A group of patriotic National Resistance Movement (NRM) youth drawn from public universities across Uganda have condemned what they describe as growing commercialization of politics, abuse, violence, and nepotism within the party ahead of the National Delegates Conference.

The group, led by Nahamya Emmanuel, said they would petition President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who also serves as the party chairman, as well as the NRM Secretariat over what they called a dangerous departure from the party's founding values.

"As patriotic youth of NRM in all public universities, we have condemned such acts and are left with no option but to petition our concerns to our party president, the Secretariat, and other concerned leaders across the country," said Makubuya Brain, an NRM patriotic youth from Makerere University.

The cadres accused party members of engaging in excessive money transactions, violent conduct, intimidation, and the use of abusive language during the run-up to the elections, practices they warned could weaken the movement from within.

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"We have seen that we cannot protect the gains of NRM unless we condemn issues affecting our party, like tribalism and commercialization of politics. Violence during the primaries is slowly killing the NRM," Nahamya Emmanuel, the Vice Chairperson of NRM Patriotic Youth, said.

The group further urged party members to embrace unity, stressing that the internal elections should not be a source of division.

"We should desist from abusive language and tribalism and instead call for unity. Whoever wins, wins as a party because these are internal elections. There will be no losers; we are all winners, and NRM will stay strong without any of us as individuals," Nahamya added.