Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) recently warned the opposition that security is ready to deal with any person threatening his father’s supporters especially women in the coming 2026 general elections.
In the wide execution of his directives, this issue was widely discussed in the last UPDF High Command meeting and in the Security Council meeting, in which Buganda was singled out as a security threat which should be handled urgently so that the chaos there does not explode to cause anarchy elsewhere.
Highly placed security sources said that the decision was taken that the only way to dismantle the threat is by dealing with National Unity Platform (NUP) youths who are diehards to their principal Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) who have already started establishing vigilant groups commonly known as Eggaali.
According to Mukono Municipality legislator Betty Nambooze who is in charge of supervising youth vigilante formations in greater Mukono covering districts of Mukono, Buikwe, Kayunga and Kalangala, the groups are supposed to mobilize political support for their party, protect votes and also provide security to their party candidates in the coming general elections.
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Sources said that upon realizing that Nambooze was grounded on mobilizing youths to form vigilante groups, AIGP Frank Mwesigwa the police’s Director Operations was assigned to lead the operations against the move.
Mwesigwa personally toured the entire greater Mukono region warning youths to desist from joining these groups because security was ready to mercilessly deal with them.
The next move was to arrest and humiliate Bobi Wine diehards especially his security team hence people like Edward Ssebuufu his chief bodyguard was arrested in Mukono, humiliated and imprisoned on charges of aggravated robbery together with others who strongly support Bobi Wine’s plan on recruiting vigilant youths.
After realizing that Bobi Wine was again training another group of civilians to provide him with security in the 2026 presidential elections, Muhoozi directed through his alleged social media handle X that all presidential candidates will be guarded by SFC commandos and no person who is not from security will be allowed to come close to a presidential candidate.
The move is to distance Bobi Wine’s youths from their principal.
It is not clear whether Bobi Wine will accept the move given that in the 2021 presidential campaigns, he valued his civilian guards more than those provided by Justice Simon Mugenyi’s Independent Electoral Commission.
“We are very scared because Bobi Wine can defy the orders of the CDF to prove his superiority, then CDF might also react by ordering his arrest and we again experience the incident that happened in November 2020 when a number of people killed as a result of rioting after the arrest of Bobi Wine in Luuka district when he was on his campaign trail,” a senior security boss said.
He added that Museveni has been in control of all the orders against the opposition and it is the reason why no one touches Bobi Wine even though there were orders for him to be arrested during the times when his bodyguards were being picked, charged and imprisoned.
As a result of the ongoing threats, Kira Municipality legislator and also the Secretary General of the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF) Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda has revealed that as opposition, they are also ready to faceoff with violent attacks from security some of who have already declared that they are going to use the elections as an avenue to carry out revenge on them because of the statements and criticisms they have been making against their personalities.
“We know that there are plans to make this coming election violent, but we are not going to sit down and look on as Museveni’s men are trying to steal our victory. We have already started recruiting from the ghettos where Museveni has been also been recruiting from. What you need to know is they trusted us more than him because they have been with us for a longtime,” Ssemujju said.
He singled out his constituency of Kira Municipality where his opponents led by Daniel Kananura the NRM flag bearer and former Kira Division mayor who is also the NRM chairperson Memerito Mugerwa are holding meetings strategizing on how they can use violence to defeat him but they are hiding under the guise of supporting of Gen Muhoozi.
“When Museveni was touring my constituency claiming that he was assessing the performance of the Perish Development Model (PDM), his real motive was to carry out campaigns. Memerito assured him that they are going to defeat me because they are tired of seeing me abusing him and making insults against him. I know their capacity and I’m ready to deal with them during campaigns and elections,” Ssemujju said.
He assured all those who are preparing to use violence on him that he is also going to bring the battle to their backyard because they know their homes and their businesses.
However, Butambala district Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi advised opposition not to resort to violence during the elections warning that they will not manage Museveni because he is the master of violence.
