The disorganization of Uganda’s opposition political parties intensifies every new day as the country approaches the 2026 D-day for the general elections.
The ruling NRM head driver declared sometime back that by 2026 there will be no meaningful opposition party that will hinder him or give him a headache of returning to power and his party winning all seats in the newly elected Parliament.
With the muscle of money obtained through hook or crook, a network of espionage is already in place and its agents planted in all opposition parties, private entities with cultural institutions not spared and even at individual level just to gather information and frustrate any plans that will stand in ways to prevent their boss to break through to victory. So to-date, no opposition political party can brag of not having any ruling government/party agents in its echelon.
The Uganda People’s Congress UPC Party, which thrice ruled this country, was first to fall victim when some of its top leaders responded to the money muscle and the result was to split up the party with one group working with the ruling party rewarded with ministerial posts and the other struggling to change the party leadership back to independence but so far in vain.
Uganda’s oldest political party, the Democratic party DP, was the second to fall victim with some top members in its leadership falling prey to the booty from the ruling party, NRM, with its President solely signing a memorandum of working together with the ruling party and hence earning a ministerial post. This like UPC left the party divided with the majority members disagreeing with the action taken and have been struggling to change the leadership but in vain.
A young opposition party of the 20O0’s, the Forum for the Democratic Change FDC, with its core leaders having broken away from the ruling National Resistance Movement NRM, fell victim to the NRM party money muscle. When FDC founding leaders got to know that some booty from the ruling party funded the last FDC presidential campaigns, it was enough to call for a change in the party leadership at Najjanankumbi and when it failed, a splinter Katonga group emerged. There were many NRM agents in the FDC party where individuals used to accuse one another as a mole which also led to its former president, Mugisha Muntu to form another Party, the Alliance of National Transformation, ANT. Other FDC top leaders got juicy positions in the government.
The founder of FDC, who is now leading the Katonga splinter group, Dr. Kiiza Besigye, is now leading a campaign to see if he can regain the party FDC, back to its founding democratic principles. He is now traversing the country seeking ideas from the electorate whether to capture back the FDC party by force and streamline it or join the existing opposition party or form a new party. He has made consultations in Buganda region, in Jinja, Mbarara, Kabale and other western Uganda areas.
Another Ugandan youngest political party, with youthful activists, National Unity Platform NUP, is falling in the same trap. Being a youth dominated party with vibe, the party has pulled enormous support in just a short period to become the leading opposition party in the country. This did not go well with both the ruling NRM party and the old opposition parties. They look at the young party as armatures, still youths, vagabonds (because the founder, Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, grew up in Ghetto areas) and have no experience to rule the country. Hence both the old parties/politicians and the ruling party are all bent to fight it, back to the saying that “The youth are the leaders of tomorrow not today”. Accusations against the young party supporters have emerged of bad behaviours. When NUP raised the issue of corruption and misuse of public offices in Parliament, the NUP has instead been accused of disrespecting elders and cultures.
But the ruling NRM party is more worried of the NUP party than the opposition, for it thinks that if they let this youth party to strengthen its roots, it will in the long run gain enormous support from the youth and elderly and the NRM will be nowhere. This has forced the NRM in addition to buying off some youths and staging its spies and agents inside the leadership of NUP, to kidnap, arrest, torture, kill and detain incommunicable supporters of NUP party in order to threaten them and reduce their popularity and expansion.
With all enemies surrounding Uganda’s youngest party, it is hard to believe that it will surpass all the guns pointed at it come 2026.
