By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA
Opposition National Unity Platform (NUP) on Wednesday August 23 announced that they are going to embark on a nationwide tour in which they are set to meet party leaders and open new offices across all regions in Uganda.
According to the arrangements by the party, the first phase of this tour will begin with Mbarara City tomorrow Saturday 26 August, 2023. The party officials and local leaders will officially open NUP offices at Marknsighn street and thereafter address their supporters at Global High School playground in Mbarara City at 9am.
The Nationwide tour continues to other districts in Fort Portal, Kasese, Kabale (western Uganda) before going to Busoga region in Mayuge on Monday 4th September, 2023 proceeding to other districts of Busia, Mbale, Lira , Arua among others.
Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine, the NUP President has however warned police and the military against interfering with their mobilization campaigns as it has been the case previously.
“We don’t want your protection, we just want you not to interfere with our business,” Bobi Wine warned.
Bobi was bringing back from memory the eventide events of this year’s Holy Thursday when his biological brother, Fred Nyanzi also known as Chairman Nyanzi escaped execution by the regime mercenaries who shot and injured him together with another local mobilizer Ibrahim Musinguzi during the Kunga Tooro subregion – NUP mobilization campaigns, in Kyenjojo district.
“The last time our team tried to go and do their constitutional work, they were attacked, beaten and shot – injured. But, we shall not fear,” he warned.
The Nationwide tour comes at a time when the Independent Electoral Commission of Uganda released the 2026 electoral roadmap in which it appealed to political parties and other stakeholders to prepare within the specific timeline for proper planning ,management and organization of elections.
The EC chairman Justice Simon Mugenyi Byabakama however, cautioned political parties and organisations that the release of these plans does not mean that the country should engage in a frenzy of campaign-related activities.
He said campaigns must follow a program approved and regulated by the commission, and urged parties to pursue peaceful co-existence before, during, and after the electoral process.
Speaking to Parrots Media on Wednesday, the NUP spokesperson Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi said the nationwide tour is not a political campaign noting that whatever they are doing is constitutionally accepted.
On police and military interferences, Ssenyonyi said that they formally informed the regional police in all areas that are to be visited in the first phase and they already got clearances from concerned persons.
