President Museveni on Monday, returned to the Rwenzori region with a campaign stop in Busongora North Constituency, Kasese District, using the rally to outline what he described as the National Resistance Movement's (NRM) historic and future contributions to Uganda as the country heads toward the 2026 general elections.
Addressing supporters at Nkaiga Primary School in Maliba Sub-county, President Museveni, who is also the NRM national chairman and presidential flag bearer, highlighted what he termed the party's seven key contributions, with particular emphasis on peace, development, wealth creation, and job creation.
He identified peace as the NRM's first and most fundamental achievement, arguing that Uganda's post-independence instability stemmed from what he described as "bad politics" rooted in religious and tribal sectarianism. Such politics, he said, made it impossible to build strong national parties and institutions.
"Instability had eluded Uganda because politics was based on religion and tribe. With that kind of politics, you cannot build strong national institutions," Museveni said.
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He cited the political landscape at independence in 1962, when the Democratic Party largely attracted Catholics, the Uganda People's Congress drew mainly Protestants and some Muslims, and Kabaka Yekka was rooted in Buganda. This lack of a national outlook, he argued, led to fragile coalitions, their collapse, and eventual conflict.
Museveni said the NRM deliberately rejected sectarian politics in favor of an inclusive, national approach, enabling the building of strong institutions, including a professional army, which he credited for the relative peace Uganda enjoys today.
"That is how we got peace--through clean politics and strong national institutions," he said, describing peace as the foundation for all other progress.
Turning to development, the President listed infrastructure such as electricity, roads, schools, clean water, health centers, and bridges as the NRM's second major contribution. However, he cautioned that development alone does not automatically lift households out of poverty.
"You may have a good tarmac road, but you don't sleep on that road at night. You sleep in your house, and when you return, poverty welcomes you back," he said.
He explained that this distinction led the NRM to separate development, which benefits everyone collectively, from wealth creation, which must occur at the household level. This thinking, he said, informed the party's long-standing emphasis on promoting wealth creation alongside infrastructure development.
Using Kasese as an example, Museveni pointed to the district's economic potential in coffee production and tourism around the Rwenzori Mountains and national parks. He illustrated Uganda's economic interdependence by noting that coffee from Kasese passes through Kampala, while milk, beef, and bananas produced in one region are consumed in another.
"Somebody who does not appreciate Uganda as one country is an enemy of Uganda," he said.
On wealth creation, which he described as the NRM's third major contribution, Museveni revisited the four-acre model introduced in the 1996 NRM manifesto. The model encourages smallholder farmers to use one acre for coffee, another for food crops, a third for fruits, and a fourth for pasture for dairy cows, complemented by backyard poultry, piggery, or fish farming.
To demonstrate the model's viability, he cited successful demonstration farmers, including a farm in Kakumiro District integrating coffee, bananas, pineapples, poultry, dairy, and piggery enterprises. According to figures he quoted, the egg enterprise alone generates about Shs108 million per month, with net profits of around Shs55 million, translating to roughly Shs700 million annually.
"That is from eggs alone, without counting coffee, bananas, milk, and pigs," Museveni said, describing the farm as evidence that the NRM's ideas can work in practice.
He also cited examples from regions often associated with poverty, arguing that wealth creation depends more on enterprise selection and management than on infrastructure. He referred to a farmer from Abim District in Karamoja who planted mangoes alongside cassava after receiving seedlings and funding under government programs, earning about Shs12 million in his first year.
"That man is in Abim, Karamoja, very far from here, with no tarmac road and no electricity, but wealth is there," Museveni said.
He reviewed the evolution of government interventions aimed at boosting household incomes, from Entandikwa and NAADS to Operation Wealth Creation and the Parish Development Model (PDM).
Under PDM, Museveni said, funds are sent directly to parish-level savings and credit cooperatives, with each parish receiving Shs100 million annually. Beneficiaries are expected to repay loans with modest interest so that the fund grows over time.
"In the third year, the money starts coming back, and in five years, the parish will have over Shs500 million," he said, expressing satisfaction with Kasese District's reported performance.
He also revealed plans to introduce additional targeted funds for parish leaders, unemployed university graduates, ghetto youth, boda boda riders, religious leaders, Islamic districts, and cultural institutions, including Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu.
"The idea is that everyone must be involved in wealth creation. We do not want spectators," he said.
On job creation, which he described as the fourth key contribution, Museveni challenged the belief that employment can only come from government, noting that the public service employs only about 480,000 people in a country of more than 50 million.
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"Where do jobs come from? They come from commercial agriculture, manufacturing, services, and artisanship," he said.
He cited examples from poultry farming and manufacturing, including the Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park, which he said hosts about 75 factories and employs thousands, transforming previously undeveloped land into an industrial hub.
For Kasese, Museveni identified commercial agriculture, tourism linked to the Rwenzori Mountains and national parks, and services such as transport and hospitality as key drivers of future wealth and employment.
He urged voters in Busongora North and across Kasese District to support the NRM in the 2026 elections, arguing that continued peace, development, wealth creation, and job creation are rooted in the party's principles of patriotism, Pan-Africanism, socio-economic transformation, and democracy.
The Busongora North rally was among the final regional engagements in Museveni's campaign schedule, ahead of a planned climax at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds. The event was attended by ministers, members of the NRM Central Executive Committee, Members of Parliament, and party flag bearers from Kasese and neighboring areas.
