National Unity Platform (NUP) flag bearer Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has promised to lower power tariffs for Ugandans if elected President in the January 2026 polls.
He questioned the current high power tariffs, saying they are a burden to both ordinary and industrial users.
‘The new Uganda will be different. The high power tariffs, where you are purchasing a unit at Shs1,000, will be reduced to Shs500. We must get a new independence because we are not yet liberated. Your vote will be the beginning of a new meaningful liberation,’ he told the crowd at Bamusuta Playground in Kiboga Town Council, Kiboga District, on Wednesday.
Mr Kyagulanyi, who vowed to reach out to at least 20 million voters in the remaining two months to the General Election, rallied his supporters not to be intimidated, but to turn out in big numbers on the polling day and cast their ballot.
‘These people are trying to find a means of interrupting the vote. The other time (2021 polls), they used the COVID-19 pandemic to disrupt the campaigns and voting. We don’t know about their next plans. Ensure that you support each other during the voting period. We must turn out in big numbers and overwhelm their machinations,’ he said.
Mr Kyagulanyi, who will be campaigning in Nakaseke District on October 9, urged the electorate to shun ruling National Resistance Movement flag bearers, arguing that many are either children or grandchildren of individuals who have plundered the country’s wealth or directly benefited from President Museveni’s government in the last four decades.
‘Ensure that your respective votes go to the NUP candidates,’ he added.
Earlier in the day, before crossing to Kiboga, Mr Kyagulanyi first campaigned in Kyankwazi District, where he held a rally and made several stopovers.
He said he was shocked to find many roads in both districts in a sorry state despite the four decades NRM has been in power uninterrupted.
‘I last used some of these roads when I came here for musical shows several years ago, but indeed, nothing has changed. I am here not to ask for votes, but to give me an opportunity to fix these bad roads in three years,’ Mr Kyagulanyi said.
Kyagulanyi’s campaign tour-running under the theme ‘Building a New Uganda Together’- has, since last week, seen him crisscross several districts in Busoga and now in Buganda, drumming up support ahead of the January polls.
Kyankwanzi and Kiboga form part of the Luweero Triangle, which was the epicentre of the five-year guerrilla war (between 1981 and 1986) that catapulted Mr Museveni to power. Residents in both districts experienced significant losses during the war with thousands of lives lost, and the survivors were left to cope with the loss of family members, destruction of property, amid a shattered economy. While the war ended 40 years ago, its effects have haunted generations.
Mr Kyagulanyi, like many other opposition politicians who came before him, said the government has deliberately neglected the area despite the significant role it played in bringing the incumbent President Museveni into power. Many civilian veterans still demand compensation for their contribtion and losses they suffered.
Many lack basic needs and social amenities like decent housing, health centres, electricity, safe water supply, while many roads are impassable. For example, in Kyankwanzi District, the biggest health facility is a health centre IV and patients who need special medical care travel to either Kiboga District or Hoima City. Residents are also facing eviction threats from their ancestral land by largely powerful individuals within Mr Museveni’s government.
Despite all these, the area has over the last three decades largely been loyal to Mr Museveni, generously contributing to his vote pool, until the 2021 national election, when NUP made some inroads, specifically in Kiboga, where the party won the district woman MP seat.