Mr Museveni has offered his candidature in all presidential elections since 1996. For the record, ‘Mr Man’ was the winning candidate who stood in the elections held in 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021.
And if it be necessary, may it be knownst to all men and sundry persons that Mr Museveni is a candidate in the January 2026 election. The January 2026 polls will be his 7th; quite a feat in a country hitherto known for short-lived presidencies.
In all seven elections, Mr Museveni’s candidature runs his campaign on particular slogans. We would like to look into this (2026 elections) campaign’s slogan: ‘Protecting the Gains.’
I am not part of the Museveni campaign team, but I have been around long enough to appreciate how far campaign sloganeering can go. I have participated in the creation of thematic taglines or slogans for national events and campaigns. And for the most part, these slogans (or taglines) are just for vibe (vibrancy of animation).
Well, ‘Protecting the Gains’ may not feed into many people’s expectations. It may also seem not to represent issues of a national nature to some, perhaps because it is written plainly and lacks an academic aura to it. If you are not comfortable with the slogan, please study Mr Museveni’s candidacy vis-à-vis his challengers. After that, you may find that the candidature is more important than the rather ordinary slogan as secondary.
Even then, one can view ‘Protecting the Gains’ from his or her personal life or experiences. At the lowest voting age of 18, there are some personal gains. It could be the completion of writing exams leading to the award of the Uganda Advanced School Certificate. Or, like my nephew, Idd Asuman, your gains may just be the prospect of being admitted for the post-grad diploma in law practice at the Law Development Centre.
But the depth of ‘protecting gains’ lies in what the Museveni candidature represents. What does it represent? After 40 years of his presidency, Ugandans are now frozen between seeking change and getting a change worth the effort (without disrupting the gains from the 40-year Museveni presidency). It is a tricky balance of interests: the change we need and protecting the gains we must.
Minus the negative attitude towards Mr Museveni’s longevity in power and the prospect of his son taking over from him, Mr Museveni seems to offer the best candidature for the 2026 elections. ‘The devil you know.’ The fear of a Libya. The fear of Somalia. The spectre of what was about to befall the United Republic of Tanzania (and with it the negative and regressive score on the development of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline) is what Mr Museveni means in ‘Protecting the Gains.’
In a typical Musevenisque kind of doing things, Mr Museveni may be scare-mongering, but the fear of Libya, Somalia is materially real. In the circumstances of Libya and Somalia, it would not matter who won the elections and who lost: our gains (personal and national) would evaporate lokola molingo ya likaya na likolo (Lingala: like cigarette smoke to the heavens).
The stability of the country may be forced and causing a costly charge on the human rights of Ugandans. But I have friends and brothers in the DRC who now crave Mobutu’s Zaire.
Ugandans may need to know that there was recently an exhibition on Mobutu’s Legacy in Kinshasa. It was honoured by President Felix Antoine Tshisekedi. And if you may want to know, I appended my signature on a petition seeking the return of Mobutu’s remains to the DR Congo for a decent burial.
Dear prospective Ugandan voter, let your vote protect your personal gains.