The Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) has begun a village-level mobilisation drive across the 11 districts of Busoga and Jinja City as it seeks to establish grassroots structures ahead of the 2031 General Elections. PLU leaders say the mobilisation will cover all 4,920 villages, 810 parishes and 156 sub-counties in the sub-region as the pressure group builds support for its chairman, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is also Chief of Defence Forces.
The grassroots campaign was launched by Daudi Kabanda, Executive Secretary in the Office of the National Chairman of PLU, who urged village teams to mobilise communities to embrace the group’s ideology without coercion. The mobilisation is being conducted alongside the PLU endorsement campaign, in which supporters are being asked to sign books as a show of support for Gen Muhoozi’s 2031 presidential bid.
Kabanda said Gen Muhoozi had instructed him to spearhead the endorsement drive across the country, with PLU targeting 20 million signatures from supporters. He said the endorsement exercise would help counter claims that President Yoweri Museveni is imposing his son on Ugandans without seeking broad public support.
Kabanda also argued that Gen Muhoozi’s support should not be based simply on his relationship with the President, but on what he described as his leadership abilities and commitment to fighting corruption. Samuel Nabeta, the PLU coordinator for Busoga, said the group sees Gen Muhoozi as a potential successor capable of reorganising Uganda’s political landscape while creating what he described as more equitable opportunities for citizens to participate in national development.
Nabeta said Busoga has significant untapped potential in agriculture, tourism and energy, which he believes requires proactive national leadership to exploit for the benefit of the region. He said Gen Muhoozi would be the best alternative after the Museveni era to champion development in Busoga by encouraging citizens to work hard and maintain integrity.
However, the mobilisation drive has generated mixed reactions among some members of the ruling National Resistance Movement-NRM, with some questioning whether they should remain solely within the party or simultaneously support PLU. Susan Nanyonga, an NRM supporter in Jinja City, described PLU as a pressure group that is increasingly establishing a presence within NRM grassroots structures.
Nanyonga said some young people view PLU as more proactive and more in tune with current times than the NRM. She, however, urged PLU organisers to be cautious in their mobilisation, arguing that political activity should not distract young people from seeking employment and building livelihoods.
“I am an NRM supporter, but I really think that the PLU and Muhoozi philosophy ought to be taught right within grassroots communities. This should entail urging youths to work, rather than donning Muhoozi-branded T-shirts, chant political slogans all day without having any decent means of fending for their livelihoods,” Nanyonga said.
Sharifa Namulooki from Kaliro District questioned whether the mobilisation is actually expanding PLU’s support base, saying many of those participating are already NRM supporters. She said she had initially expected PLU to use existing NRM structures to attract supporters from other political groups but had instead seen considerable overlap between the two movements.
“I once thought that PLU was all about leveraging on the existing NRM structures to mobilize more individuals for Muhoozi, but on ground it’s more or less the same. In this, when Muhoozi people come, we wear his T-shirts and when Museveni comes, we brand ourselves with his materials, without extensively attracting the members of other political parties to join us,” she said.
Namulooki said she was willing to sign the endorsement books but wanted PLU leaders to clearly explain the role of ordinary supporters within the organisation. “We shall sign in the endorsement books, but I truly urge the PLU architects to teach us exactly what our roles are in their entire scheme of things, which will serve to help us understand them better, rather than leaving us to act without prior knowledge about their existence,” she said.
Kabanda, however, said PLU is not intended to undermine President Museveni’s legacy. He said the organisation seeks to build on what he described as Museveni’s achievements and leadership record rather than erase his contribution to Uganda. The Busoga mobilisation comes as PLU expands its grassroots activities across the country as it seeks to consolidate support for Gen Muhoozi’s declared 2031 presidential ambitions-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
