More than 6 months later, comrade Bobi Young remains under illegal detention without trial, on the orders of the military court! Supporting NUP is not a crime. And yet we remain hopeful that one day, this oppression will come to an end. #FreeBobiYoung https://t.co/7KaMS3kWJH
Many of you have reached out to our teams asking how you may support comrade Olivia Lutaaya after 4 years of illegal detention without trial. You may use the information on this flyer to send in your contribution for her, using mobile money. To support other political prisoners who are still in detention, as well as those who were released and still identify with the struggle, please reach out to our Welfare team on +256 700 195 101.
Very disturbed by the news that Lady Justice Esther Kisakye was finally forced to flee to exile following years of persecution by the Museveni regime! Her crime? Issuing a dissenting judgment in the Presidential election petition, which we filed against dictator Museveni's grand election theft in 2021. We all remember how Mr. Owiny-Dollo confiscated her file and denied her the opportunity to read her ruling! They switched off the lights and air-conditioning, forcing her to deliver her judgment alone in the dark, hot tent outside. They withdrew her entitlements, and started persecuting her left, right and center. To get some peace, she applied for early retirement which Gen. Museveni rejected so that she doesn't get any retirement benefits! She made numerous applications seeking justice from the courts, but they feared or simply refused to give her a hearing date! You can imagine all this happening to a judge of the highest court in our country! It is not surprising we're now told she has been facing threats to her life. The persecution of Justice Kisakye underscores the lengths to which the regime will go to silence and punish those who dare to check its impunity. Her ordeal is a stark reminder of the urgent need to reclaim our country, restore judicial independence, and right the wrongs that have been perpetrated against officers like her by those who should have rewarded her integrity!
What a joy to receive you back, comrade Olivia Lutaaya! You have spent 4 years under illegal detention without trial for no crime whatsoever. I am very glad to see that you are still very strong- still committed to the struggle for a better country. It may take long, but I know that Museveni and his criminal regime will account for every crime committed against our people.
Here is Ms. Nankya Irene whose husband was gunned down by the Museveni regime in November 2020. On Monday at the commemorative event, her story touched so many people. Today, she received some little business support put together by the Secretariat, the LOP and comrade King Saha. I'm particularly grateful to King Saha for reaching out to the Secretariat to contribute to this cause. Seeing that we have so many other victims to support (over 200 children, spouses, mothers, etc), I want to encourage everyone out there to support our welfare team in our efforts to ease the pain and suffering of our people.
Spent the afternoon meeting with the National Unity Platform Parliamentary Caucus. I applauded the Members of Parliament who continue to stand firmly on the side of the people and charged everyone else to follow suit. Our DNA is PEOPLE POWER and it must reflect in all actions of our leaders. We also discussed the heightened levels of repression and persecution, which is not a sign of strength but a sign of panic on the part of the regime. Ultimately, our struggle will end in victory! #PeoplePowerOurPower
We have held prayers at the National Unity Platform headquarters in memory of the over 150 citizens who were shot dead on November 18 and 19, 2020 by security forces during presidential campaigns. These victims, who included school children, were massacred during peaceful protests that erupted nationwide after I was violently arrested from a campaign rally in Luuka District. Relatives of the deceased have spent the last 4 years searching for justice but in vain. In December 2020, a team of lawyers led by Mr. Nicholas Opiyo was abducted and later prosecuted for gathering information into the circumstances under which the citizens were gunned down. Whereas dictator Museveni promised compensation for the victims' families, that has never happened! Effectively, the regime not only denied them justice but also took punitive measures against any entity that tried to step in. As we remember these innocent lives, we reaffirm our commitment to justice and accountability. Their death, and indeed that of countless other comrades who have been eliminated for opposing the Museveni regime, strengthen our resolve to fight against impunity and oppression. We stand in solidarity with their families and pledge to continue the struggle for a free, fair, and just Uganda where such atrocities will never happen again without consequences. Together, we shall overcome! #PeoplePowerOurPower #M7NovMassacreUg
Tomorrow morning, we converge at Makerere-Kavule to pray for, and remember our fellow citizens who lost lives between 18th and 19th November, 2020. In those two dark days, the Museveni regime shot and killed over 150 Ugandans in cold blood. Four years later, there has been no justice for the victims of the heinous crimes. And yet we remain hopeful that one day, there will be accountability for all crimes committed against the people of Uganda. Each year, we meet to pray for the souls of those who departed, comfort their families and amplify our demand for accountability and justice. #M7NovMassacreUg
These past two weeks, our Organization and Mobilisation teams have been in the Eastern Uganda sub-regions of Sebei, Bugisu, Bukedi and Busoga establishing mobilisation structures at different levels. In Sebei they have covered Kapchorwa, Kween and Bukwo districts. In Bugisu, they have covered Mbale City and District, Sironko, Bulambuli, Bududa, Manafwa and Namisindwa. For Bukedi, Pallisa, Busia,Tororo, Butebo, Butaleja, Budaka and Kibuku. For Busoga Jinja City and District, Kamuli, Buyende, Kaliro, Luuka, Mayuge, Iganga, Bugiri, Bugweri, Namutumba and Namayingo. We're grateful to our teams and all our leaders who are participating in these exercises. As our teams head to other regions, we ask the leadership teams established in the Eastern Region to remain united and take their responsibility very seriously. Go on and agitate, organize and mobilise for change! Every step taken in the right direction matters. WE SHALL GET THERE! #PeoplePowerOurPower #FreeAllPoliticalPrisonersinUganda
Therefore friends, DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED. The struggle against dictatorship and misrule will involve many challenges before we get to victory. And yet we keep using all avenues including elections to awaken our people and push the message of freedom. I am very proud of our candidate, comrade Sultana Salim! She put up a very strong fight amidst very difficult odds. I am very grateful to the people of Kisoro for the massive reception they accorded us. We have moved from regime talk that there is no NUP in Kisoro, to now saying that NUP is not strong in Kisoro. That is a significant step made, and we shall build on that to move towards victory. Forward always - Backward Never. Aluta continua! 2/2
The People Power Movement emerged out of the Kyadondo East by-election. After that, we swept the subsequent by-elections in Bugiri and Arua. With our support, candidates in Jinja East and Rukungiri won. From that time, the regime moved in to cut our speed. They started in Hoima where we camped to campaign for our sister Hon. Asinasi Nyakato. They robbed her in broad daylight. Thankfully she made it in the general election. After the 2021 election, the regime murdered our L.C.5 Chairman in Kayunga which created a by-election. Our candidate Harriet Nakwedde won at ALL polling stations. The regime shamelessly declared the NRM candidate winner, after Museveni went there and stated that no matter what we did, NRM would have the last word. In Soroti East, we supported the FDC candidate Hon. Attan Moses. Yet again, the regime rigged that election with so much impunity. In the Omoro and Busongora South by-elections, majority of our polling agents were arrested and the regime engaged in ballot stuffing with reckless abandon. The same pattern followed in the Serere, Bukedea, Oyam and Dokolo by-elections. We are certainly not saying that we would have won each of these by-elections. But there is all evidence to prove that they were neither free nor fair. Even in places where their candidates could potentially win comfortably, they engaged in massive ballot stuffing. The regime's other strategy has been to inflate their own numbers and significantly reduce ours. Protests by our agents, even at the Tally centers are usually ignored. Kisoro was no exception. Firstly, candidates had only 11 days to campaign in a district with 24 sub-counties! This was clearly intended to benefit the NRM candidates and we wrote a protest letter to the Electoral Commission but they took no action. Come to voting day, all day yesterday, the media was reporting a very low turn-up in the election. But look at the results announced! Anyone can see that there was a deliberate effort to inflate the numbers of the two NRM-leaning candidates, and downplay ours. They did this even for the general election in 2021. In several places where we had massive support, they would try to reduce the winning margin for the Members of Parliament in order to justify the reduction of the votes for President. They often told our candidates, "Now that you have won, why do you care about the number of votes?" This happened in Wakiso, Kampala, Butambala, etc. In other places where they failed, you will find significant differences between the votes cast for President and Members of Parliament, even when people are given both ballots at a polling station. Come back to yesterday, by 10:00am, regime officials started reaching out to our polling agents with money and telling them if they resisted, they would be arrested. Many indeed gave in and abandoned their stations. Only a few resisted and reported what was happening. The regime does this to deliberately downplay our strength and to drive the narrative that the masses we attract do not necessarily translate into votes. Given that we're heading towards the general election, they know this might have an effect on the psyche of the population, such that when they rig, they have recent by-elections to justify their theft! Certainly, there are many places where NUP and the larger opposition need to do much more work in mobilising and awakening people, and Kisoro is no exception. It is clear that even without the kind of rigging they engaged in, the independent candidate would still have won. (But what is true also is that the NUP candidate would have gotten many more votes than those allocated to her.) This is in part because in Kisoro (and Oyam) there was another dynamic of a protest vote against the official NRM candidates. The would-be opposition voters chose to unite behind candidates they considered having the best chance against the NRM. 1/2
Today in Buikwe as we continued with our #NUPCountryWideTour, we remembered the sacrifices and courage of those who have given everything for the dream of a free Uganda. We also spoke of the betrayal by some leaders who chose wealth over justice and power over people. For money, they now identify with those who have destroyed our economy, with those who kill and imprison Ugandans for speaking out, and with those who have robbed this country clean. But we take comfort in the reality that the struggle is not about individuals; it is about a people determined to be free. We will continue the fight, with or without those who betray us. We will march forward, honoring the sacrifices of those we have lost and holding onto the dream they died for. We will keep fighting with every Ugandan who still believes in a brighter future. We will keep fighting until we have a New Uganda that works for every citizen! #PeoplePowerOurPower #NUPEverywhere
Nkokonjeru, on the way to Buikwe. Thank you very much! #NUPCountryWideTour https://t.co/UbGsxEpqgU
We have wound up this week's #NUPCountryWideTour activities with a trip to Soroti District in Teso, Eastern Uganda. Our message to the people of Teso has been one of change and a promise of justice and economic empowerment once Uganda has decisively dealt with dictator Museveni and his corrupt clique! We are grateful for the warmth and enthusiasm with which we have been received in Soroti! Our countrywide tour resumes on Monday next week with a trip far west to Kisoro District to bolster the campaign of comrade Sultana Salim who is contesting in a by-election for the Kisoro Woman MP seat. #PeoplePowerOurPower #FreeAllPoliticalPrisonersinUganda
We join the world in congratulating the people of the United States of America for successfully going through a democratic process in which they elected leaders at various levels. We congratulate President-elect @realDonaldTrump on his election victory and wish him a successful term. The USA remains a vital partner to Uganda in many areas. During President Trump's first term, sanctions were imposed on numerous regime officials involved in corruption and human rights violations in Uganda. The Trump Administration also condemned the rigging of the 2021 election, and denied Gen. Museveni the legitimacy he so much wanted before the international community. These accountability measures have continued and even expanded under President @JoeBiden’s administration. For this we are very grateful. We shall be looking forward to continued partnership as we labor to build a free, democratic and just society. We also congratulate Vice President @KamalaHarris for running an outstanding campaign. We appreciate her for being true to the cherished democratic values and committing to a peaceful transfer of power to the new government - a dream that continues to elude us in Uganda and indeed many countries on the African continent.
The @NUP_Ug Nationwide Tour (Phase 3) returns this Thursday in Kamuli! The revolutionary train will thereafter head to Abim and Soroti before returning to Kisoro next week! We are coming your way to #Mobilise, #Agitate and charge you to #Organise for Change. #NUPNationWideTour3 https://t.co/fBWpaRcXAx
This afternoon in Kavule, we were honored to present Certificates of Completion to the very first batch of comrades who have finished training at the @NUP_Ug's newly established School of Leadership. These comrades, who were trained under three distinct classes (elected leaders, professionals, and foot soldiers), have now completed the first of three levels of training offered at the school. We were deeply humbled to have the respected Gen. @mugishamuntu as our Chief Guest at the function. His keynote speech on the importance of discipline in a struggle like ours was truly inspiring. As the National Unity Platform, we recognize our duty not only to provide Uganda with competent leaders but to also instill in them and our general membership the values necessary to bring about lasting change in our country. Reflecting on the words of the great @NelsonMandela who said that education is the most powerful weapon one can use to change the world, I have urged them to be generous with the knowledge and skills they acquired from it. #PeoplePowerOurPower
GEN. MUSEVENI KILLED THE COFFEE SECTOR. NOW, SEEING IT RESURRECT, HE WANTS IT DEAD AGAIN! I was taken aback last week as I read Gen. Museveni, who has been a central figure in Uganda’s political and economic turmoil for over 60 years, boasting about supposedly reviving the coffee industry through Operation Wealth Creation. He criticized the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) for doing “nothing,” despite countless testimonies from coffee farmers across the country who attest to UCDA’s support. But this isn’t surprising: Operation Wealth Creation is led by his brother and heavily funded. True to character, Gen. Museveni will always claim credit (for himself or his family) for anything that goes well in Uganda, while apportioning blame to others for everything that has gone wrong! DISMANTLING COOPERATIVE SUPPORT SYSTEMS Regarding coffee, Gen. Museveni’s regime oversaw policies that led to the collapse of the coffee sector, including dismantling the Coffee Marketing Board and other cooperative societies that once bolstered it. When his government assumed power in 1986, it could have enhanced the Coffee Marketing Board’s efficiency. Instead, he chose privatization, leading to a cheap sale of its assets for only six billion shillings, although they were initially valued at 33 billion! After 38 years in power, his government has done nothing for the coffee sector, except selling off the Coffee Marketing Board’s assets as if Ugandans had stopped growing coffee. Assets for other entities such as Banyankole Kweterana were taken over or bought cheaply by his close relatives! It is widely known that some of the Coffee Marketing Board’s assets were given away to Museveni’s so-called “investors” as he pleased. Can he account to Ugandans for why he privatized the Coffee Marketing Board—an institution that was overseeing a sector employing many Ugandans and generating the country’s top foreign exchange earnings? Can he explain what was done with the revenue from those sales to develop the sector? DECADES OF NEGLECT: THE COFFEE SECTOR LEFT UNDERFUNDED Gen. Museveni should not mislead Ugandans into thinking his government has been committed to growing the coffee sector. For most of his tenure, the coffee industry remained severely underfunded. Since its establishment in 1991 until recently, the UCDA operated mainly on a 1% export levy. Only in 2013, after 27 years in power, did the regime make any significant investment in the sector, launching a populist initiative called Operation Wealth Creation after the 2011 elections. This program, aimed at distributing agricultural inputs such as seeds and coffee seedlings, was eventually abandoned after five years, tainted by corruption. Soldiers tasked with distributing seedlings were instructed to source from nursery operators they barely knew, with no means of identifying legitimate farmers. As a result, coffee seedlings were distributed to individuals who left them to wither on verandas, while coffee farmers remained unprepared to re-engage in production. This crucial role had once been handled effectively by cooperative societies that Museveni dismantled when he came to power. UCDA’S COFFEE ROAD MAP AND BUDGET CUTS The UCDA introduced a policy called the “Coffee Road Map,” targeting an increase in production from 4.7 million bags to 20 million bags by 2030, while aiming to triple the incomes of small-scale coffee farmers. Despite endorsing this policy in 2017, Gen. Museveni’s government has refused to fund it as projected. Since 2019, the UCDA has faced budget cuts. How can he then claim to be committed to the sector? THE “VALUE ADDITION” RHETORIC In 2021, as coffee prices began rising and UCDA raised its export levy from 1% to 2%, Museveni’s family, with its notorious appetite for wealth, moved in, as they have with other lucrative industries like vanilla, fish, gold, and other resources. 1/3
Congratulations to you President @duma_boko Gideon on your resounding victory. Your leadership marks a new dawn and we shall be rooting for you as you work to serve the great people of Botswana. I also applaud outgoing President @OfficialMasisi Mokgweetsi for gracefully conceding defeat after serving only one full term in office, a rare occurrence on the African continent. Leaders who step down peacefully tend to save lives that would have been lost in violence, and thereby ensure that countries are able to move forward.
Following the public outcry by the starving Government Sponsored students at Makerere University, today we met over 300 of them at the @NUP_Ug Headquarters and shared food items with them to enable them mitigate their suffering. We also served them lunch. These students have gone several months without their living allowances, causing most of them to starve. Now organized under 'Makerere Hungry Students Association', they narrated the problems they have had to endure, including some female students being forced to engage in indecent acts trying to survive. Some students have developed ulcers, while others have fainted due to hunger and starvation. SHAME ON THE MUSEVENI REGIME. Each day we see scandal after scandal involving billions of shillings, yet the regime can't find money to feed the few government sponsored students!! How can we build for the future, while students go through such indignity and humiliation? How are they expected to study under the weight of hunger? As always, the police tried to block this activity by ordering students not to come or risk being suspended! We are glad that many students decided to come and pick the little relief we had to offer despite the intimidation. The regime will always find the money to deploy and block our activities, but they can't find money to solve the problems causing the discontent! SHAME! We shall only get ourselves out of this crisis by removing a regime that has zero regard for the people!