HOUSE OF CONFUSION: Museveni’s Kampala Vote Rigging Claims Set Hajjat Namyalo’s ONC on Collision Course with NRM Secretariat & Office of the President

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Wednesday, March 29, met and addressed Chairpersons of Local Council Committees from Kampala District at the Kololo Independence Grounds. The President, among others, addressed his abysmal performance in the city during the 2021 general elections, revealing his suspicion that his votes could have been tampered with. He questioned how this could have been possible given that he deployed a team of vote protectors at every village in the city to oversee the process.

At this point, he invited Hajjat Hadijah Nzeiye Namyalo who is in charge at the Kyambogo-based Office of the NRM National Chairman (ONC) to explain what could have transpired to allow gaps for vote thieves to steal his votes.

The ONC supremo seemed to point at the inadequacies of his predecessors at Kyambogo by stating that she had inherited the office with undeniable complaints that the money disbursed to facilitate the vote protectors was either misappropriated or swindled by those in charge at the time.

ONC, which was charged with vote protection, including the identification and training of polling agents was then being steered by Milly Babirye Babalanda, now Minister for the Presidency, and Faruk Kirunda, now Deputy Press Secretary to the President.

Whereas Namyalo’s submission at Kololo raised some sort of dust regarding the management of the 2021 electoral process, two salient questions were unearthed as a result. One: Were Babalanda and company, who formed the core of Museveni’s re-election in 2021 and were hailed for the graft-free execution of their mandate, not as clean as they were widely believed?

Two: was the Party Secretariat under Justine Kasule Lumumba (now Minister) incompetent? Has it even remained incompetent under Richard Todwong as Secretary General? Is that why President Museveni deemed and, maybe, still deems it fit to deploy Babalanda and Namyalo to oversee his mobilization, a role that should ordinarily be carried out by those in charge at Kyadondo Road?

Even with over 30 member committees at each village, the president suggested he couldn’t trust them enough to oversee the safety of his votes but rather deploy a spy from his personal political office, something which immensely discredited the formal structures of the party and its top leadership.

Yet that’s not the supposed confusion in the way things are being done in NRM. Namyalo inherited the office which boasted of an enviable presence across the country, courtesy of her predecessor administration of Babalanda.

These included vigilante committees from village to national level. Among the committees were leaders from the informal sector, boda boda communities, women and youths, VHTs and opinion leaders.

Some estimates put the national membership of the team at a gigantic two million people. Although these still feel they did a lot, with no pay, and were not deployed to appreciate their efforts, the fact that the new regime at Kyambogo seems to not have them in their plans irks them the more.

A force of that magnitude cannot be underestimated and Museveni himself knows the contribution they made towards his reelection in 2021. To confirm his satisfaction, most of those that held key roles were rewarded with juicy deployments, including Babalanda, Minister for the Presidency; Hajjat Minsa Kabanda, Minister for Kampala; Kirunda, Deputy Presidential Press Secretary; Paul Katende, RCC Masaka; Saleh Kamba, RCC Jinja (now in Nakasongola); and Habib Sseruwagi, member Equal Opportunities Commission ( EOC).

Most of the coordinators at the district and regional levels were deployed as RDCs and Deputy RDCs, which points to the fact that the president is aware of the controversy it would bring if these remained unappeased until 2026.

Yet amidst this confusion, it remains largely undeniable within the NRM that Namyalo has been a shining star in the role at Kyambogo with her impact felt far and wide so far. The chief architect of the ‘Jajja tova ku main’ campaign, she continues to be the pace setter for the next general elections, pushing for her appointing authority’s endorsement for the presidency in 2026 by the NRM party. (See Details Here).

How well the fault lines already appearing in the relationship with the forces that have been in the game before her, such as the old guard at ONC and the Secretariat at Kyadondo Road will, however, greatly impact how far her efforts will bear good fruits for the President, her boss.

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