Stecia Mayanja, the newly elected President of the National Peasant Party, officially opened the party’s headquarters on Thursday, delivering a passionate speech that confronted her critics while pledging to champion ordinary Ugandans.
“People of this nation, I am honoured to stand before you as the first President of the National Business Party and the female president,” Mayanja said. “I accept this beauty with humility, with courage and with love of the soil that raised me.”
The former artist and now politician openly addressed her personal life, saying she refused to be defined by past struggles. “I have been insulted. Oh, my God. I have been threatened. I have been mocked because of my past. They said I have failed in marriages. It is very true, I have failed in marriages… I have children in different fathers, everything is true. Listen, all what they have said… yes, I have failed in life, but I have never stopped to rise again.”
Mayanja urged Ugandans not to be ashamed of their scars but to view them as proof of survival and resilience. “Leadership is not about having a perfect past. Leadership is about standing up when others are not. It is about turning pain into purpose and rejection into revolution.”
She outlined the party’s focus on grassroots issues, including poverty alleviation, support for market vendors, boda boda riders, and struggling families both in Uganda and abroad. “I came to fight for justice. Yes, I came to fight for those women and men, the market vendors, the boda riders, the taxi drivers, for those mothers that have hid in different corners… Our people are there, suffering, suffocating. I came out and said, No, I don’t belong to Canada. I belong to Uganda, and I’m here to fight for you.”
Mayanja emphasized that her party would focus on solutions rather than political insults. “The National Party is not built on insults. It is not built on the noise you’re making out there. It is built on issues. We are not here to fight people. We are here to fight poverty.”
In closing, she forgave her critics and rallied supporters for the work ahead. “To those who doubt me, watch this space. Watch what we are building. To those who love me, listen to the voices of the people who walk with me. And to those who fear me… we have not even started yet. Today, we welcome strong men and women who believe that even peasants deserve dignity.”
Mayanja’s candid approach and fiery rhetoric mark the start of a new chapter for the National Peasant Party, as it seeks to position itself as the voice of Uganda’s working-class citizens.
