders accountable to ensure effective service delivery,” he said.
He also commended President Museveni for solving the problem of the sugarcane industry through signing the Sugarcane Law.
“This time round, the sugar cane issue is not going to be among the problems we are going to be having in this general election,” Hon. Migereko noted.
Rally residents to join the private sector so that they create more jobs and ensure steady incomes in homes. I’m happy that many people are joining the hospitality sector.”
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