Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement held its party parliamentary primaries on Thursday, July 17, 2025, to select candidates for the general election slated for early next year.
The exercise was conducted in the 519 constituencies countrywide in preparation for the January 12, 2026 polling day. It was marked by claims of vote rigging and intimidation, bloody confrontations and low voter turnout. As a result, police reported arresting 90 people.
The NRM primaries are normally highly contested because, being the party in power with access to state largesse, those who win its ticket are assured of financial and logistical support during campaigns. And in NRM’s strongholds, clinching the party’s nomination is equal to a direct pass to parliament.
Different media houses reported on the primaries from diverse parts of Uganda. For example, Nile Post published a story on NRM nomination in Kampala’s Kawempe North constituency. Reporter Ramson Muhairwe compiled a seven-para story on the event in which he reported that it started off with low voter turnout and late arrival of electoral officials.
“Although voting was scheduled to officially commence at 10am, some polling stations such as Ketifalawo village recorded minimal presence of voters by 9am. However, the same time, Electoral Commission officials had not yet arrived at several stations, further delaying preparations.”
Titled, ‘Low Turnout, Delayed Start Mark NRM Primaries in Kawempe North’, the story referred to NRM’s party electoral guidelines, which had stated that “the exercise was expected to begin with the verification of registered party members, followed by lining up behind preferred candidates [sic] by midday.”
The two ticket aspirants were named as Faridah Nambi and Sofia Karadi, “who are vying for support across 47 villages in the nine parishes that make up the constituency under NRM structure.” Reporter Muhairwe also wrote about the presence of police officers at the polling stations to ensure the exercise was peaceful and to deal with potential disruptions.
However, the story left out crucial details related to the NRM nominations and the economic, social, and political realities of Kawempe North constituency. One, there was nothing said about the profiles of the two aspirants. One of them, Faridah Nambi was the same NRM’s candidate in the constituency’s by-election that was held on March 13, 2025. Voters in Kawempe North fell into innumerable files to cast their ballot to replace the area Member of Parliament, Muhammad Ssegirinya (National Unity Platform, NUP) who had died on January 9. She ran against nine opposition candidates. The seat was clinched by Erias Luyimbaazi Nalukoola (NUP) who won with 17,764 votes out of 28,002 ballots. Faridah Nambi lost with 8,593 votes or slightly less than a half of what Nalukoola got.
Nile Post also did not disclose to its readers that Faridah Nambi is the well-heeled daughter of Moses Kigongo, the first national vice vhairman of the ruling NRM party headed by President Yoweri Museveni. And that it was for this reason that the President led properly-oiled, state-aided campaigns for Nambi that marked by intimidation and violence.
In May, the Independent had carried the most cogent summation of the by-election: “After two weeks of chaotic campaigning where baklava masked soldiers dragged and arrested candidates from nomination booths, beat up journalists, and fired live bullets at civilians, Kawempe North constituency is calm. And it has a new MP, Luyimbazi Elias Nalukoola.”
Two, Nile Post did not provide the important information that Kawempe is the largest of Kampala’s five divisions with an estimated population of 388,000 people. Kawempe North constituency has a total of 199, 342 registered voters. And that of these, only 28,051 showed up to vote in the May by-election.
More important information was missing, including that Kawempe North constituency is poverty-infested and boasts over 10 ghetto communities of flood-prone, low income localities and crime-riven peri-urban neighbourhoods. This description fits well with a place that has for long been forgotten by the central government. This could explain why its constituents have, in the past elections, been revolting at the ballot box by picking successive opposition candidates.
Lesson learnt? A story about an impending election of any kind must –as a matter of reader necessity- capture all aspects that are likely to influence the voter decision. On this, Nile Post flatly failed NRM supporters in Kawempe North constituency.
