“In this piece, I am writing to inform you that an electoral and criminal investigation has started in the Kawempe North by-election. The following allegations have come up: ballot papers stuffing, altering results, destroying ballot boxes in Kazo-Angola, Mbogo Mosque zone, etc., because, apparently, some people did not want those votes to be counted, campaigning at the polling stations, intimidation, violence, etc. The heavy deployment of security forces may have stopped mass violence, but it could not stop these micro crimes that should have been managed by the election officials” (Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, 16.03.2025).
The old man with the hat couldn’t let this one slide. I don’t have it in him and he cannot let this one go. We knew there was something up when the National Resistance Movement – Central Executive Committee released their resolutions and demanded an investigation and audit of the Kawempe North By-Election. Now the President, His Excellency is taking it further. This is just bonkers at this point.
The State House and the NRM has to self reflect. They need to re-assess themselves and how they conduct themselves. The way and the manner of how the state operates during the campaigns, the nomination days and the polls itself. They are making their own and showing their true character. The President cannot lie and deceive in 2025. It might have worked in the 1980s and less coverage of civilians, but now we all get the memos, the viral footage and the pictures that speaks loud and clear.
“The NRM people must not involve themselves in cheating by saying that the opposition is doing it, they must also do it. Work to crush that disenfranchisement of the Ugandan people. That is why the NRM went to the bush” (Museveni, 16.03.2025).
The delusion, the arrogance and the entitlement of writing this is just another level. If the Young Yoweri had seen the Kawempe North By-Election. He would have returned to the BUSH. Heck, he went to fight in the bush, because of the way he claimed the Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) was running it in 1980. The same sort of state machinery and securing the control of nation. That’s what the NRM does and perfected over the years. His talking like we don’t see how the RDCs, UPF, UPDF, SFC, JATT and everyone else works in coordination to secure a NRM Victory. Like what sort of spell is the President under? Does he think we don’t know the game of pre-ticking ballots and ballot stuffing? Please, step your game up if your going to lie at me. As a seasoned politician. You should be better at it. This isn’t it!
“You have been inviting the NRM to attend to you. We shall do exactly that. The mistakes the soldiers may do could be on account of preparing for those non-lethal roles when they are diverted from their work of fighting on account of indiscipline of some actors. These are the criminal mistakes of the opposition. However, there are also organizational mistakes on the NRM side, especially not working collectively and reaching the Wanainchi. Investigations will show us who destroyed the ballot paper boxes at Kazo-Angola, Mbogo centre, etc. and why” (Museveni, 16.03.2025).
The NRM wasn’t invited to Kawempe or the By-Election, no it took over it and used the state machinery to attack the opposition. The media personnel was hurt, civilians was captured, tortured and detained. There was Members of Parliament who was arrested, local activists too and such. There was a massive military presence and that wasn’t to stop mass-uprising or demonstrations. No, it was to incite fear and stifle the tracks of the opposition from assembling and campaigning. So, the mistakes was to think that was a winning strategy. That the levels of fear and intimidation stopped people from voting against the regime. Alas, therein is the problem that the President and the NRM cannot stomach or handle. They can be gun-slinging and use weaponry to muffle citizens, but it cannot understand that it is not the answer. It doesn’t solve the needs of the people and neither is it helping them. That doesn’t build trust, care or concern of their behalf. Instead the NRM doesn’t come as an invited guest to Kawempe. No, the NRM came as an invader and as an aggressor. Has the President ever thought about that? No, neither he or his fellow comrades has never ever consider the implications of such moves. Because they are on the other side of the guns and they are not looking at without being armed.
If the NRM starts investigating it all. The bribes, the pre-ticked ballots and the whole gameplay of state machinery should come into play. There are enough witnesses and proof of soldiers partaking in it. There are enough proof of what went down. Even when the authorities and the state tried to send the media packing. There is enough tapes and such to show what went down. The state can try to rewrite history here, but its clear. They want to send a message, but it is failing. Because all of it is futile.
The NRM was never scheduled to win this one. There was no signs of it. Neither was the stars aligned for miracle either. They could only win if the rigging has succeeded and the will of the people had allowed for it to happen. Alas, that’s what the NRM is missing. The NRM is missing the people. The people aren’t here for them. The people don’t trust the NRM and why should they?
First they come with guns, then they come with porkies and now they want to investigate the ones who came with the guns? They want to investigate themselves and why they couldn’t successfully rig the election? Seriously, is that what the NRM has become?
Is this what the President fought for and went for the BUSH for? Is this why the skulls of Luweero died en-mass? When the President invokes the bush. We are allowed to question it, aye? He wents to use the Mecca, let’s take it to Mecca then. Please, the President should know better, but clearly his vanity and arrogance are more important than the truth or being able to read the room. Peace.
MinBane 