The 2016 campaigns, and how I saw them

By Crispy Kaheru

The face of campaigning in Uganda has radically changed. Twenty years ago, the now NRM president elect, Museveni's campaign thrived on the countrywide Local Council (LC) village committee infrastructure.

To date, I have fond memories of excited LC1s in Bunyoro receiving personally signed letters from President Museveni appointing them to be his agents at various polling stations in an election that happened on May 9, 1996. 

Two decades later, "the old man with the hat" as he is commonly called (during campaign seasons) ran a responsive campaign focusing on wealth and job creation - issues that Uganda's restless young rural population holds dear to its heart.

Museveni's campaign this time defied convention when his party's manifesto was amended on the campaign trail to take care of a request for hand hoes that he had received from electors in the West Nile region. 

Besides this eccentric responsiveness on the trail, Museveni's rallies attracted a lot of excitement due to his tactical use of Uganda's popular artistes, propaganda and campaign materials at political meetings. 

Candidate Museveni's campaign, however, had to grapple with the double edged 30-year rule relic - an asset and a liability - a representation of administration experience on one hand and an exemplification of failure to deliver just exactly that, which lies respectfully in the 2016 NRM party manifesto.

The Go Forward candidate, John Patrick Amama Mbabazi positioned himself as the interchange between the old and the young generation - a transition leader who would groom and hand over power to the young generation after serving a five-year term in office.

Although his manifesto was anchored on the "advanced sub county model of development" (focusing on the sub-county level to enhance effective service delivery and accountability), his campaign rhetoric appealed more to the middle class, call it the Ugandan corporate class found working in telecom companies, banks, multinationals, law firms etc. 

Whereas voters in this category were probably a good niche to coax, (especially considering that they have always stayed away from voting) there numbers remained too dismal to swing the vote in Amama's comfortable favour.

The Go Forward campaign broke ground in harnessing new media right from the point when candidate Amama announced his presidential candidature. Amama leveraged his earlier experience in intelligence to keep people guessing about his campaign plans - both in terms of magnitude and strategy. 

Whereas this could have excited some people over his new methods of doing things, it equally disillusioned quite a few who were not keen on playing ‘the guessing game'.

Although the Go Forward campaign remained poised and serene, FDC's Dr. Kizza Besigye ran a comparatively aggressive campaign - different from his previous ones.

Heavily moored to the reform of Uganda's political and electoral system, FDC structured its messages around the plight of a common, disempowered Ugandan. Candidate Besigye rallied Ugandans to reassert themselves and consequently take power back (from government outfits) to themselves.

A three-time presidential candidate, Besigye leveraged from grass root party structures to attract unprecedented large crowds to his campaign rallies.  The question that however remained, was, whether the big crowds would equally guarantee a big vote on polling day.

Rtd Maj Gen. Benon Biraaro was a surprise candidate who stood on the farmers' platform and seemingly presented solid ideas about what needs to be done to fix the country's problems.

Unfortunately, throughout the campaign, the media did not give him the opportunity to blossom as a raw talent from the confines his military uniform.  Whether this was a spring board opportunity to blossom his potential as a fully-fledged politician, Uganda awaits to see.

Initially thinking of a boycott by the mainstream opposition political actors, the candidature of people like Bwanika, Baryamureeba, Mabirizi and Kyaalya came in handy to create a semblance of political competition.

Beyond enhancing an imagery of competitive politics in this election, some of these candidates played that symbolic role of quickly and easily retreating to approve-of the process and outcome of the election.

Notwithstanding the detracting factors including incidents of violence and voter bribery, many of the presidential candidates took their best shot at giving Ugandans an issues-based campaign; a fresh breath from the regular banter of personality attacks and cheap politicking to a competition of programmes, policies and ideas.

Writer is the coordinator of the Citizens' Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU)