KAMPALA. More than 10,200 leaders of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) have been invited to attend the May 12 swearing-in ceremony of President Museveni.
Museveni ,81 who seeks to extend his stay in office to 45 years after winning the January 15 Presidential polls with 71 percent is also the party’s long-serving national chairman.
The delegates, drawn from Uganda’s 146 districts and cities, include members of party structures at district, city and municipality levels.
Each district or city is expected to send around 40 representatives, while municipalities and city divisions will each send an additional 30 delegates.
Speaking to party leaders on Wednesday, NRM National Treasurer Barbara Nekesa Oundo said the mobilisation structure that delivered what she described as the party’s “mass victory” would also anchor preparations for the swearing-in celebrations.
“The just concluded campaigns that led to the NRM mass victory were largely party structure-led under the central coordination of the NRM Secretariat,” Ms Nekesa said.
She added that the centralised mobilisation strategy helped eliminate competing campaign groups operating simultaneously in the field.
“This central command created cohesion as it got rid of many mobilisation groups leading on different fronts and yet in the same field. The organisation and coherency of the campaign effort was very monumental,” she said.
According to party officials, transport reimbursement for delegates will be channeled through district offices ahead of the ceremony, with leaders expected to travel to Kampala on May 11.
Internal NRM documents indicate that delegates from Acholi sub-region will receive between Shs80, 000 and Shs120,000 for transport, while those from Bukedi will receive up to Shs60,000 for travel to Kampala and similar facilitation for return journeys.
Delegates from Busoga are expected to receive between Shs50,000 and Shs60,000 depending on district location, while representatives from Bunyoro, Ankole, Teso and Greater Masaka will receive between Shs40,000 and Shs120,000.
Leaders from Sebei, Kigezi, Mukono and Mubende will receive between Shs20, 000 and Shs40, 000, while delegates from Karamoja are expected to receive up to Shs140,000 because of distance and transport costs.
The party has also allocated at least Shs200,000 for accommodation of travelling party officials, alongside an additional budget exceeding Shs300 million to support district-level publicity activities linked to President Museveni’s seventh elective swearing-in ceremony.
NRM spokesperson Emmanuel Dombo said the ruling party was not directly funding the state ceremony itself, but rather facilitating participation of party leaders.
“The swearing-in ceremony is a government function funded by the government. For us as a party, we have only facilitated our party leaders to come and participate and celebrate with the National Chairman of NRM,” Mr Dombo told this publication on Wednesday evening.
How over Shs300 million will be spent
Parliament on Tuesday approved a supplementary budget of Shs1.1 trillion, of which Shs3 billion was allocated toward the presidential swearing-in fete .