“Hold the flag with pride. Uganda belongs to us. We all have equal shares,” he said to thunderous chants from the crowd.
KAMPALA – Opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, better known as Bobi Wine, was formally nominated on Wednesday as a candidate in Uganda’s 2026 presidential election, before addressing a sea of supporters who thronged the streets of Nateete to cheer him.
Kyagulanyi, the flagbearer of the National Unity Platform (NUP), told the rally that Uganda’s four decades under President Yoweri Museveni had been marked by repression and economic injustice.
“For 40 long years, one man and a small group of his relatives and friends have ruled our country at gunpoint,” he said.
“They have looted our nation and turned every institution of government into a tool of oppression. They have reduced the citizens of Uganda into slaves on their own land,” he emphasised as his fans cheered him on.
“They have reduced all of us into beggars, and they’ve turned our poverty into a tool of control, and yet, our country is not poor, our country is rich.”
Bobi urged fans to wave the flag with pride
Holding up the party flag, Kyagulanyi urged his supporters to embrace a sense of shared ownership of the country.
“Hold the flag with pride. Uganda belongs to us. We all have equal shares,” he said to thunderous chants from the crowd.
Kyagulanyi’s nomination marks his second attempt at the presidency, after his high-profile 2021 challenge against Museveni, in which he alleged widespread electoral irregularities.
His wife, Barbie Kyagulanyi, reinforced his message with a direct appeal to voters.
“If you give Bobi votes, he will liberate Uganda from the abyss,” said Barbie.
“He promoted and fought for the interests of Kyadondo East. He will not let Uganda down,” she told supporters.
“You’ll never regret voting for Kyagulanyi.”
Museveni, 81, who was nominated on Tuesday, is running on the ticket of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). He has pitched his campaign around consolidating Uganda’s “hard-won gains” and steering the country into middle-income status after nearly four decades in power.
The Electoral Commission has so far cleared eight candidates for the February 2026 ballot.
Alongside Museveni and Kyagulanyi are Robert Kasibante of the National Peasants Party (NPP), Joseph Mabirizi of the Conservative Party (CP), James Nathan Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Gregory Mugisha Muntu Ojera of the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Mubarak Munyagwa Sserunga of the Common Man’s Party (CMP), and Frank Bulira Kabinga of the Revolutionary People’s Party (RPP).
With nomination week ongoing, the 2026 elections are shaping up as another test of Museveni’s long incumbency against a resurgent opposition, led by Bobi Wine, who continues to galvanize Uganda’s urban youth and disaffected voters.
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