1. THE ELECTION IS OVER. THE STRUGGLE IS NOT.

We previously made it clear that the results announced by the Electoral Commission; a body wholly appointed by and answerable to Mr. Museveni did not reflect the true will of the people of Uganda.

I do not want to go through the details because the Presidential Flagbearer, The Right Hon. Nathan Nanadala Mafabi published a statement after elections outlining every detail of why we rejected the  Presidential elections.

But let me make this clear: FDC did not accept, does not accept, and will not legitimise the declared outcome of the January 2026 elections. An election conducted under an internet blackout, amid mass arrests of opposition supporters, with countrywide ballot stuffing documented on video, is not an election.

All that said and done, we do not despair. We do not retreat. We do not surrender. Because FDC was NOT built for the easy seasons. We were built for exactly moments like this. Because the people of Uganda deserve a party that stands firm when standing firm is hard. And that is what we are.

Well, within the rigged process, some FDC’s Members of Parliament fought and won their seats against overwhelming odds, in Obongi, Arua City, Soroti City, Soroti District, Jinja City, Kitgum District and other constituencies across Uganda. These victories, won against a system designed to produce only one outcome, are proof of the strength of the FDC brand and the trust our people have placed in us. We honour every elected FDC official and all our members who offered themselves to contest from Members of Parliament to our LC5 Chairpersons, LC3 Councillors, and sub-county leaders across the country.

 

Moving Forward; The FDC will undertake a number of activities including:

• INDUCTION OF FDC MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT & FORMULATION OF THE FDC LEGISLATIVE POLICY AGENDA

Our newly elected Members of Parliament will undergo a structured induction programme equipping them with the tools, knowledge, and strategic orientation to represent FDC’s values effectively in the 12th Parliament. Alongside this induction, we shall develop and publish the FDC Legislative Policy Framework. This is  a comprehensive document that will define our party’s positions on key bills, budget priorities, oversight functions, and constitutional matters. Parliament will be one of our battlefields.

• TRAINING OF ALL ELECTED FDC LEADERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY LC5, LC3, AND COUNCILLORS

FDC’s mandate extends far beyond Parliament. We have elected leaders at the district level (LC5), sub-county and town council level (LC3), and as councillors in local governments across Uganda. Under the FDC leadership Academy, we will roll out a nationwide training programme for all elected FDC local government leaders, covering governance and service delivery, legal rights and obligations of elected officials, budget oversight and accountability, community mobilisation, and representation of marginalised groups including women, youth, and persons with disabilities.

• POLITICAL PARTY UNITY AND OUTREACH.

FDC believes that the liberation of Uganda from four decades of one-man rule cannot be the project of any single party. It must be the common project of all democratic forces. Accordingly, we are initiating formal outreach to Uganda’s opposition and democratic forces including the People’s Front for Freedom (PFF), Alliance for National Transformation (ANT), Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA), Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Democratic Party (DP), Justice Forum (JEEMA), National Unity Platform (NUP), and other parties and movements committed to democratic change. We seek to work out agreed methodologies of working together, and forge the minimum common platform to push back the dictatorship and restore genuine democratic governance to Uganda.

• OUTREACH TO ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS INCLUDING DR. KIZZA BESIGYE

We shall Continue our campaign for the release of all political prisoners in Uganda including our founding President, Dr. Kizza Besigye, who has now been held in detention for more than 500 days in defiance of constitutional protection, Supreme Court rulings, and basic human decency. No Ugandan who has suffered for the cause of freedom will be abandoned by FDC.

• NATIONWIDE GRASSROOTS MOBILISATION

FDC’s greatest asset has never been funding or anything else. It has always been the millions of ordinary Ugandans who believe in what we stand for. We will launch a structured nationwide branch outreach programme, visiting FDC branches in every region of Uganda; North, East, West, and Central, to listen, to account, to re-energise, and to plan together for the battles ahead.

 

 

2. GOVERNMENT HALTS TRADE ORDER ENFORCEMENT.

The Forum for Democratic Change takes note of the government’s decision to halt the enforcement of the trade order that led to the violent displacement of street vendors and demolition of their livelihoods across the country.

During the 2026 elections, we warned Ugandans clearly and repeatedly about the anti-people policies of the NRM government. Regrettably, a number of citizens were carried away by monetary inducement, joining the junta in massive electoral malpractices that helped subvert the will of the Ugandan people. Today, those same citizens are among the hardest hit.

What makes this even more unconscionable is that most of these vendors put up their structures in full view of KCCA. The authorities watched. They knew. In some cases they collected fees form these Vendors.

Now, after the damage has been done, after families have lost property, income, and dignity, the government has paused. This is not governance. This is recklessness dressed in the language of order.

Before the bulldozers moved, before the kiosks were demolished, before ordinary Ugandans lost their only means of survival, we raised our voices and said clearly: you cannot chase away street vendors without first having a credible, dignified plan for where they will go. So we advised Government to halt the implementation and come up with a plan of where these people are going to work from.  But they didn’t listen.

This NRM government has perfected a dangerous pattern: implement first, consult later, apologize never. Policies are rolled out with fanfare and force, only for the human cost to expose what should have been obvious from the beginning. These Cities must benefit us all both the poor and the rich.  The poor were never considered in the planning.

Street vending is not a crime. It is survival. For millions of Ugandans, a roadside kiosk is a school fee, a meal, a future. Whereas we want clean and organized cities, we also want our people to afford a living.

OUR DEMANDS

1. Full accountability for all property destroyed during the enforcement exercise.
2. Immediate compensation or restoration for affected vendors.
3. A transparent, consultative process before any new trade order is enforced.
4. KCCA must account for its role in permitting these structures while collecting revenue from them.
5. Parliament must scrutinize this matter without further delay.
6. Governmant should come up with a clear plan for the Vendors not to chase them off the streets and send them to Empty and poorly planned Markets where they can hardly make a sale.

To all Ugandans; Its high time you stop falling for NRM lies, every election season, they come to you humble, with handouts, begging for your vote. But the moment they announce themselves winners, before they are even sworn in they turn around and harass the very people who gave them power.

 

3. THE SOVEREIGNTY BILL IS A LIE: IT IS A BILL TO ENSLAVE UGANDANS, NOT TO PROTECT THEM

On behalf of the Forum for Democratic Change a party founded on the principle that sovereignty belongs to the people of Uganda, I want to register our total rejection of the Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026 tabled in Parliament by the State Minister for Internal Affairs on April 15, 2026.

This Bill, like other laws that the NRM has made in the recent past is designed to do one thing: to silence, imprison, and destroy the Ugandan people’s ability to speak, assemble, challenge power, and live in freedom.

To the Ugandan mother in Masaka whose son sends money from London every month: under this Bill, your son is a foreigner. You may need Ministerial permission to receive money from him. The money you use to pay school fees, to buy medicine, to feed your family, is now subject to approval by a government that has never once put food on your table.

To the nurse in Hoima whose hospital is funded by a foreign NGO: that funding may be capped, shut down, or subjected to Cabinet approval. The drugs you use. The equipment on which lives depend. All of it, hostage to one Minister’s signature.

To the journalist in Kampala: under Clause 13, if you publish information this government decides ‘damages the economic viability of Uganda,’ you face twenty years in prison. They can call any story economic sabotage. They can jail you for reporting the truth.

To every opposition politician, civil society worker, trade unionist, and human rights defender: this Bill is aimed directly at you. It is not an accident. It is a strategy.

Our legal team took time to read the bill and noted a number of issues that are in violation of Uganda’s 1995 Constitution. The most critical are:

• Diaspora citizens classified as ‘foreigners’: Clause 1 redefines over 1.5 million Ugandan citizens living abroad as foreigners a direct violation of Articles 15 and 21 of the Constitution.
• Criminalising political opposition: Any FDC member who advocates against a Government policy after receiving any form of foreign-linked support faces 20 years in prison. This makes opposition politics itself a criminal enterprise.
• Strangling business and the economy: The UGX 400 million annual funding cap will capture foreign investments, bank loans, research grants, and diaspora remittances triggering capital flight and economic collapse.
• Silencing universities and researchers: A Makerere University researcher receiving a USD 150,000 international grant would commit a criminal offence. Uganda will be cut off from the global knowledge economy.
• Economic sabotage clause (Clause 13): Publishing truthful information about Government economic failures becomes ‘economic sabotage’ punishable by 20 years imprisonment a direct assault on press freedom and Article 29 of the Constitution.
• Unlimited Ministerial power: The Minister of Internal Affairs can declare any person, company, or organisation a ‘foreigner’ by statutory instrument, with no criteria, no judicial oversight, and no appeal. This is unconstitutional.

THE BILL ITSELF IS A DUPLICATION OF EXISTING LAWS

Uganda already has laws regulating financial flows, political activity, national security, and civil society operations, including:

• The Anti-Money Laundering Act, which regulates suspicious transactions, illicit financial flows, and unlawful foreign funding;
• The Political Parties and Organizations Act, which clearly provides for political party financing, accountability, and disclosure obligations;
• The Electoral Commission Act, which addresses electoral integrity and unlawful political interference;
• The Anti-Terrorism Act, which criminalises support for activities that threaten national security;
• The NGO Act, 2016, which regulates registration, transparency, and operations of civil society organizations;
• The Public Finance Management Act, which governs foreign funding to government institutions;
• And the Constitution itself, which already safeguards sovereignty, democratic participation, and institutional accountability.

This Bill creates no new value. It duplicates existing provisions and manufactures a legal gap that does not exist.

 

GOVERNMENT ITSELF DEPENDS ON FOREIGN FUNDING

There is a clear contradiction. While government seeks to criminalise and heavily restrict foreign funding for citizens, civil society, and political actors, the same government remains heavily dependent on foreign aid, grants, concessional loans, and donor financing for its own operations.

Every national budget reflects this dependence. If foreign financing is genuinely a threat to sovereignty, then government must begin with itself.

Uganda continues to rely on external financing amounting to approximately 5–6 trillion shillings annually across health, education, infrastructure, humanitarian support, agriculture, and public administration.

If that foreign support does not come through, the economy loses a critical fiscal buffer, public services collapse, and government itself becomes unsustainable.

OUR DEMANDS

• WITHDRAW THIS BILL IMMEDIATELY. No amendment can save it. Its constitutional violations are structural and irreparable.
• PROTECT DIASPORA REMITTANCES. Ugandans abroad are citizens, not foreigners. Their remittances of over USD 2.5 billion annually are a national lifeline, not a foreign threat.
• HOLD GENUINE PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS. If the Government has real concerns about foreign interference, it must consult widely with civil society, the opposition, religious leaders, the private sector, and ordinary citizens before legislating.
• RESPECT THE CONSTITUTION. The Parliamentary Committee must conduct a full constitutional compliance review and reject this Bill on those grounds.
• WE CALL UPON ALL UGANDANS TO REJECT THIS BILL: Uganda does not require this Bill, We call upon all Ugandans to reject the Protection of Sovereignty Bill, 2026 in its entirety

 

 

In Conclusion

Sovereignty belongs to the people of Uganda. Not to Cabinet. Not to one Minister. Not to State House.

We shall defend that sovereignty with every legal and democratic means at our disposal.

WAY FORWARD

FDC’s Deputy President, Hon. Anne Adeke Ebaju the Soroti City Woman MP, and Party Whip of our Parliamentary Caucus will today lead a team of FDC MPs and members to present FDC’s formal views and objections to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Defence & Internal Affairs and Legal & Parliamentary Affairs.

 

I thank You

 

FOR GOD AND MY COUNTRY

 

PATRICK OBOI AMURIAT

FDC PRESIDENT