President Museveni has cast doubt on the ability of any of his opponents in the 2026 presidential race to sustain the current peace that Uganda currently enjoys.
“ I am very proud to speak for the NRM because there is what we have done and everyone can see it. You people in Lamwo are witnesses about the issue of peace. You know what war and cattle rustling by Karamajong meant, but now there is peace. This is the first time Uganda is at peace as whole country in last 500 years. We have peace in the entire country North to South, East to West.The cattle rustlers have also been disarmed in Karamoja,” Museveni said.
“When you are weighing the groups which want votes remember peace. You need to see how Kyagulanyi can bring peace in Uganda and Muntu and all those people.”
Museveni was on Wednesday afternoon addressing a rally at Padibe Girls School in Lamwo town council , Lamwo district.
He told the gathering that when NRM came to power, it started with implementing a new ideology to do away with sectarianism which he said ensured a strong army was brought to bring about peace.
Museveni said peace has been the cornerstone of all other things done by the NRM government all the year.
“This is the record of NRM number one. Then came development. When I look around I can see development immediately in form of schools, electricity. There is infrastructure like roads, electricity, telephones, water etc.”
He added, “Lamwo has 74 government primary schools and seven government secondary schools but our plan is to have one government primary school per parish and one government secondary school per sub county. The parishes which don’t have government primary schools and sub counties without government secondary schools will get.”
The NRM presidential candidate said whereas the seven government secondary schools are not yet enough in Lamwo, this number is higher than what the entire country had as A-level schools by 1961.
He mentioned Ntale Secondary school, Kisubi and Buddo for boys, Namagunga, Nabbingo and Gayaza as the only A-level schools all-over the country, noting that NRM has scored highly on that front.
“There were no other A-level schools in whole of Uganda. Schools like Nyapea in West Nile, Sir Samuel Baker, Teso College Aloet, Mwiri and Nyakasura were all ending at O-level. When I come here to Lamwo near the South Sudan border and find there are seven secondary schools for both O and A level, I feel very happy. Although we are continuing to add more, you can see success already.”
He said government has constructed several health centres at all levels in Lamwo, adding that its health programs have moved far, noting that this can be seen by the size of the population which has greatly increased.
Citing immunization of all children, Museveni said the deaths have reduced and population has grown to the current more than 200,000 people in Lamwo, unlike the past.
“The population has grown because children are no longer dying from diseases. I can see electricity has arrived here. When NRM came into government, electricity was stopping in Lira. I got it from Lira to Corner Kilak in Pader district to Kitgum, now all the way to Lamwo. I am very happy with that. It has not got to every place but will get there.”
In terms of water and sanitation, Museveni said that of the 530 villages in Lamwo , 432 of them translating into 82% have clean water in form of boreholes
“Only 98 villages are remaining without clean water but will also get.”
On roads in the area, Museveni admitted that whereas the district is not doing well will some work still needed to be done, this is not a big problem.
He said government first worked on the main roads before starting on the feeder roads.
With the roads I had to divide Uganda. I cut from Kampala through Gulu- Kitgum up to Musingo border on the east side of Lamwo I took road up to there. From Gulu I went to Nimule and from Atiak went up to Moyo . To Kenya ,Malaba, DRC, Tanzania, Rwanda we had to extend it to that side.We are now entering the flesh. Doing the main is finished and we are now starting going inside the meat. We could also have done more there but we get some problem with our people who are not bush fighters like us. The bush fighters don’t touch many things. We believe in one thing at a time. Some of our people want to do all things at the same time. They want salaries of public servants go up , want this one but if we did that we would have done less.”
He however said with money from Uganda’s oil, all things will now be done.
Wealth creation
Museveni didn’t leave the podium without reminding the population of Lamwo of its cardinal role of creating wealth.
He said whereas government can work on development, the onus is on them to ensure they create wealth for their homesteads since it benefits individuals.
“How can development remove poverty from my house? Like in Kampala there are roads and electricity everywhere but the people called ghetto boys and girls are also in Kampala .Some of them don’t even have food. That’s why we said there is a third word apart from peace and development and it is called wealth .You must make distinction between development and wealth. Development is ours but wealth is mine as an individual, as a family or a company.”
He said government has so far disbursed shs26.2 billion to 26,677 households as part of the Parish Development Model whereas 34 saccos under Emyooga have received shs1.5 billion.
Museveni urged households to use these funds to get out of poverty.