The Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) presidential candidate, Maj Gen (Rtd) Mugisha Muntu, has sharpened his message on values-based leadership, urging voters in Bugisu to reject what he called the rising tide of extravagant campaign promises dominating the 2026 race.
Campaigning at the Lwakhakha border in Namisindwa District—an area grappling with unemployment, harassment by border enforcement officers, predatory moneylenders, and fragile health services—Muntu positioned his candidature as a return to ethical leadership in a season he said is flooded with unrealistic pledges of mega projects, cash giveaways and quick-fix development miracles.
Uganda’s problem, he argued, is not the absence of plans or manifestos but a deep crisis of integrity.
Muntu told residents that his clean record, discipline and humility make him better placed to manage the country’s political, economic and security environment with honesty and restraint.
“I have the experience and skills to manage the politics, the economy, and the security of the country,” he said. “I have the discipline to manage national resources because I am not a greedy man.”
He pledged to organise a leadership team capable of pulling Uganda out of what he described as the “vicious cycle it has been in for the past 60 years,” blaming persistent failures in service delivery on entrenched mismanagement of public resources—particularly tax revenue and the country’s growing mineral deposits.
His message took on a deeper urgency in Manafwa District, an area rich in iron ore and vermiculite. Muntu cautioned residents that mineral wealth could easily become a national curse without honest stewardship at the helm.
“You have to pray,” he said. “Because if those minerals are exploited when these wolves are still up there, you won’t see anything out of the proceeds.”
At a time when rival presidential hopefuls are promising massive cash payments, grand infrastructure undertakings and sweeping welfare programmes, Muntu is grounding his appeal in a quieter but sharper proposition: that Uganda can only change under leaders who neither fear accountability nor shy away from truth.
“All I seek is your trust,” he told supporters. “I just need Ugandans to trust me with their vote. You can like other candidates—but trust me.”