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By Alexander Luyima
In the natural world, animals live with remarkable clarity. They wake, find food, protect their young, survive, and eventually die. They do not complicate life with greed, nor do they obsess about tomorrow. They fulfill their purpose with simplicity.
Humans, however, often corrupt this rhythm of life, especially those in positions of power. Instead of serving society, they chase wealth, domination, and endless survival in office. For nearly four decades, Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) has embodied this distortion, turning leadership into a curse rather than a calling.
As Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:25–34, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear…” Yet, NRM has worried only about itself: its image, its survival, and its grip on power. Ordinary Ugandans have been abandoned to endure unemployment, poverty, collapsed healthcare, underfunded education, and systemic corruption.
The Devil in NRM’s Legacy
When NRM took power in 1986, it promised “fundamental change.” But what followed has been anything but. Uganda today is scarred by repression, abductions, killings, and the silencing of dissent. The party has become a machine that feeds on fear while offering crumbs of stability to a desperate population.
Professor Joe Oloka-Onyango once remarked that “Uganda has been locked in a cycle of militarism disguised as democracy.” That is precisely what NRM has perfected: staging elections as rituals of control rather than genuine exercises in democracy.
The last 40 years are littered with stories of bloodshed, youth gunned down for protesting, opposition leaders jailed for mobilizing, journalists beaten for reporting, and citizens abducted simply for speaking. The price of dissent in Uganda has been measured in blood and silence.
Ahead of the 2026 elections, the cycle is repeating itself. Reports of intimidation, abductions, and targeted harassment against opposition voices are already surfacing. What NRM cannot win at the ballot box, it secures through violence and manipulation.
The Protest Vote: Power in Defiance
Ugandans must not underestimate their collective power. Even when the ballot is rigged, a vote still carries meaning. The National Unity Platform has championed the idea of a protest vote: a refusal to endorse tyranny, a conscious rejection of the regime’s legitimacy.
A protest vote is not about illusions of immediate victory. It is about conscience, memory, and resistance. It says to the regime: “We see your lies. We reject your violence. And we will not surrender our future.”
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. warned, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Silence in 2026 will condemn us to another 40 years of oppression. But defiance even through a single protest vote, sends a message too powerful for history to ignore.
Why NRM Must Be Rejected
Uganda cannot afford another cycle of NRM rule. Consider the evidence:
Economy in crisis: Youth unemployment stands at staggering levels, forcing thousands into migration or survival hustles.
Healthcare collapse: Hospitals lack basic drugs, mothers die in childbirth, and doctors strike over poor pay.
Education decay: Public schools crumble while children are pushed out of learning due to poverty.
Corruption culture: Billions are stolen in scandals with little accountability.
Human rights violations: Abductions, unlawful detentions, and extrajudicial killings remain unchecked.
This is not governance. It is betrayal.
A Call to Action
The time has come for Ugandans to reclaim their destiny. NRM should not simply be voted out, it should be buried in the dustbin of history. Its record of corruption, killings, and intimidation leaves it unfit to govern.
Ugandans must rise with courage:
Show up to vote. Even if they rig, your ballot is a protest that chips away at their illusion of legitimacy.
Document abuses. Every abduction, every beating, every act of intimidation must be recorded and remembered.
Stand united. Tyrants thrive on division and fear, but unity is the weapon of the oppressed.
The jungle teaches us simplicity and purpose. Leadership must return to that clarity: to serve, to protect, to nurture, and to leave when the time has come. Uganda deserves leaders who care for people, not predators who cling to power.
2026: Uganda’s Turning Point
2026 must not be another stolen election. It must be a national awakening. Not through violence, but through the power of protest, unity, and conscience.
Let history record that when NRM’s darkness stretched into its 40th year, Ugandans finally said, enough is enough.
The destiny of Uganda does not belong to one man or one party, it belongs to its people. And the people’s time is now.
