Ono Bwino has established that there is a silent ongoing sharp fight between the leadership of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) Secretariat leadership led by the party Secretary General Richard Todwong and the head of the Office of the National chairperson of the party at Kyambogo Hajjat Hadijja Namyalo on who will control President Museveni’s budget for his coming 2026 presidential campaigns.
Highly placed sources within NRM have told this website that when NRM candidate Hajjat Faridah Nambi was badly defeated in the Kawempe North by election by National Unity Platform’s Erias Luyimbazi Nalukoola, Namyalo placed the burden of the loss on the party’s secretariat accussing them of causing the loss even though the president heavily invested in the said political campaigns.
She publicly attacked NRM’s director for mobilization Rosemary Sseninde Nansubuga for not doing a good job while boasting that if the campaign money was channeled through her office they would have pocketed the win based on the grassroot structures they had established in the area.
She later added that because of the grassroot structures, a number of candidates attached to her office performed very well in the NRM grassroot elections even though people at the secretariat have been trying to sabotage their win.
More Read
Few weeks later, Museveni held a private meeting with Namyalo and her team at the State House Entebbe and sources said that the discussions zeroed on political mobilization in Kampala and Buganda region and the President expressed his dissatisfaction concerning the way NRM performed in Kawempe.
Sources said that Namyalo assured the president that he has support in Kampala and Buganda but the problem is the internal fights within the party are causing them problems and it is the reason why NRM was defeated in Kawempe.
She also alleged that the fact that the secretariate controlled the candidate and the campaign money annoyed grassroot mobilizers.
Sources added that Museveni further grilled Namyalo to explain to him why the ghettos she has been empowering do not vote for NRM.
She argued that she was sidelined by police’s crime intelligence director Maj Gen Christopher Ddamulira and presidential assistant Maj Emma Kutesa.
Sources said that Namyalo was strengthened by Museveni’s meeting and it is the reason why she gave many of the cows that the President donated to Muslims to be slaughtered during the Idi day to ghetto members in Kawempe thinking that the Nalukoola, Nambi by election was going to take place again so that she is put in charge of all the campaign cash
She further mobilised political, economic and social events in the ghettos of Kampala rallying youths to vote for Museveni in the coming general elections
Sources confirm that the President established that NRM secretariat has not done a good job and they were the reason why when he was delivering his budget speech at Kololo independent grounds, he blasted bosses at the secretariat for sleeping on the job instead of going to the ground to publicize their government’s achievement in the fight against corruption and illiteracy.
When he went to pick his nomination papers at the party secretariat, the president also blasted top government and NRM officials for thinking that they are more powerful and that without them, government cannot work. He told them that NRM party is more powerful than all of them and can move on without them.
However, a boss at the secretariat told this website that they have the capacity to mobilize political support for the president but the problem is under funding.
This boss alleges that Namyalo is getting money for mobilization yet for them, they are only getting salaries and operational funds.
He laughed at Namyalo warning her that Uganda is bigger than the Kampala ghettos she claims to be in control of.
He explained that they know that the President is going to direct that funds be allocated to her to control his campaigns in Kampala ghettos but Maj Gen Ddamulira and Maj Kutesa also need a share of it because they are also controlling a section of members in the ghettos.
“Namyalo is not the first person to attack us when it comes to mobilization. Even Ofwono Opondo has been doing the same but the president knows the problem, we are underfunded even though we should be the ones in control of all the activities of the party,” a senior NRM boss said.
He added that because of the fight for ghetto money in Kampala, it is the reason why Namyalo has started making allegations that there elements in government and in security who want to turn the coming election violent because of their personal interests.
State House sources said that even though NRM secretariat bosses and Namyalo are fighting for the president’s campaign budget, it is much likely that Lt Gen Proscovia Nalweyiso, the president’s blue eyed girl and her senior presidential advisor on defence and State House controller Jane Barekye will be in full control.
Kira Municipality legislator Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda alleged that Museveni’s campaign money for a long time has been always controlled by Lt Gen Nalweyiso and in one of the campaigns, a security personal who was given to her to provide her with security stole billions of money from her and was charged with theft in the courts of law.
Sources said that NRM’s failure to deliver in the Kawempe North by elections annoyed the President because he invested more than Shs6bn, and this will affect the NRM Secretariat even though they will not go empty handed.
According to an ACFIM report, in the 2021 presidential campaigns, Museveni spent not less than Shs900bn and has been the leading spender in the campaigns since the 1996 presidential elections.
