Inside Museveni’s meeting with ONC Chief Namyalo as 2026 campaign engine warms up

Kampala, Uganda: President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Sunday met with his Chief Muzzukulu and Manager of his Office of the NRM National Chairman (ONC), Hajjat Hadijah Namyalo Uzeiye, in what she described as a strategic briefing on pressing national matters and ongoing grassroots mobilization efforts ahead of the 2026 elections.

The meeting, held at State House, was revealed through a social media post by Hajjat Namyalo on her official X (formerly Twitter) account, where she shared a photo with the President and expressed appreciation for his continued guidance.

“Honored to always meet with our Jajja H.E. President @KagutaMuseveni to drink from his cup of wisdom. We discussed a wide range of issues of national importance in our meeting earlier today. Thank you, our National Chairman, for the guidance,” Namyalo said in a Sunday evening post.

While the specifics of the discussion were not publicly disclosed, insiders familiar with Namyalo’s ongoing activities hinted that the meeting was in alignment with the ONC’s broader objective of consolidating popular support for President Museveni under the “#Settle4TheBest”, “#M7IsTheBest” campaign banner, a key plank in the 2026 re-election drive.

The ONC, a presidential unit housed in Kyambogo and directly managed under the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party chairman, has since 2022 taken center stage in rallying the “Bazzukulu” (a generational identity coined by Museveni to target young Ugandans), towards the NRM political agenda.

Under Hajjat Namyalo’s stewardship, the office has launched youth skilling drives, wealth creation campaigns, and empowerment tours across the country, which have strategically positioned Museveni as the only reliable pillar of continuity and stability.

In recent months, the Chief Muzzukulu intensified countrywide mobilization through the ONC by distributing start-up kits and promoting ideological clarity through patriotism and self-reliance messages, often repeating President Museveni’s signature emphasis on household income as a tool for liberation.

Political analysts and commentators view this machinery as the informal vanguard of the President’s undeclared, but increasingly apparent, 2026 campaign.

The Sunday meeting comes weeks after President Museveni renewed Hajjat Namyalo’s contract as Senior Presidential Adviser and National Coordinator Bazzukulu to continue steering the ONC, a move widely interpreted as his reaffirmation of confidence in her grassroots mobilization ability.