First Lady cautions Ugandans to preserve peace during 2026 elections

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ZOMBO - The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Mrs Janet Museveni, has implored Ugandans not to mess up their homeland by voting President Yoweri Museveni out of office in the 2026 general election.

She made the call on Saturday (October 11) while addressing a mammoth crowd of National Resistance Movement (NRM) party supporters that gathered at Museveni’s campaign rally at Namrwodho Primary School playground in Nebbi municipality.

This was after being asked by President Museveni, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate who is seeking re-election, to greet the crowd before he continued with his speech.

“Hello, people of Nebbi! I greet you all in the name of the Lord,” she said and went on to wish Henry Luke Orombi, the former Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, a happy birthday, as he turned 76 on Saturday.

The retired Archbishop was among dignitaries who sat in the VIP tent, also received similar best wishes from the President.

Mrs Museveni told the gathering that in the January 2026 polls, everyone who has a vote has a responsibility to vote for a peaceful Uganda.

Big crowd of NRM supporters listening in at the rally. (Credit: Eddie Ssejjoba)

"All of you remember when Uganda was not peaceful. The young people may not know where they have come from as a country, but we should not play about with our peace and freedom in this land that God gave to us”.

“We have one homeland on planet earth. If we mess it up, we have no other homeland to go to. Development, prosperity, transformation—all that is built on peace and freedom,” she said.

Mrs Museveni, who told the huge gathering that God is using the NRM to fight for that peace and freedom, added, "remember that you have a responsibility to your family, you have a responsibility to your people, you have a responsibility to your district to make sure that peace and freedom in this land remains always and God is using NRM in this season to fight for that freedom and peace”.

Earlier, the NRM secretary general, Richard Todwong, led the gathering in singing happy birthday for the retired Archbishop, who had hailed the President and prayed for him and his wife. 

Next year, Ugandans will, once again, go to the polls to exercise their constitutional and democratic right to elect their representatives through a general election for the seventh successive time since 1996.

President Museveni, 81, has led Uganda, a nation known as the “the Pearl of Africa”, uninterrupted since January 1986 when he and his guerrilla force he was commanding, the National Resistance Army, seized power after a five-year bush war.

He took power against the background of a decade of brutality of Idi Amin’s regime, and has been putting his fate in the hands of his party and in the hands of the people.

Analysts say he remains a central figure in Uganda’s politics and his strongest card is stability.

For nearly four decades, Museveni has kept the country largely peaceful compared to the turbulent years of coups and insurgencies that defined Uganda’s past.

Compiled by Umaru Kashaka, Robert Adiga and Edna Piyic