On Monday 13th October 2025, a section of National Resistance Movement (NRM) party parliamentary aspiring independent MPs held a meeting with their party chairperson Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni under which they were given a leeway to run as independents in 2026 elections, despite having lost the party flag to several declared party candidates.
The meeting which was held in Arua city where the party presidential bearer was camped in an ongoing campaign effort to mobilize support for his election back to the state house through January 14, 2026 polls, was attended by the NRM notable figures; the Luuka district woman MP also former minister for presidency Esther Mbayo, Lwemiyaga county MP Theodore Ssekikubo, among others.
All those that had earlier signaled to run as independents in the forthcoming elections following the July 2025 chaotic bloody party primary elections, totaling up to 154 in number.
Blazer News Times has learnt from the sources that attended the meeting that the aspiring independent MPs reiterated their disappointment with how they were declared losers during the controversial party elections to the flag bearers that they say fraudulently obtained the flag.
They assured the ruling party chairperson that they were the genuine parliamentary candidates despite denied holding its flag, requesting to be allowed with him to race against the said party flag bearers and the opposition.
It is on that premise according to the sources that Gen. Museveni allowed some to run in areas where the opposition is weak.
Loquacious Theodore Ssekikubo is one of those that were allowed to race against Rtd Brig Gen. Emmanuel Rwashande (NRM party flag bearer) in Lwemiyaga county-Ssembabule district, who is accused of having unleashed electoral violence that left several in the area with sustained brutal injuries, while one other person said to be a supporter Ssekikubo shot to death by his guards.
Esther Mbayo also confirmed their meeting with the NRM party chairperson Museveni in the Tuesday press conference at the parliament, saying only a few amongst them attended because many were tired.
The NRM party publicist Emmanuel Dombo also confirmed the meeting although he revealed scanty details about it.
Museveni’s consensus with those MPs however, contradicts with what has always been called the party position during the organized Buganda for Museveni political meetings led by the attorney general Nsumikambi Kiryowa Kiwanuka and the party vice chairperson for Buganda region Haruna Kyeyune Kasolo, that independent candidature will not be entertained by the NRM party.
