LISTED: Museveni Ministers Ought to Bounce Back Unopposed in 2026 & Why

A group of NRM cadres from Busoga recently founded a social media platform dedicated to making sure that Rebecca Kadaga remains and bounces back as Kamuli Woman MP unopposed in 2026. Their view is that Kadaga (who they fondly call RAK) has done so much for Uganda, Busoga and more so Kamuli to face any challenger.

They have been organising meetings to strategize on how best to achieve their objective. As they carry on with their campaign, we reflect on other Museveni Ministers who merit coming back unopposed and briefly why.

JC Muyingo was rejected by Bamunanika County voters in 2021 because of the blind excitement Kyagulanyi’s umbrella wave created. Months after, voters began regretting on sobering up and realising that the hitherto unemployed and unemployable Robert Sekitoleko they voted for couldn’t measure up to the high standards Muyingo, their MP since 2011, had created.

The truth of the matter is that Muyingo, who has created jobs, empowered and educated many people not just in his Bamunanika area but in the whole country, was too big to be replaced by such a political weakling. His Seeta schools brand has educated and employed tens of thousands of Ugandans over the years and its expanding into Seeta University effective August this very year.

Judith Nabakooba is another Minister whose 2021 ouster is something voters have already regretted in Mityana. They put there Joyce Bagala who hasn’t done even à fraction of what Nabakooba did for them.

At Lands Ministry, Nabakooba has done quite well given that hundreds of citizens daily flock her Ministry to have their land grievances and injustices attended to.

Her hard work, which has seen her travel to almost all districts of Uganda, explains why violent land evictions are rare these days. Having seen the Bagala incompetence, the remorseful Mityana voters ought to vote back Nabakooba unopposed.

President Museveni showed extreme fondness for Nabakooba when he retained her in Cabinet after the 2021 rejection and at the same time dropped a senior female Minister from Buganda who was beefing her and working towards her downfall.

Milly Babalanda has effectively used the docket of being Minister for Presidency to empower hundreds of sons and daughters of Busoga into key government positions. She has helped many to become RCCs, RDCs, Deputy RDCs and Assistant RDCs and they continue to be gainfully employed.

She also brings Busoga issues directly to the President for rectification. She is eyeing the MP seat in Budiope County Buyende district. Babalanda is down to earth and wishes well for everyone even when she is currently a very powerful person.

Handing her the Budiope seat unopposed would help Babalanda to create time to do more useful work for Busoga and Uganda at large while mobilising for the President’s reelection. Besides that, going through unopposed would strengthen her before the president.

As prime minister, Robinah Nabbanja has done very well for especially her people of Bunyoro sub region and Kakumiro specifically. Besides the many children whose education she has sponsored and connected to job opportunities, Nabbanja has also used the Premier position to raise the profile of Kakumiro district. This partly explains why she deserves to bounce back unopposed.

The fisheries minister Hellen Adoa has done a lot of good stuff including lobbying development projects and key government interventions for both Teso sub region and her own Serere district. She has also supported education of many vulnerable children through her own schools and has also supported capacity building of other schools in the sub region.

There is also simply no credible alternative for the people of Serere following the irredeemable cracking of old lady Alice Alaso who is these days seen in Kampala struggling to revive her clearly obliterated political career.

Haruna Kasolo had effectively served as Kyotera County MP for 10 years upto 2021 when voters ousted him in favor of ÐP’s Paul Mpalanyi only to regret later. Mpalanyi has failed miserably and never shines in Parliament nor in the constituency too.

In absence of a better alternative, the people of Kyotera ought to vote back Kasolo since he has favor of both Museveni and Gen MK. He has also brought a lot of development projects to the County.

Lira City Woman MP also minister of health Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero too deserves special consideration because of the great work she has done both for Uganda and for her constituency. A 28 page document circulating on internet sheds light on the transformation she has caused in the last three and half years since becoming pioneer Lira City MP effective May 2021.

In Lira City, voters are unanimous that Aceng (aka the Sun of the People) has done some hell of a job in her first 4 years as City woman MP. Her accomplishments include contributing 15m towards renovation of Bishop’s residence at Lira Catholic Diocese; mosquito nets for mothers union members during their retreat at Amuca parish and delivering 400 prepainted iron sheets for the Truth Foundation ministries closely working ex-Zombo Woman MP/minister Grace Freedom Kwiyicwiny.

Her other outputs include financially supporting the priests’ ordination function at Lira Cathedral in August 2022; financially supporting organisers of the Lango Revival prayers 2024; donating 136 bags of cement for St. Peter’s lreda and supporting the construction of St. Augustine Church Barogole with 6m.

Being a medical person and line minister, Aceng has done work in the health field more than anywhere else for her Lira City voters. She mobilised for delivery and installation of 40 oxygen cylinders for Lira RRH at the time there was scarcity everywhere as a result of COVID.

A huge document available online via Google indicates that she also lobbied and delivered the construction of the surgical theatre at Ongica health centre 3 in East division and she is also credited for lobbying for the elevation of a HC3 for Ngetta sub county. Working with NGOs and non state actors like MOVIT Products Ltd, Living Goods & Last Mile Health, Aceng did a lot for her City during and after COVID lockdowns.

Because of her, Lira RRH, for which she was director before the president made her Director General of health services in July 2011, today has a satellite laboratory, an oxygen plant, an ambulance dispatch point, CT scan facilities and a dialysis machine all because of her effective lobbying both as minister and area MP.

Also in place is new state of art infrastructure related to out patients department, casualty wing and the ENT wing. These were all funded by the GoU and JICA at the instigation of Aceng.

Yet that isn’t all. Several health centers have been elevated at her instigation namely Ober Health Center complete with a theatre is to soon be constructed.

In 2023, at the Aceng instigation, members of the association of surgeons of Uganda for days camped in Lira City and attended to hundreds of cases. At her instigation, the NGO Later Days Saints Church supported 50 PWDs with wheelchairs and tricycles.

And there is much more. Through Aceng’s efforts, Lira RRH also got 15 wheelchairs for PWDs which is unprecedented. The health camp she organised months ago in Lira City had more than 10,000 women getting treated of all manner of complex medical conditions that had been afflicting them. Some got mama kits free of charge.

Aceng also secured resources to facilitate the training of 164 community health extension workers (CHEWS) for 6 months and this was conducted at Uganda Martyrs University’s Ngetta campus. After the training, they each were facilitated with means of transport to improve their mobility.

In 2022, Aceng’s constituency office organised an eye surgery camp for Lira City 3,500 of whose residents got surgery and specialised eye care all free of charge. This is something many beneficiary old men and women have never stopped thanking God for Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng about. This eye camp was in partnership with Pakistanis Global Foundation Africa.

Her constituency office also continues coordinating the referral and transfer of Lira City’s children from Lira RRH to Entebbe Children’s surgical hospital. This has benefited those with uniquely challenging medical conditions.

Yet that isn’t all. Aceng has also financially supported the activities of Ongura Youth Group which comprises of piano dancers whose messaging has always been very effective in popularising government programs like PDM and those relating to vaccination and mass immunisation.

She has also given grants worth Shs420m to 840 registered community groups in Lira City besides 103 Catholic women leaders groups and 400 for Muslim women leaders. She also lobbied and got Airtel Uganda to donate 300 bags of cement for Ngetta Babies Home under their ’12 days of Xmas’ CSR campaign.

She has supported Boda riders uniting under LUMBA which unites boda riders in Lango sub region. The LUMBA leadership has leveraged her contribution of Shs704.7m to buy and give out up to 135 motorcycles which members take out under the loan scheme.

The same LUMBA members received the Shs20m worth donation of executive reflector jackets from the same Aceng for which boda riders have vowed to do anything to ensure her reelection in 2026.

Women group under Victory Outreach ministries also got 100 mattresses donation from Dr. Aceng, which they hire out at a fee to boost income generation.

The same Aceng has also been very supportive towards vendors operating inside Lira Main market whose long standing electricity bill of Shs100m she paid hence reconnection.

Besides the incinerator she lobbied to facilitate improved solid waste management at a place called Aler, Dr. Aceng also bought and donated two tractors to Cooperative societies in Lira City’s two Divisions.

She has also supported peri-urban farming among farmers in Iwal ward where hoes and hybrid maize seeds have been donated through Aceng’s constituency office.

Yet that isn’t all. Using her twin position of MP and Minister, Aceng also lobbied to have NWSC reconnect water supply to Lira Main market after 10 years of disconnection following huge arrears that were accumulated during the old days of Lira Municipal Council.

She also obtained permission from Water Ministry which enabled her to fund the digging up of 12 new boreholes to mitigate the water crisis Lira City residents had endured for years. Residents in not less than 12 cells of Lira City benefited. Several other preexisting boreholes required rehabilitation, which Aceng fixed.

The driving permits-issuance office that was established in Lira City to serve motorists from the entire Lango sub region resulted from direct lobbying by Aceng who spoke to and convinced the Works & Transport Ministry in Kampala to open it up to save motorists the burden and cost of having to travel to Kampala for the same.

Aceng also worked with partners like Nile Agro Industries Ltd and MMP Paja Foundation to deliver the boreholes’ deal besides the 2 solid waste management trucks; one for Lira City and another for Lira Regional Refferal Hospital. Many of these are things she had promised she would do while campaigning for the MP seat in 2021-and others not.

Besides mobilising her voters to vacate up to 700 acres of land at Aler Farm to pave way for preparatory work preceding the establishment of Lira Industrial Park, Dr. Aceng has been rallying local business community members to remain united on top of luring investors to her City.

Examples of these hard-to-get investors include Universal Granite & Marble factory which is located in Anyalo Cell in Barapwo ward in West Division. She also famously paid the 6 months office rent for Lira Garments Designers Cooperative Society whose more than 300 members have been able to calm down and even train other City residents to replicate the skilling equation.