Fellow Ugandans and especially the Bazzukulu. Greetings from the Old Man with a hat. Congratulations on the nearly ending elections─ Presidential, Parliamentary, Local Govts and, eventually, LC1s. During the campaigns, I addressed 143 massive rallies in 153 districts.
The atmosphere at these massive gatherings, was celebratory and consultative, with whole community turn-ups─ the elderly, the youth and the children. It was always so beautiful for me to behold. It reminded me of the elections of 1996 when Ssemwogerere’s candidature, was perceived by the majority as efforts of trouble makers. “Tubadde Bulungyi, kati Ssemwogerere aze kutabula” (The Country has been moving well, now Ssemwogerere has come to disturb). It was only in the North and a bit of the North-West, where some of the usual opportunists had been pushing the politics of “megwa” (ours). By this, they meant that the NRM had brought down the Govt of the Acholis as a tribe (that of Okello Tito). The people of Lango, had a bit of that also, but from another angle. The rest of the country was unanimous. It was: “No Change.” “Why Change?” “No Cause.”
Where was this unanimity coming from? It was coming from the NRM/NRA politics of Okukyenuura (Kugasa, Konyo pekopa dhanu, Aitemonokin atiokisio Ateker). Kukyenuura means to remove emikyeno of society. Emikyeno mean the needs of society that could be solved if some-body bothered to do the needful. By 1996, the NRM/NRA, had removed the following mikyeno:
Extra─judicial killings by the Army and other security services by creating a disciplined Army of soldiers “abalinga Ababiikira” (as well behaved and polite as nuns.)
The NRM/NRA had also removed the bad atmosphere created by the parasitic politicians that used the politics of identity (religion and tribes) that would create disharmony, enemity and suspicion among even the neighbours. Some neighbours even torching the houses of their area-mates. “Okwokya enyumba or okusawa emwanyi” (cutting down somebody’s coffee plantation). That is what Kabaka Yekka was doing against the DP members in Buganda in 1961-1962 ─ “Ono y’ewandiisa” ─ “this one registered for the elections of 1961” which Kabaka Yekka had ordered the Baganda to boycott. Anybody who did not abide, his house would be torched and his coffee trees, would be cut. Those mistake-makers thought they were smart. However, all of them ended up badly. In areas like Ankole, Kigyezi, etc., those sectarian tensions, were very high. When, therefore, the NRM brought the politics of Patriotism (love Uganda), Pan-Africanism (love Africa), socio─economic transformation and real democracy, abantu bassa ekikowe, abantu bakaruhuuka ─ people had a sigh of relief. The Banyankore-Bakyiga and other Banyakitara said: “NRM akeihaho okuryaana) ─ NRM yajawo okulumangana ─ NRM ended intra-society eating one another”, you may say in English that is a poor language.
NRM had also ended electoral cheating by introducing voting by lining behind candidates because the other so called secret ballot, had been abused by multiple voting, ballot stuffing, under-age voting, etc. The voting age was 21years that time. By April,1962 when the second elections took place, I was 171/2 years old. My friend, Eriya Kategaya of UPC was 1year older than me. Also, still under-age, that time. However, Kategaya, an under-age, did not only vote, but he voted 8 times. We, the DPs of that time were more law abiding. People were fed up. Therefore, our method of open lining behind candidates, removed that cheating and rendered elections credible.
By quickly privatizing the economy, we had restored industrial production of beers, sodas, soaps, salt, sugar, cement, etc. and we had ended ebura ry’ebintu (shortage of consumer and capital goods).
We started repairing the infrastructure ─ Kampala-Kabaale road, Kampala-Mbale road, Kampala-Gulu road, etc.
We had defeated the counter-offensive of the previous regimes in the form of Lakwena, Kony, ADF, etc. Therefore, the people had seen that we had the capacity to guarantee their future.
In 1987, Dr. Rugunda and myself, launched the Universal Immunization of children for, initially, the six killer-diseases which were: measles, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis and tetanus. The people were very happy and did not want to hear of Opposition. “Opposing what?”, they would often ask.
However, even at that time, I had noticed that there were new mikyeno that were emerging that we had to deal with. In particular, there were the mukyeno of poverty, the mukyeno of educational costs (school fees) and the mukyeno of corruption, including injustices in courts and land grabbing. Indeed, some People were beginning to say: “Tulya ddembe?” “Do we eat peace?” By this, they meant that although there was peace, there was also poverty, lack of jobs, etc. That is why, at that time, I introduced three policy measures as follows: entandikwa (interest-free capital at each sub-county), UPE (free education in Gov’t Schools) and the land policy in both the constitution and the Land Act of 1998.
Had these 3 been implemented seriously, we would not have had challenges that became more prominent later, such as poverty, school drop-outs, ghetto -children, land-grabbing, etc. Many of the careerist leaders (nnonya─kulya) that were thrown up by the elections, were busy with salaries, allowances for themselves and never bothered with the implementation of those pro-masses policies. Entandikwa was not supervised. Gov’t School PTA groups, etc., refused to implement UPE after some few years of successful implementation.
However, with poverty eradication, I persisted with new initiatives as I will show later. Nevertheless, the non-implementation of those mass-oriented policies, started fragmenting the political landscape. That is why in the elections of 2001, 2006, 2016 and 2021, we had more divisions in the political land-scape. In 2006 we had the additional annoyance and irritation caused by the problem of load-shedding of electricity (the shortage of electricity). Shortage of electricity caused by whom and by what? Caused by the Parliament of that time including Major-General Mugyisha Muntu who in the recent elections has been expending so much energy, telling lies.
They are the ones who blocked the very good deal I had struck with the Christians of the American Prayer-breakfast groups led by a group known as American Energy Services that had offered to build Bujagaali and produce electricity at US cents 4.9per kilowatt hour (kwhr). In the elections of 2011, there was more cohesion, mainly because peace had returned to the North and our people there were beginning to be more positive. In the elections of 2021, we had two problems: corona and the cheating by NUP. Ever since the introduction of the secret ballot in 1994 vote for the CA, ballot cheating had started again.
In 2010-2011, one young man whose name I will reveal with his permission, told me that ballot stuffing, multiple voting, altering of results, etc., had been the order of the day ever since the re-introduction of the so-called secret-ballot in the 1994 CA elections. He, indeed, introduced me in Jinja, to the EC officials who had been doing this around Kampala ─ nine of them. They offered that they could cheat for NRM like they had been cheating for the opposition. I told them that I did not want anybody to cheat for me. Instead, I told them that they should use their privileged position of being Electoral Commission cheaters, to stop cheating.
Indeed, this time around, they did use their skills not to cheat for the Opposition.
That is why the results showed higher scores for the NRM in 2011. It was 68%. I did not act on these thieves because it was too late in the election cycle and I did not want to stop the whole election. In any case, we needed a durable solution to that problem, as I will show later. However, in the 2021 elections, NUP infiltrated 2.7million votes in the ballot boxes of Buganda and Busoga.
Therefore, the performance of the NRM, which is always winning on account of the massive popularity, has been being dented by a combination of fractured political landscape on account of not attending to the mass issues mentioned above and also massive election cheating by the opposition assisted by the poor organization on the side of the NRM that allows them to cheat with impunity by not using the vigilance we put in place with the reforms of 1994 ─ casting the vote in the open, one ballot paper, one ballot box, candidates agents, etc.
Ever since the introduction of the mass-oriented programmes of entandikwa and UPE, we have never relented in-spite of the poor supervision by Najja-kulya political actors (I came to eat). With poverty, we introduced NAADS, OWC, Youth Fund, Women Fund, Emyooga, etc., etc. However, my political radar is always on the ground. Those programmes had done very well for the country. That is why the production in the country is now very high. Coffee- 9 million bags from 3 million in 1986. Milk -5.3bn litres instead of 200 million litres in 1986. Maize-5 million tonnes instead of 500,000 tonnes in 1986. Cattle ─ 16million heads, instead of 3million in 1986. Bananas 12 million tonnes instead of 6 million tonnes in 1986. Cassava 5 million tonnes instead of 1.9 million tonnes in 1986. We are now at 49.6 million trays of eggs. However, by 2019, when I checked, this prosperity was covering 61% of the homesteads of Uganda. 39% were still among the Abakolera ekidda Kyoonka ─ working only for the stomach ─ subsistence production. OWC had done very well.
This is because in 2013, when my political radar told me to abandon NAADS, for OWC, the Abakolera ekidda kyoonka (those who work only for the stomach) were 68% of the homesteads!! 32% were the only ones in the money economy. At independence, I am told that the people in the money economy, were only 9%. The Abakolera ekidda kyoonka, were 91%. As a witness of independence, I can confirm that for the Ntungamo, Kashaari and Bukanga areas where I had been roaming with our cattle, the Abakolera ekidda kyoonka, were 99%. I wrote a separate article on this for the Ntungamo area where I knew the households ─ house by house. Therefore, the OWC bringing the incidence of Abakolera ekidda kyoonka to 39%, was a great achievement; but was not enough.
Indeed, I started hearing my people saying: “Begabila bokka” ─ “they only give to their friends or relatives”. That is when I insisted on PDM – the Parish Development Model. In all the previous Govt efforts, it was the state agents ─LC3 Chairperson for Entadikwa, Agricultural officers for NAADS, Army Officers for OWC, that were doing the kugaba (to distribute). My political and pro-mass radar, told me that if the people in the Parish could form a mass SACCO of all the adults in the Parish and elect their own committee that would prioritize the list of the recipients, it would be much better. Where it has been done well, the people are very happy. The stories of “sikwatanga ku kakadde” (I have never held a million shillings in my hands), are everywhere. This has been one of the factors that has created the good atmosphere I saw on the campaign trail.
The other factor is the OWC programmes that benefitted the local elites ─ coffee farmers, dairy farmers and the earlier success of eliminating the shortages (ebura ry’ebintu). Especially the elders. They say: “Temumanyi Movement gyeyatujja” ─ “You do not know where the Movement got us from!” With the North, the North-West and Karamoja, it is peace (Kuc), infrastructure (tarmac roads, water, schools, health centres, etc.) and PDM. The People are tired of the negativity of the old mistake-makers who try to eclipse the contribution of the NRM to the area with endless gobas(lies).
The death-knell to the opposition were the BVV machines. With the BVV machines, the Opposition’s life-line of cheating, was gone. It was, therefore, a rescue that many BVV machine operators did not learn how to use them properly. They got a chance to cheat here and there. We shall get the actual extent later as human intelligence continues to come in as it did in the past.
Otherwise, there is practically no opposition in Uganda. The pro- People record of the NRM in Uganda, does not allow a credible, truthful opposition to thrive. Indeed, our registered members as of the 6th of May, 2025, were 21 million where those old enough to vote were 18.5 million. All the registered voters in Uganda were 21 million. If all the NRM turned up to vote, our vote would be 18.5 million and the opposition would remain with 2.5 million. This means 88% support for the NRM. That is the real balance of forces in the country as per now, even with the unaddressed mass issues of UPE, Corruption, bad feeder roads, problems of drugs in the health centres, etc. Once those are addressed according to my guidance and our collective decisions, there will be no opposition in Uganda.
Why do the 18.5 million voters of the NRM not bother to register to vote or even when they are registered do not come to vote? It is on account, mainly, of the Najja-kulya (I came to eat) leaders on both the NRM and opposition sides. The NRM side, do not interact closely with our members, during Primaries they use violence and unfair practices, etc. which annoy our members and, I suspect, make some of them disgusted. Hence, the high number of the NRM Independents who defeat the cheating flag-bearers. In another communication, I will give figures to illustrate this. With the opposition, they, mainly, disturb our population with intimidation, violence and isolated cases of terrorism.
You remember the 28 elders that were cut by machete (panga) wielders in Masaka in 2021? That was the work of NUP. This time they had planned big insurrection to stop the voting. However, the majority of the masses, working with Security Forces, prevented this. They still have schemes they are still hatching, working with some criminal foreigners (mercenaries). We shall crush them. Some of the cases will come to court. You will hear the facts. The public get to hear those schemes and some stay away from the voting, fearing possible trouble. That is why the NRM cadres should be close with the People, honest with them and encourage them to ignore the schemes of the criminal opposition but also be ready to crush any scheme of the traitors.
Otherwise, my campaign tasks were pleasantly executed among huge crowds, starting with Luwero on the 30th Of September, 2025 and ending with Kololo on the 13th of January, 2026. The most challenging were the mid-day rallies with the very hot sun or when it would rain. It is important for People to look after the health God has given them so that we fulfil the mandates God and our People give us. I rejected a proposal from my staff where they wanted to erect a shelter against the sun for me on my Public Address land-rover.
I had to be in the sun and the rain with the tens of thousands of my supporters. We need to review the practice of the local elite wasting NRM money or Govt money, hiring tents for young leaders while the masses of the people are in the sun or the rain, including the elderly and the children. Should the tents be there at all? Or if they should, could they be for the elders? As an NRA fighter, I am always with the fighters.
I extend condolences to the Opposition. The BVV machines work if they are manned by people who know how to use them. In Nebbi, they worked in all the 362 polling stations and NRM got 81%, NUP 15.4%. In Bulambuli’s 257 polling stations, NRM got 60.80%, Mafabi got 30.12%. Namisindwa had 302 polling stations and NRM got 65.47%, Mafabi 26.46%.
All said and done, I call upon Ugandans to abandon any bad behaviour and act fairly to all, even opposition. You should work for principled reconciliation ─ not just opportunistic patching up. Talk about the mistakes observed and resolve them for a better future.
Finally, I want to inform all the Ugandans that yesterday on the 11th of February 1979, is when I crossed the Kagyera River with 200 FRONASA fighters at Murongo-Kyikagate alongside the Task Force Batallion of Major Kessy of the TPDF’S 206 Brigade under Brigadier Silas Mayunga. We entered Uganda chasing Amin’s soldiers, walked up to Nshungyezi where I spread my floor plastic mattress on the road for the night. Today, the 12th of February, in long columns, we climbed the Bukanga plateau and camped at Ngarama Sub- County headquarters. Between the 12th of February and the 15th of April, 1979, we built a force of 9,000 fighters of FRONASA.
Salutations to all and God bless all of you.
Signed.
YOWERI K. MUSEVENI
THE OLD MAN WITH A HAT
SSABALWANYI
Do you have a story in your community or an opinion to share with us: Email us at Submit an Article
