President Museveni has threatened to arrest Masaka City leaders for reportedly ignoring his directive to stop the levying of dues on street vendors.
Addressing a campaign rally at Masaka Liberation Square on Monday, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) presidential candidate said informal business groups such as food vendors were exempted from daily dues many years ago and wondered why such a practice still goes unabated in Masaka City.
‘I will sack the town clerk or sub county chairperson if levying of such dues continues. If it is the opposition politicians doing it, I will arrest them because they are not supposed to collect such dues,’ he said.
Mr Museveni was responding to a call from Justine Nameere, the NRM flag bearer for Masaka City Woman MP seat who asked him to prevail over the city leadership that has adamantly continued to charge dues abolished in 2017.
Street vendors are a prominent feature of urban life in many urban centers across Uganda. The informal trade has long served as a key livelihood strategy in the absence of formal employment opportunities. It offers important livelihood support for a highly marginalised and vulnerable group of urban poor.
Mr Museveni who has been in power for nearly four decades, asked Masaka City dwellers to vote for NRM candidates, whom he said are the only ones who will demand for their share of the national cake, adding that Masaka has missed out on several projects because of voting for opposition politicians.
Masaka is an opposition stronghold and many leaders, including MPs belong to various opposition parties like the National Unity Platform, Democratic Party. The recently formed Democratic Front has also fielded candidates to contest in the coming elections.
If reelected to office to extend his rule to 45 years, Mr Museveni pledged to support the construction of Masaka District headquarters, a project local leaders have been pushing for a long time.
Masaka District NRM chairperson Mr Herman Muwulya had earlier told the President that the district leaders are still operating from the city buildings despite owning 10 acres of land in Kyanamukkaka Town Council, which was donated by former vice president Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi.
‘The government has done several things in Masaka because we know they matter, but other things, which you need in your areas, such as roads, we cannot work on them in time because you vote for the opposition. This time, liberate yourselves and vote for NRM candidates who can push for such projects,’ Mr Museveni added.
Mr Museveni, however, promised to continue fighting poverty among youth who constitute the largest portion of jobless Ugandans, promising to create a special fund for fishermen, ghetto communities, boda boda riders and motor garage operators.
He also talked about operationalising the stalled Bukakkata Industrial Park, whose foundation stone he laid in 2015.
Unlike clerics from other religious denominations who prayed at the start of the rally , those from the Catholic faith were conspicuously absent, which has also been the case at other rallies Mr Museveni has so far held in Greater Masaka like in Kyotera, Lwengo, Rakai Kalungu and Kalangala. Political observers say this could partly be a result of the missing Rev. Fr. Deusdedit Ssekabira, a curate at Bumangi Catholic Parish in Masaka Diocese, who was on December 3, 2025 kidnapped by army men from one of his offices in Katwe, Masaka City suburb.
Fr Ssekabira is also the director of Universal Chastity Education Organisation, which provides counselling services and charity support to HIV-affected needy children and also the director of Uplift Primary School -both in Masaka. Although the Army on December 14 came out and confirmed that he was in their custody, -10 days after concealing details about the arrest, his fate remains unknown.
In a statement, the UPDF said Fr Ssekabira is being held as investigations continue into alleged involvement in subversive activities against the state. The military added that the priest would be produced before the courts of law and charged accordingly.