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07 June 2025

A SPIRITED NORBERT MAO’S WIN; HOLDING BREATH FOR NRM PRIMARIES

A hollow win, perhaps, but congratulations nevertheless are in order to Norbert Mao for extending his tenure as President General of the Democratic Party (DP). The ever-jocular Mao, also Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs in the NRM government, just won a landslide to retain, or rather continue his controversial leadership of the DP, born in 1954 but still struggling to find its way in Uganda’s politics. Mao’s high political ground has been ebbing slowly for a while now although he doesn’t admit so, which is all fine in the market of free thought, speech and association. Mao’s close allies in DP’s long-running obfuscated internal political disagreements, Mukasa Mbidde and Gerald Siranda also easily retained their seats as vice president, and Secretary General respectively, leaving their main nemesis Lulume Bayiga and MP Buikwe South gnashing teeth. It is still too early to know how deep the political fallout will be, but in any case, DP is now, only a shell nestled, more as a tribal enclave mainly in Buganda. But before it all ended, fist-fights, first at their headquarters hidden on Balintuma road, in Lubaga, Kampala, and later at what passed for DP delegates conference in Mbarara, set the pace, which was rounded up with ballot boxes being snatched away. It has remained unclear if the police that were seen carrying away the ballot boxes were rescuing, or aiding in a possible irregularity. For those untrained in DP history, what has just replayed last week, has been the main trend in DP since its founding seven decades ago. The 1984 Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere’s DP delegates conference, birthed Tiberio Okeny Atwoma’s National Liberal Front that never saw light. Since 1986, DP has had splinter factions named DP Mobilizer’s Group led by Michael Kaggwa, Tap Dialogue of Omulongo Wasswa Zziritwawula, and since 2010 when Mao outwitted Hajji Nasser Ssebbaggala (RIP) in Mbale, DP has been in a free fall. Unsympathetic people on X, formerly Twitter, were left to derisively mock DP, and Mao’s win saying ‘democracy has fled the party’, although I know my friend Mao, will say otherwise. Some in DP and the wider political opposition accuse Mao of being a ‘sale-out’ to the NRM, but more appropriately President Yoweri Museveni for a meal ticket. Mao sees himself as a ‘bridge-builder’ in what he calls a peaceful transition of power from the President to another person in the near future. We, in the NRM laugh off or just sneer at his suggestions that he is the one to change our political course. Meanwhile, the tremors in NRM so far, going by the past one month of elections to renew party leadership from the grassroots, punctuated by shoving, fist-fights and open shouting matches, portend what may happen during the coming primaries to select MP and Local Council 5 (LCV) flag-bearers will be. The upbeat, at collection of nomination forms during this week, and past records, indicate enthusiasm and strong liking for the party which attracts close to five thousand candidates contesting for the 529 parliamentary and 146 district chairperson seats available respectively. Ugandans are holding their collective breath, but it is neither too much, nor too late to ask NRM members, especially the candidates and their principal agents to redeem NRM’s electoral image that has been tattered with every electoral circle. Hopefully too, NRM has this time round, mapped out the usual election trouble spots like Sembabule, Kazo, Namutumba and Tororo districts for easy management. And NRM internal election registrars, perennially either out of incompetence or personal petty greed have accustomed to fiddling with processes and poll results, ought to style up, if the party and its collective membership are to avoid unnecessary embarrassments. Otherwise, let there be a robust and tranquil electoral contest within political parties.

By Ofwono Opondo
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31 May 2025

FALLOUTS, KAWEMPE NORTH ELECTION NULLIFICATION PILE MISERIES ON NUP

The Monday High Court nullification of Kawempe North byelection result, recently won by Luyimbazi Elias Nalukoola of the National Unity Platform (NUP), a rubble rouser opposition party, piles additional miseries to an organisation many already see as facing down the political abyss. The shallowness of its leadership and lack of real policy platform, get exposed daily, and apparently there is no turning back from the high horse they climbed. High Court Judge Bernard Namanya, ruled that the election was marred by multiple irregularities like the disenfranchisement of up to 16,640 eligible voters including then candidate, and petitioner Faridah Nambi Kigongo out of 27,000 registered. Also, that candidate Nalukoola personally campaigned on polling day at some polling stations in contravention of the electoral law. And while the ruling might have served justice to the petitioner, Faridah Nambi, and also given the NRM some temporary reprieve, looking at the unfolding judicial appeal, and general election political terrain, it would appear all will amount to nothing more than hubris. With the legal antics, and knowing Uganda’s judiciary dragging feet, it is unlikely the appeal can be concluded before August. As has been the case in many similar circumstances, Nalukoola, the loser in court, has appealed against the judgement, and will remain the sitting MP except if, the Court of Appeal upholds the same judgment, in which case there shall be no by-election as the duration will certainly be less than six months before the next general election. Otherwise, if the Appeals Court cancels the High Court judgment, Nalukoola will keep his seat until the term of the current parliament expires in May 2026. The lawyers would call this, litigating in vain, but from a media perspective, it has provided free political publicity for Nalukoola and NUP, leaving NRM gritting teeth. A better stratagem, rather than appeal, NUP could have dared NRM into an immediate byelection to keep in momentum for 2026. With almost ten of its 57 MPs deserting or being threatened with expulsion in a high-handed style of a public fallout, on mostly unsubstantiated accusations, many pundits think that NRM only needed to provide more ropes to NUP to tighten the noose around its own neck. The court route, although legitimate and fair, coming on the backdrop of unexplained controversies is likely to be seen by the broader political groupings merely as a political witch hunt by NRM, unwilling to cede even the smallest ground of its dominance. Yet with Mathias Nsamba Mpuuga (former LoP), Abed Bwanika MP Kimanya-Kabonera, and Juliet Nakabuye Kakande MP Masaka City all from the greater Masaka, getting kicked out, NUP even with the bravado being brazenly and noisily executed by an ever-frothing Muwanga Kivumbi, appears heading towards a self-prepared graveyard. Of course knowing the gullibility of voters especially in Buganda and few urban areas where on account of ethnic undertones, and economic issues, NUP won, it is still early to write off its sensational election survival in 2026. Afterall, even the much-despised Democratic Party (DP), loathed Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), and the recently down-graded Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) can still attract some voters. But the failure of NRM to learn from its own recent and recurring election miscalculations on itself which bolstered the rise of NUP and Robert Kyagulanyi is both uncanny and as well mystifying. NRM, at least officially, does not appear to notice the slow wave of disappointments gathering even among its own voters and supporters because of the lackluster style that matters, otherwise very serious, are being handled. Many hope that NRM doesn’t turn around in future to claim it was not forewarned. And as the old saying goes, a stitch in time saves nine. We still hope and work for the best, although some would say, it is all politics stupid.

By Ofwono Opondo
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30 May 2025

UGANDA'S POLITICS OF DO OR DIE; WE NEED TO RETHINK THIS WHOLE MUDDLE

Yes, we are now into that political season where the elite are seeking various political offices. Political service is no longer a calling to serve people. Make no mistake. Political offices are now the most paying ones both in remunerations but also the authority and power the bearers of those jobs carry. Indeed, the political season is near the corner. Primary elections for the various political parties that intend to pick those that will be flagbearers are beginning in August 2025. Come January of February 2026, the General elections will take place for the various political offices. These will include presidential, parliamentary and local council elections. So far there are all indications that these elections are going to be so hotly contested. There are also fears from most corners including security that there are so far all indications of threats violence and intimidation during this period. Intending candidates are already crisscrossing their constituencies informally canvassing for votes even when official nominations by the Electoral Commission have not yet taken place. Such early canvassing of votes involves spending a lot of money. This is the period for the voters to harvest back from those that want their votes come 2026. Candidates for the various political offices are already making grandstanding pledges to the voters. And it can only get hotter and hotter as we roll closer to the nomination days. The unfortunate thing is that we have crudely commercialized our politics and as a result, seeking an elective political office is becoming a matter of life and death. This is largely because of the accruing benefits that people enjoy once they win such contests. Truth is, they become instant billionaires. The stakes are so high, and one wonders how the situation will be early 2026. It is not surprising therefore, that the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) requested for an additional Shs 138 billion to provide increased security during the 2026 general elections. This was while presenting their next financial year budget, 2025/26. Equally, the Uganda Police requested for an additional Shs 300 billion in the next financial budget, 2025/2026 to also provide sufficient security during the 2026 general election. To those who are naïve they might think that this is an unnecessary financial request, but going by what is bubbling so far, we are in for the most hotly and violent election unless something is done to reverse the current trends. By refusing to change procedures, we are inviting political turmoil and instability and undermining our young democracy. And it is not too late. The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs is in the process of bringing on board several bills for electoral reforms to parliament. One hopes that among those many electoral reforms bills, we include strong punitive measures that will be meted to those that are bastardly commercializing our politics. Maybe, it is time we made political rewards and remunerations so modest to disinterest many who are looking for quick enrichment. The abnormally enhanced political rewards, especially for members of parliament could be the reason this is becoming a do or die contest for those vying to become members of parliament. The commercialization of elections significantly undermines the essence of democratic integrity by giving financial influence an edge over the collective will of the population. The second aspect that impacts the conduct of free and fair elections is the commercialization of politics, particularly the electoral processes. This has indeed, over time, become a cancer in our democratic journey. In Uganda today, one requires over Shs 1 billion to win as a member of parliament. This inevitably drives aspirants to look for these bags of money. Some of them even go to the extent of selling off their hard-earned, obtained property so as to bribe voters and be voted into office. Uganda is in the same ‘elite’ league as Nigeria in terms of highly commercialized politics. We must curb this because the cost of this recklessness is very costly for us to live with. Because of such desperation, the contending candidates have gone to the gutters by making inciting statements and hence charging the voters into violent actions. Others have descended into tribal and ethnic incitements just to win voters. To them the end justifies the means. The events that are unfolding in Sembabule so far are alarming. The two camps of Hon. Theodore Sekikubo and Brig. (rtd) Emmanuel Rwashande must be restrained. Everything is pointing to a nasty contest. The Electoral Commission should be much empowered through tough legislation so that they are able to bite hard those that are debasing our electoral democracy. Such tough actions should include among others disqualifications at any stage if one veers off the electoral guidelines as set by the Electoral Commission. Uganda is bigger than some selfish political actors who think anything dirty should be unleashed onto the masses for them to occupy those juicy political offices. We have much to lose than gain if we allow such recklessness to continue. Democracy is not the problem in Uganda. Voting is the problem. We need a reasoned voice of the people in all this. Citizens should have the chance to obtain the best possible information and engage with each other and decide collectively upon their future. They should not be harassed and intimidated or even harmed. Every effort should be utilized by those of us in leadership to protect the masses from being exploited by those competing for various political offices. Unregulated elections can fuel nasty politics. If unregulated it can ruin our economies, create instability and the outcome can cause colossal problems for us all. We need to urgently reconsider the nature of our politics. This highly commercialized trend we are taking can fuel a systemic crisis. And as a result, we will undermine the democratic progress so far attained. Hon, Norbert Mao and team, you have a lot on your table as u prepare to table the various Electoral Reform bills to parliament. The Author is the Acting Executive Director Uganda Media Centre

By Obed Katureebe
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24 May 2025

RUNNING FOR PARLIAMENT; MY OWN STORY AND STRENGTHENING THE NRM VOICE

A month has passed since I declared my intention to run for a seat to represent Older Persons (Eastern Region) in the 12th Parliament slated for 2026-2031, and the haggling with voters starting at the very bottom in Mulanda-Ayago village has been refreshing, if not daunting. Out of political discipline and courtesy, I had to consult directly, in a face-to-face, with President Yoweri Museveni, my appointing for the last quarter of a century, and then other senior colleagues. And I have to state, none disagreed with the decision for which am grateful as it reflects a broad support for my new journey. To the uninitiated, Older Persons in Uganda refers to people of 60 years and above, and in my case, Eastern Uganda stretches from the banks of river Nile in Jinja and bordering the plains of Karamoja, thus comprising the forty districts in Busoga, Bukedi, Bugisu, Sebei and Teso sub-regions. From Mulanda-Ayago I have had to get elected by NRM registered members to the parish, sub-county, and into the Tororo NRM Older Persons league to qualify as a member of the region electoral college for the MP flag-bearer. On the ground in Tororo, one feels pulpable support, and even unanimous consensus. Most certainly, by the time you read this column, I would have been elected to the district team. This race is more like a chess-game that I must now play in the forty districts up to February 2026 to win the MP seat. For some reason, my announcement seemed to have taken many, including my supposed friends and political colleagues by surprise, but well, that is how it ought to be. No singing your future plans to every Tom, Dick, Harry and Jerry. In any case, they rarely, if at all, keep their own plans with you. But for a fact, after 39 years, since 1986, as an NRM cadre, ideologue, and work-horse, I came to the conclusion that I needed, something politically more challenging than assignments by presidential appointments, although they have been rewarding as they put me much closer to the real corridors of hot power. As Spokesperson for the Movement Secretariat, President Yoweri Museveni and NRM election Taskforces, publicist for the NRM party, and Government for a combined and unbroken twenty-five years since 2000, man, one needs a new tour of duty. I could have gone to go rear ducks, grow coffee and beans, but on second consideration, very close friends said some tasks still remain undone. Now with loud parrots, and empty opposition political vessels, drumming even noisily, perhaps dangerously too, a parliamentary seat, especially as an NRM backbencher, there is certainly going to be a toast, to toss. Many, including from the few charitable opposition leaders and activists have publicly admitted that I would be a worthy opponent to face on that parliament floor. I will, when elected, certainly strengthen the NRM voice, where it matters most today and in the future. For the Older Persons, my direct constituency, it would be prudent to send a little younger minds, bodies, voice and legs that can still vigorously advocate, successfully follow up, and raise alternative policy platforms of the issues that matter most to this dwindling generation. In my view, issues of immediate concern include health insurance, adequate and flexible pension and social security benefits adjusted to inflation rates, discounted utility bills, and food-stamps for the most vulnerable especially those living rural and peri-urban single lives. Some of these policy issues will need to be included in the forthcoming NRM election manifesto. And of course there are the perennially thorny issues of delayed, diverted, or often stolen benefits meant for older persons. Looking at my long career in security, ideological mentorship, journalism and media, I count myself an allrounder capable of making a good legislator.

By Ofwono Opondo
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10 May 2025

NRM PRIMARY ELECTIONS; A MOMENTUM FOR A DECISIVE 2026 VICTORY

Like or hate it, NRM political party is the thing. The conduct this week, of the NRM voter registration verification update, election for party structures, and Local Council one (LC1) flag-bearers at the village grassroot level has generated political momentum. Preliminary results indicate a massive show up across the country, with most areas positions agreed upon through mutual consensus while others witnessed intense power struggles including fist-fights where police had to intervene. The contest for LC1 chairperson flag-bearer, on account of the village stamp, that a chairperson controls for transactions like livestock and land sale, was the most competitive and contentious with some candidates even fainting upon losing. With this massive turn up, active and impressive participation, NRM should be confident that it has already feet ahead towards victory in next year’s general elections at all levels, and our political adversaries NUP, FDC, UPC, and DP can only look for a few spoils to share among themselves, although the public should not be very surprised when they throw public tantrums. Ordinarily, if all these positions are fully constituted, NRM ought to have at the very least 2,232,000 village-grassroot leaders. Unfortunately, perhaps due to poor mobilisation, and considering that all are voluntary, in many villages, the executive committees of the five party organs, otherwise called leagues, remained unfilled. Thus, the NRM boast, of being a mass and grassroot party, need to be taken with a light dose of caution. These grassroots activities are great for general mobilisation, vital for strengthening and sustaining party organisation. A credible and up-to-date register indicating a member’s serial number, full names, date of birth, national identity card and voter registration detail, now allows NRM to identify and engage genuine members, and as well look out to fish beyond its borders. By holding these multiple elections at the village level, the foundation of NRM political structure, we should ensure that NRM remains relevant and strong from the bottom-up. This process also gives NRM a further opportunity to collect the views and aspirations of the public which should form the next election manifesto and policy agenda. In these times of widespread heightened political anger, cynicism, and polarisation, NRM must lead the way towards ameliorating inclusive discourse on harmony, while also get ready for a decisive confrontation with the looming tide of dark forces of election fraud, bribery, intimidation, aggression and violence especially during the election of MP flag-bearers. As NRM heads to the next series of internal elections for parishes, sub-counties, districts, and primaries for MPs, it must anticipate and plan better how to manage the headwinds from winners, and the unsuccessful because it is usually at the upper stages that the stakes are really high, evoking unimaginable violence . And yet, what should matter most is the unity of purpose that follows for the greater good of the party, democracy and country. Going by past experiences, hordes of ministers and sitting MPs are destined be felled by novice newcomers especially in these times when they are seen to have unfairly dipped their hands in the public till. The match-up, between former Parliament Speaker of ten years, Rebecca Rebeca Kadaga, and current Speaker Annet Anita Among, both with political pluck to settle scores, for the Second National vice chairperson (female) and member NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC), is a race to watch. As already seen at the lower stages of these elections, voters can make the illicit money not count for much to the not-so-clean politicians hoping to use soft money to win seats. Together, and in coordination, Ugandans can actually make those being accused of corruption and other forms of malfeasance pay by voters receiving the salt, sugar, soap, money and whatever else may be distributed, but deny giving them the votes they so much need to further feather their nests.

By Ofwono Opondo
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03 May 2025

NUP: A GATHERING DANGER THAT GOVERNMENT, NRM SHOULDN’T IGNORE

The National Unity Platform (NUP) opposition party, essentially a tribal outfit, riding on a largely false social discontent, has threatened to make Buganda, ‘a no-go area’ for president Yoweri Museveni and NRM in the forthcoming general elections. Probably it is not clear to them if NRM too, was to make its very broad strongholds a ‘no-go area’ to NUP and its boisterous leaders. It appears, that having been left to physically torment and assault NRM supporters during the aftermath of the constitutional changes of removing the presidential age-limit in 2017, NUP leaders and activists have got emboldened to do as they like. It is the law, that every Ugandan as long as is law-abiding is free to traverse and indeed live in any part of Uganda, and so NUP leaders who think that politics in ‘Buganda’ should exclusively be theirs ought to be decisively confronted and rejected both through law enforcement measures, and democratic civil political mobilisation led by the NRM. While publicly crying and shedding tears of a victim, NUP leaders, especially Robert Kyagulanyi, MP Muwanga Kivumbi and Joel Bisekezi Ssenyonyi, currently the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP) are turning into a present and increasingly a gathering grave danger for a pluralistic democracy and society. It is important and necessary, for these NUP leaders, to perhaps step back and engage in self-introspection before they travel down this slippery road, or indeed climb up a greasy pole from which they could fall with a heavy thud. The demise, and evident limbo in which UPC, DP, and very recently FDC, all previously troublesome riding rough shoulders, find themselves in today ought to be good lessons to those with good listening ears, and political eye sights. NUP with its so-called ‘foot soldiers’ that foment trouble at the slightest, is akin to UPC’s ‘youth-wingers’, DP-Mobilizers and Uganda Young Democrats, and FDC’s aggregators of the walk-to-work, Defiance, and Civil Disobedience. Listening to the verbal violent rhetoric, and observing the body language of NUP lead activists, one cannot fail to notice a group, hell-bent on sowing hate politics of tribal and sectarian chauvinism, and actual physical violence against those they perceive to beas ‘enemies’. On social media, NUP activists are prowling, taking advantage of the technology of artificial intelligence to generate and spread false rumours, incite hate, conjure fake news, disinformation, photoshops and even announcing the death of those they see as their, and Uganda’s ‘problems’. On the ground, on roads, streets and at public gatherings, they tout and provoke ill-feelings and unnecessary confrontations, completely unbothered of the larger ramifications of their actions in the long-run to Uganda’s body politick. And unfortunately, the truncated opposition groups, that pass for opposition political parties, FDC, UPC and DP are completely out of form to face up this growing threat posturing as an alternative. The rise, and growing adversarial, anarchist, fearsome NUP-style gang politics, is an indictment on the NRM which came as a revolutionary and national liberation vanguard organisation to infuse fresh life in Uganda that had been traumatized by the two and a half decades of Milton Obote, Idi Amin Dada, and the short-live illiterate military of Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa and Bazilio Olara Okello. Even in the remotest possibility of NUP, in its current form and style, let alone the evident shallowness, as a possible alternative to lead Uganda should frighten most Ugandans, and ought to accorded the same treatment given to the former FDC. In that sense, NRM using its leverage in government and society, has an urgent obligation to Ugandans to recalibrate its own and Uganda’s politics to generate freshness, hope, and a new consensus towards a truly harmonious political engagements. The politics of war-war, and jaw-jaw cannot create a conducive environment for an inclusive and shared socio-economic transformation that Uganda so much desire.

By Ofwono Opondo
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19 April 2025

TRUMP TRADE TARIFFS OVERRATED: CHINA REMAINS THE REAL ECONOMIC DEAL

One would expect a thorough study before major policy shift announcements, but it seems Donald Trump’s tariffs are a kneejerk response to US’s growing inability to compete effectively in a ‘free’ market economy it had preached when world conditions still favored it. Consequently, Trump appears to smash the glass doors, make U-turns, cuts back, gives unilateral unexplained exemptions like this week on one million iPhones sets alongside semiconductors, solar cells, memory cards and other electronic devises imports from China, hoping no one noticed. By that silent stroke, Trump exempted China’s single biggest export by value to the US. China’s response should be strategic, targeted and surgical stopping importation of over 250 metric tons of chicken feet annually from US worth US 469m dollars, oilseeds, soybeans, corn and wheat , and raise control of rare earth minerals export to the US. A string of humiliation in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan, the US is smiting with a vengeance in a new world where its superpower prowess cannot dictate terms like the yesteryears. A superpower that rose, maintained and still seeks to keep its status through old trickery, lopsided rules, bullying, blackmail, robbery, and when all fail, brute force, will not last long, is staring into a dark pit, waiting to implode. The world is seeing Trump’s cold calculations delivered with bluster as he hides in plain view, but he thinks he is in a thick forest. And all Trump’s megalomaniac tactics are good lessons for the world particularly Africa which has marginally survived on the periphery since Eden. Trump’s America is failing to innovate and compete with China at the global stage and hence resorting to blackmail and applying its well-known strongarm tactics. A superpower that slapped trade embargo on poor African countries for simply refusing to buy used secondhand clothes, women’s knickers and bras from the US, doesn’t deserve respect. Trump is in trepidation of China’s supercharged smart technology, cost-effective labor, and global network for raw materials under the Road and Belt Initiative enabling it to build robust industrial, manufacturing, assembly and trading infrastructure especially in emerging territories hitherto sidelined by the west. A superpower that fears, and cannot face competition in a ‘free’ capitalist world it preached for ages to others when still convenient, is simply overrated. And with a population of 1.4bn that rose from obscurity only 40 years ago when America and its western allies didn’t support it, China cannot be browbeaten into line today. Likewise Trump’s push for Russia-Ukraine settlement, is a calculated lullaby to divert world attention from Israel’s war crime underway in Gaza and its land grab dubbed ‘expanding security corridor’ without anyone waving it down. It is a heartless naked double standard that has exposed US exceptionalism even to the dumbest watchers of global politics. Trump’s demand to NATO members to increase their defence spending though prudent, aims to force them lockdown Russia while US focuses mainly on China. That way, there is division of labour in the imperial war of attrition, and hope to easily succeed. In the smog of Trump’s muddled Russia-Ukraine meddling, global sweeping trade tariffs for protectionism, and his domestic disputes, he seems to be succeeding in shielding Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu from any meaningful scrutiny by the UN or their own western allies who often posture as the defenders of human rights and international rules. Since the collapse of the temporary peace deal for hostage, and prisoner swap, Israel has resumed its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza’s defenseless women and children, and doesn’t hide its cynicism referring to victims as Hamas militants. The US, UK, France and Germany face crumbling public infrastructure in energy, health, education and employment because they can no longer steal from the world with impunity, and unable to return to glorious manufacturing when they confiscate other’s assets as done to Russia and Venezuela.

By Ofwono Opondo
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12 April 2025

NRM AND YOWERI MUSEVENI; A DICTATORSHIP THAT OILS THE OPPOSITION

Galatians 3:13. “Cursed is everyone who’s hanged on a tree.” Five years since the 2021 general elections, pointers show that opposition political serpents in the National Unity Platform (NUP), Democratic P(DP), Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), and infertile Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) are in disarray from within and outside. The infant so-called Popular Peoples Front (PPF), formed by political crybabies Erias Lukwago, Kizza Besigye, Omulongo Wasswa Birigwa and Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, is most likely a stillbirth, and yet a spider’s web has only caught flies. The cards in NUP, DP, FDC and UPC are collapsing in spectacular ways because of internal intrigue, conspiracies, sabotage, open hostilities, and apparent infiltration, that their canters cannot hold under the evolving explosive fallouts as the cavalcades draw down. In a metaphorical sense, this forthcoming general elections is actually for NRM to lose if it doesn’t tidy up its many blatant careless acts. Even if voters don’t transfer their anger against NRM for lack of better alternatives, as in 2021,and recently Kawempe North, they could just stay away from the ballot boxes. All opposition groups have been driving an old cliché, and false narrative conjured by former humiliated UPC ‘Iron lady’ Cecilia Atim Ogwal, between 1986 and 2005, and may she continue to rest in peace, that the NRM and Museveni were a ‘monolithic dictatorship’. Now, most have seen, that each opposition group, or leader since Milton Obote, Ogwal, Tiberio Okeny Atwoma, Michael Kaggwa of DP-Mobilisers Group, Paul Ssemogerere, Aggrey Awori, James Rwanyarare, Yonasani Kanyomozi, Kizza Besigye, Patrick Amuriat among others, have each, one by one, fallen. It is still hard to tell for how long the current opposition will stand. NRM and Yoweri Museveni are a ‘dictatorship’ that majorly on its own enacted a law that recognizes political parties opposed to them, including having the Leader of Opposition in Parliament (LoP), and all opposition parties in parliament heavily funded from state coffers, commensurate to their numerical strength, and they utilise the money given in ways they deem fit. NRM, certainly, should be a benevolent dictatorship, not the worst kind. NRM is also a ‘dictatorship’ that permits the opposition in parliament to annually present an alternative State of the Nation Address (SONA) and Budget, following the government ones, and both are actually discussed on the floor of parliament. NRM is a ‘dictatorship’ that has ceded the leadership, management and control of all accountability committees like PAC, COSASE, and Government Assurances among others in parliament to the obtusely shallow opposition parties which have turned them into financial and other forms of aggrandizement. And let us, be charitable, for lack of a better word, NRM and Museveni is a ‘dictatorship’ in which the leaders of opposition parties are hands-in-glove with government, including for DP president Norbert Mao and Betty Among of UPC as cabinet ministers. To be magnanimous, looking at the physical appearances of the most vocal, even virulent opposition leaders like Robert Kyagulanyi (NUP), Joel Ssenyonyi (LoP), Louis Rubongoya (NUP-SG), Mao, Jimmy Akena (UPC), Nandala Mafabi, Lukwago, Ssemujju Nganda, sneering Medard Segona, ever frothing Muwanga Kivumbi, or Mathias Mpuuga Nsamba now in near limbo, and their many sidekicks, you cannot say they are not round-faced, oily, and shiny in well-polished suits, neckties and shoes to match. A ‘dictatorship’ usually drives its political opponents underground, stifles their physical presence, commercial businesses, forces them into unsafe exile, and in some cases assassination. NRM must make opposition groups own up their many contradictions, so as to beat them politically at the next elections, and NRM should not panic in fear and retreat that it is getting past time to explain, defend its record and what it truly stands for. Procrastination, and vacillating in trepidation in face of opposition propaganda cannot make NRM win this ning battle of a life time in 2026.

By Ofwono Opondo
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05 April 2025

BUGANDA QUESTION IN UGANDA AND ROBERT KYAGULANYIS EMPTY HUBRIS

In the political fog of Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo’s Supreme Court ruling, Kizza Besigye botched trial at the General Court Martial, and Kawempe North byelection, a little hubris blew over Mengo, seat of Buganda’s old feudal institution, referred to as a ‘kingdom’. In an otherwise careless mistake, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics conjured delineation of Buganda as North, and South-central Uganda, which tickled heads, and set loose togues wagging that ‘Buganda had been erased’ from the map of Uganda. Resurrecting the charge, abandoned by Kabaka Ronald Mutebi years back, was, Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, hoping to extract undue political capital. But his shallow efforts fell to the bottom, because, Katikiro Charles Peter Mayiga, promptly debunked him. Speaking with suppressed contempt, Mayiga questioned if ‘Buganda had been lifted out of Uganda and taken to Congo or Tanzania, and how that could possibly be done.’ And with that, Kyagulanyi died silently in his own movie. Kyagulanyi, with a relatively short stint in public politics, relishes bending facts and reality, unfortunately, with so little tact. Julius Kambarage Nyerere, used to say that people who are politically bankrupt, often seek refuge in archaic narratives of religion and ethnicity as their main factor of mobilisation. In Uganda’s case, it is easy to know and identify them, although we have not been able to decisively isolate them from a gullible population. These malcontents haven’t understood how Mandela and Nyerere became citizens not only of their respective countries, but Africa and the world, representing causes, struggles across races and the globe. Somehow, they still believe that their miniature ‘kings’ and ‘kingdoms’ are great, or capable of greatness in Uganda and the world. Madiba, Nyerere, Indhira Gandhi, or Fidel Castro, and all people who have been great in the recent modern era, became so by liberating themselves from the idiocy of tribal, religious and racial chauvinism. Kyagulanyi, and some people in Mengo who think alike ought to know that since ‘Buganda’ failed to keep its greatness in the so-called ‘golden’ times, and was conquered by a few religious colonists posing as missionaries when many parts of present-day Uganda were still remote peripheries, that ‘greatness’ cannot be reinvented alone in isolation. The earlier this fact sinks, the better, otherwise, Mengo stand to lose another century fighting lost causes. Today, much of Buganda, including the precincts of Bulange, Mengo, Lubiri, Namirembe, Kasubi, and the surrounding environments of Kyadondo, Busiro, Kyaggwe, Buddu, Bulemezi, Singo and Buvuma, are so cosmopolitan, making it very difficult for feudal chauvinists to succeed. Buganda like other regions of Uganda face common afflictions of poverty resultant from lack of technology, productivity, critical skills, transport, energy, and industrial infrastructure which must be tackled jointly in a coordinated manner to dig Uganda out of the hole. Mengo apparatchiks have since 1953 under Governor Andrew Cohen unsuccessfully tried to extort with menaces which led to Edward Mutesa’s deportation to England. They then extolled and extorted Milton Obote in an electoral marriage of convenience that didn’t last long. Idi Amin was welcomed on a clean carpet and praised as saviour for deposing Obote and returning Mutesa’s corpse. Undone, they warmed up to Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa head of a most primitive military junta, and later president Yoweri Museveni who restored a defunct kingdom, its estates and has doled out massive public money, but is nevertheless, now being kicked. While many Ugandans are not in favour of a hard tackle with Mengo or Bugandaism, a frank engagement is necessary to save Uganda, that we all call home where no one group should demand special privileges. History tells us that monarchies are built and survive on sweat, and blood of the underprivileged. They are embroidery made by the hands of poor grandmothers, and never on a legacy to advance liberty, freedom, individual human rights or happiness.

By Ofwono Opondo
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30 March 2025

COURTS, SOCIAL MEDIA FRENZY; THE NEED TO TAME ELITE POLITICAL ARROGANCE

Usually, there would be neither goal, nor benefit in taking pleasure in the trials and tribulations of men, because after all, they are not made of real steel, but soft soils. Kizza Besigye, arrogant uncouth lawyerman Eron Kizza, and table bang-man Isaac Ssemakadde who had momentarily recently come on top of the world, are now all chilling lonely from different underground locations. Much of their self-inflicted wounds were driven by the false pursuit of pseudo fame of politics, and media, especially today’s superficial social media where everyone is clever, only by a half. Now the world is so quiet and serene, in ways many didn’t anticipate. The trio failed to appreciate that the world actually doesn’t rotate around men, but the other way round. As the Baganda would say, Uganda Law Society president, “Ssemakadde kati alira ku nsiko”, as in undeclared and undisclosed self-imposed exile. Ssemakadde came in a hurricane, chainsaw in hand, in premeditation to cut down Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, DPP Jane Frances Abodo, CJ Owiny-Dollo, and High Court Judge Musa Sekana. Now, the supposed lawman, has run away and in hiding from the law. For a man, whose election was only recently so volatile, electrifying, sensational, and spoke with so much insulting unprovoked contempt, to have his braggadocio neatly folded in such a short time, he needs to respect those who have traveled a longer distance than himself in public life. Kizza Besigye’s lawyers, political surrogates alongside journeymen, and the so-called human rights defenders, wanted him, if he has any criminal case, to be tried in the civilian courts. But, for strange reasons, the state had foolishly opted for the much-disputed military court martial. Another local adage, “he who chases you, gives you wisdom,” comes in very handy here, as the hullabaloo, including the media frenzy campaign #FreeBesigye, has now, on its own, collapsed, almost completely. And what a good tiding, that the political tantrums of his ‘companion’, Winnie Byanyima, delivered with hyperbole, too have died out. Besigye’s orchestrated political blackmail, through a self-generated hunger strike, seeking to end his own life in humiliation, came to naught. Dead people are buried, and life moves on. Heroes Day, 9 June, is still more than two months away, and it is unlikely that a good big tree on which to hang Kizza Besigye has been found. That threat, conveyed through cold-sad humour, was perhaps only meant for psychological warfare. To maintain the unchallenged authority, dignity, respect and decorum of courts of law, even when we disagree with their judicial decisions, lawyers Eron Kizza and Ssemakadde following the footsteps of Male Mabirizi, ought to be made good examples, otherwise the public may have no place of refuge when there are disputes. Eggs have to be broken, to make good omelet. The overtures by justice minister Norbert Mao, reported in the media, if true, that he seeks to have Ssemakadde’s conviction and the two-year jail term for contempt of court, negotiated, has no basis in law, but probably only as a political appeasement, but Kizza Eron, who has served sometime in jail and learnt his lesson, ought to be granted parole. In the old days, of ‘Dr’ Idi Amin Dada-Field Marshal, Life President and Conqueror of the British Empire, and UPC under Apollo Milton Obote, the army, police and intelligence personnel were a law onto themselves. Today, the UPDF, even with Kawempe north byelection fracas, is still a much better army Ugandans can rely on to do good. Just imagine, if all UPDF Generals, in their bloated numbers, were allowed a freewheel from self-inflated ego and passage. As we face another round of NRM primaries, usually fraught with absurdities including open electoral bribery and violence, NRM must, this time apply drastic measures on its high-profile instigators of election malpractices including outright disqualification, to bring back discipline.

By Ofwono Opondo
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23 March 2025

KAWEMPE NORTH BYELECTION: NRM AND THE FEAR OF THE BITTER TRUTH

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) party has just suffered a heavy defeat in the Kawempe Division North parliamentary byelection held last week to replace Muhammad Ssegirinya. Through many of our own missteps, Ssegirinya made a great name for himself, and now, even in death, he is tacitly being honoured by NRM’s repudiation of the election results as a sham. Many people, even casual observers, see the rejection of the election results mostly as an exercise in futility, perhaps intended to avoid the painful political truth of newfound untenable methods, a popularity under stress, and a contest that is dwindling. By publicly overlaying the threats posed by NUP goons, NRM inadvertently instilled fear among its own supporters and voters. The counter-heavy deployment of Police and the army also intimidated opposition supporters, leading to the appallingly low voter turnout of only 18% – 28,002 voters out of the 199,500 registered voters. NRM’s revolutionary and progressive methods now appear abandoned in favour of the cheap conveniences of laxity, soft money, bribery, corruption, and even political violence. These tactics are driving away supporters, voters and people of good common sense, yet its leaders are afraid to publicly admit it. Someone within NRM must tell the cat. Seeing Prime Minister ‘Maijegere’ Robinah Nabbanja parade one of Ssegirinya’s alleged young orphans to extract votes was base, considering the circumstances of his death. NRM last won in Kawempe and Lubaga divisions of Kampala a long time ago – 25 years and counting. Since the return of multiparty democracy, it has suffered repeated drubbings in Kampala, which has become its Waterloo, with no end to its misery in sight. NRM already has a huge parliamentary working majority of 378 out of 529, which is not well-utilised. One wonders why the party turned this byelection – for a seat lasting only seven months before the general election – into a high-stakes, do-or-die affair. There were too many cooks and too many hands in the pie, pulling in different directions for different goals, ultimately spoiling the broth. With the vibrancy of a young population – mostly uneducated, unemployable, or educated with high but unfulfilled expectations – enjoying the radio, television and social media sunshine, yet possessing voting rights, it is difficult to see this misery ending soon if NRM maintains the same laxity and false sense of entitlement. In general elections, especially for the presidency and in recent byelection losses, NRM figures – starting with the obtuse Central Executive Committee – have often sought scapegoats rather than accepting the glaringly evident truths surrounding the party’s current political manoeuvring. In the Buganda region – once a stronghold – and increasingly in Busoga, with expanding urbanisation, NRM could soon become a species threatened with extinction. Renting electoral campaign crowds or relying on bravado and militarism are unlikely to be effective solutions. To survive, NRM must return to hard, creative, and innovative proactive political mobilisation, alongside delivering good public services to the broad majority of Ugandans. The deliberate fabrication, falsification, embellishment and exaggeration of security and political intelligence as underhand methods against our adversaries during elections have become too common and embarrassing to be believed, even by the average member of the public. It may be true that NUP activists had planned to orchestrate the most heinous crimes in Kawempe, particularly on polling day, but that is only known to security agencies. However, given past similar accusations that collapsed under scrutiny, the state needed to do better and apply an even hand. Watching fully dressed police, military, and counter-terrorism officers, armed to the teeth with sophisticated lethal weapons of war, assault election campaigners, voters and journalists and ransack polling stations to scatter voting materials even NRM supporters could not hide their trepidation at how low we had sunk. Rather than going to court or throwing unhelpful political tantrums over the Kawempe loss, NRM should simply wash off the heavy mud on its shoes. Blaming others, when we have been in charge of Uganda for the past four decades, is not a very clever strategy.

By Ofwono Opondo
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15 March 2025

KAPELEBYONG; RETIREMENT, AND HOW FAST KAMPALA PEOPLE FORGET YOU

Mid last year I retired from one active-duty service, and now remain on political secondment by President Yoweri Museveni to my present duty station of the last twelve years, at the Uganda Media Centre (UMC). Apparently, as one grows, you mostly think about how to age in peace, tranquility, modest wealth, good health, and when possible, good company of family, relatives and community. A year now in my ancestral Mulanda, and gradually adapting to Alungamosimosi, Kapelebyong in north most Teso, you realise, you are actually dispensable, Kampala people forget about you so easily. So don’t lie to yourself. I have not had the time to know the names of the new KCCA executive director, or resident city commissioner, but my old memory tells me that the Lord Mayor, otherwise also known as inflagmento delicto, is Erias Lukwago, now full-time private legal counsel paid from the public purse for the estranged Kizza Besigye Kifefe, Luzira prison resident. And while there is no retirement age in politics and political assignments, it is good to have and implement a good plan in time even when your appointment authority may still have trust in you. Many probably still remember how old comrade, James Magode Ikuya came visibly barely able to limp by himself to his swearing-in ceremony as State Minister for East African Affairs in May 2021. These days we catch up mostly on the phone and he is as fit as a fiddle. It has been a while, not seeing, meeting or hearing from one of the best rabble rouser, NRM cadre, mentor and comrade, Maj. Roland Kakooza-Mutale although I know he is chilling in his farm in Komamboga, Wakiso district. When Robert Kabushenga (Rob Kabush), tongue-in-cheek, said ‘guys it’s tough, we’re broke, we can’t afford life,’ many sneered. See Noble Mayombo, Aronda Nyakairima, Paul Lokech, Jacob Oulanyah, or even Gen. Elly Tumwine, the soldier-officer, who fired the first bullet on Tarehe Sita 1981 at Kabamba UNLA military garrison, Mubende. We have even forgotten the ebullient Iron Lady Cecilia Atim Ogwal, Aggrey Siryoyi Awori, and wordsmiths John Nagenda and Tamale Mirundi. Who remembers Gen. Adris Mustafa, Idi Amin’s vice president who didn’t even know how to spell his own names. In the days gone by, my office side tables and corners had overflows with Christmas and new year gifts of desk and wall calendars, diaries, gift boxes of assorted items, usually expensive wines, spirits, teas and coffee, chocolates, biscuits, bouquets, and other vanities, sometimes you wouldn’t even know how to use them. Then there were invitation cards to high social gatherings like marriage, birthday and celebrations of achievements. Over the last year, these things have been thinning out for me probably because when they come, I don’t respond in time because of the distance between Kampala and my new locations. As for me, these days when State House protocol calls, usually hours to a scheduled event, and yet you have to take a Covid test, running back from Kapelebyong can be challenging. Sometimes, you may just end up sending apologies for inability to attend the event. But those guys are tough, they never give up easily, not knowing that you are preparing for the inevitable retirement that no one helps you plan for. At past four score, in old school mathematics, the energy is going down, and what is left, should ideally be spent on tying the loose ends of life, although comrade Matia Kasaija, in his characteristic loud jocular verbosity will likely say that his economy is just beginning to rev upwards, in comfort that few can challenge his assertions with contrary verifiable figures. After thirty-eight years on an ever-rolling stage, where the cacophony surrounds you, it is probably time to switch off the telephone, radio, television, newspaper and social media noise. But, with a tough election staring, perhaps retirement shouldn’t be an option yet.

By Ofwono Opondo
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