By Mulengera Reporters
Barely a week ago, ONC Manager SPA Hadijah Namyalo Uzeiye held a mammoth rally in Kiryandongo whose magnitude made it seem presidential because it has always been Gen Museveni, Bobi Wine, Col Kizza Besigye and maybe the CDF Gen MK who politically have been accepted as having the crowd-pulling credentials with capacity to attract so many people in one place. One would struggle to think of any other Ugandan political actor capable of pulling such a large political crowd outside their birth place or respective home areas but Namyalo did-and effortlessly so.
This predictably has sparked ceaseless debate and political punditry as to what makes her to be politically so magnetic yet she doesn’t intend to stand for any elective position in 2026 and beyond. At least she hasn’t given any signals to that effect. Not as yet.
Namyalo, for whom Kampala Central is the political home ground, says that it’s not about her at all and makes it clear that the large crowds that keep coming for her political mobilization events across the country, and more so those who did so at Kiryandongo, is indicative of the extent to which Jjaja Museveni, her Principal, continues to be accepted as remaining politically the best thing to keep holding the country together and consistently leading into the direction of socio-economic transformation. That people keep congregating in order to receive the President’s message delivered or coming through her.
To Namyalo, the enthusiasm being exhibited at her political mobilization meetings is “clear testimony that a growing number of young Ugandans still have strong belief in Jajja H.E President YK Museveni’s socio-economic transformation agenda.” Yet by holding such rallies, Namyalo tactfully disarms equally young and youthful Bobi Wine of the biggest weapon he has been having since 2018 when he first came to the political scene, which is being able to pull very large and very energetic crowds virtually in any part of Uganda.
By using Namyalo to gradually break that monopoly away from Bobi Wine, Gen Museveni is gradually deflating Bobi Wine who lacks oratory power of the Besigye type yet the same would have been his additional selling point beyond his singing celebrity personality. Taking that (crowd-pulling monopoly) away from him is one of the many ways Gen Museveni is subtly working towards demystifying Mr. Wine as the country counts down to 2026-and H.E. Museveni must naturally be grateful to SPA Namyalo for making that possible, and moreover at minimum economic or financial cost to his coffers.
To be able to pull it off, Namyalo has had to deploy a multiplicity of capabilities including being an accessible listener who practices open door policy and allows cadres from across Uganda to access her ONC-based offices at Kyambogo on any day of the week without being required to be on appointment.
This has enabled SPA Namyalo to get plenty of feedback which in return is used to plug holes detected and could potentially constrain Gen Museveni’s reelection in 2026. Namyalo has also been able to put money in work as designated and facilitated by her Principal Gen YK Museveni unlike other fortune-hunting NRM officials who have a habit of subjecting every facilitation for mobilization to the ‘withholding tax’ of some sort. This explains why Museveni’s key mobilizers have always grumbled as opposed to going to work, mobilize and recruit support whole-heartedly the way Namyalo has gotten them do. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).