President Museveni reminded the aggrieved MPs that in the last election, in Buganda, over 21 seats were lost because the NRM won but the votes were divided by the party candidates; the independents and the flag bearers.
As the dates for the nomination of parliamentary candidates draws closers, on October 22 and 23, 2025, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) is currently at the crossroads for failure to convince the NRM Members of Parliament who lost in the recently concluded party primaries not to stand as independents, something which is most likely to cost the party.
The recent engagement conducted by the National Party chairman, President Yoweri Museveni together with the First Lady, Janet Kataha Museveni happened on Monday October 13, with NRM Members of Parliament and Independent MPs who had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the NRM at State Lodge Arua.
The team participated in the party primaries and lost. Now the majority of them declared to stand as independents in the forthcoming elections while some opted to stay out of the elections.
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During the meeting, some MPs claimed that they were cheated during the primaries, explaining that their competitors altered the results and by the end of the day, they were irregularly declared winners.
During a press briefing held at the Parliament on Tuesday at Parliament, the Chairperson of NRM MPs who lost in the party primaries, Anthony Esenu revealed that President Museveni cleared losers of the NRM primaries to contest so that the opposition MPs have minimal chances of winning.
The Mbarara Woman MP, Margaret Ayebare Rwebyambu said that their decision to contest as independent candidates is a move taken to protest against the outcomes of the NRM party primary elections in which they lost.
“But we are not contesting as independents just because we are out of the party or we hate the party or anything. We are only refuting the irregularities that came out of the primaries,” Ayebare said.
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She added “So, people outside there should know that we are only contesting against the results that came out in primaries. We are not contesting as independents because we are against the party. And for that reason, I want to thank His Excellency for looking at us as his own children of the NRM,” Ayebare said.
President Museveni’s stand on independents
President Museveni advised NRM MPs who lost the party primaries and lost not to stand as independents in the forthcoming elections.
“Where there are NRM and opposition candidates, I wouldn’t advise you to come as independent, because if you do and things go wrong, you will be the one to blame. Where there are only NRMs in the race, even there I would prefer you use the law, so that you don’t confuse our people,” he said.
According to the President, in their case, these particular MPs were provoked by selfish people but advised that what is crucial is how they react to the provocation.
“In this case if you are annoyed and stand as an independent, and then the other flagbearer is there, what if now you divide the vote and the opposition takes the constituency? How will you forgive yourself?” he inquired.
President Museveni reminded the aggrieved MPs that in the last election, in Buganda, over 21 seats were lost because the NRM won but the votes were divided by the party candidates; the independents and the flag bearers.
“So this is where you need to be very careful. You should ask yourself should I be involved in the division of NRM? For me I wouldn’t do that,” he said.
“If there are three of you, two NRMs and one opposition, it would be a big problem on your side. Now where you say there are only NRMs, there I can’t sit here as Chairman of the NRM and say, you go and fight it out. There I have to keep quiet and watch but when I come, I will hand the flag to the NRM flagbearer.”
President Museveni further advised that in case some candidate feels that he was cheated during the primaries, he/she can use that law, that’s if they have evidence.
“If it was an electoral offense, why don’t you get me the facts, if they altered the results, then we can act criminally against the people who were involved, and they end up in prison. There’s a legal way you can go about it and crime has no time limit, even a year and more, the one who did it can be acted upon. For me I think that one is better,” he noted.
“In case you don’t have proof because your agents were compromised, it means there’s some political work you need to do and I would advise that in that case you give yourself time. This issue of using mercenaries to be your agents is very risky. You should have people who are committed to your vision in your area.”
On the other hand, President Museveni advised the politicians not to go into politics when they are poor or run into debts because of politics.
“You shouldn’t join politics when you are poor. In your case, the government can inject more money in the parliamentary SACCOs, take a soft loan, build yourself economically, as you support NRM, then when you are set, come back when you are financially stable. If you have like Shs400 million, inject at least 40 percent of it in politics, not all,” he urged.
“You shouldn’t go into debt because of politics. In that way we can be able to build a very stable leadership in this country.”
The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Thomas Tayebwa, Ministers, NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) members, among others.
