Opinion: NRM’s Mobilization Machinery Faces Its Biggest Test Ahead of 2026 Polls

By Kazibwe Jamil

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s enduring political legacy stands among Africa’s most consequential — defined by relative stability, infrastructural expansion, and steady economic transformation. Yet, as Uganda inches closer to the 2026 general elections, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) faces its most critical test: redefining its political mobilization strategy to convert that legacy into renewed electoral strength.

Barely two weeks into the campaign season, early signs have already exposed worrying cracks within the party’s once-formidable mobilization machinery. The grand launch of President Museveni’s 2026 campaign at Bukalasa Playground in Wobulenzi, Luweero District — a symbolic ground zero of the 1980s liberation struggle — was expected to draw a sea of yellow. Instead, the event’s visibly modest turnout sent ripples through political circles. For a leader who has ruled for nearly four decades and often referred to Greater Luweero as “Uganda’s Mecca,” the sight was sobering.

This underwhelming attendance was not simply a logistical lapse; it was a warning shot. Mobilization — once the NRM’s defining strength — now appears commercialized, reactive, and increasingly detached from the grassroots that built the Movement’s early momentum. Reports of supporters being ferried and paid to fill venues have become too frequent to ignore, a stark contrast to the organic enthusiasm that animated the NRM’s revolutionary beginnings.

The problem became even more evident during the Uganda@63 Independence Day celebrations at Kololo on Thursday. Before a host of dignitaries and foreign guests, President Museveni delivered his address to what appeared to be a sparsely populated audience — an ironic sight during a period that should have been a display of the ruling party’s national strength and unity.

The Missing Link

At the heart of the current challenge lies the urgent need to revive authentic, sustained grassroots mobilization — the same strategy that propelled the NRM into power in the 1980s. Back then, success was built not on cash handouts but on volunteerism, ideological conviction, and collective sacrifice. Today, those founding principles seem to have been diluted by internal factionalism, patronage, and lack of coordination among party organs.

If internal turf wars were absent, this task would naturally suit Senior Presidential Advisor Hajjat Hadijah Namyalo, the head of the Office of the National Chairman (ONC). Over the past four years, Hajjat Namyalo has demonstrated unmatched ability to connect directly with Uganda’s grassroots. Her leadership of the Jajja Tova Ku Main campaign re-energized the NRM’s base, resonating strongly with the youth, women, and local mobilizers — effectively humanizing the President’s image and restoring a sense of ownership within the Movement.

During the NRM Register Update exercise last year, Namyalo’s ONC established a formidable grassroots network across Uganda’s 72,000 villages, each hosting between five and ten active cadres. That translates into a potential mobilization force of 3.6 to 7.2 million village-level agents — a structure that could redefine the 2026 campaign if strategically activated.

Reconnecting with the Base

Ultimately, President Museveni’s legacy will not be measured merely by economic statistics or international acclaim but by his ability to reconnect with the ordinary Ugandans — the peasants and workers of Luweero, Lango, Karamoja, Acholi, Busoga, Ankole, and West Nile — who sustained the Movement through its formative years.

The NRM leadership must therefore put aside ego and bureaucratic pride, and instead harness the expertise of proven mobilizers who understand the psychology of the grassroots. Political mobilization is not a corporate exercise; it is a people-centered art built on empathy, visibility, and ideological clarity.

Uganda’s political terrain has evolved — younger, more demanding, and less sentimental — and so must the NRM’s approach if it is to retain its revolutionary legitimacy.

Without genuine grassroots revival, the risk is not simply electoral embarrassment, but the slow erosion of the NRM’s historic bond with the very citizens it once vowed to liberate. To safeguard his legacy, President Museveni must ensure that mobilization once again becomes a movement — not a transaction.

The writer is a Concerned NRM Cadre and Political Commentator.