By Mike Rwothomio

National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, better known as Bobi Wine, has unleashed a scathing indictment against the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) regime, accusing it of deliberately starving the Greater Nebbi sub-region of essential services and infrastructure throughout its nearly four-decade grip on power in a classic display of punitive governance and regional exclusion.

Kyagulanyi arrived in Zombo District in grand style at around 1:00 PM. He made a brief stop at the graveyard of one of his fallen bodyguards, who was laid to rest last year at Kaya trading center. Enthusiastic supporters, dressed in the National Unity Platform’s signature red overalls, T-shirts, and ribbons, were already waiting for him. As his convoy passed through the bustling, business-oriented Paidha Town Council, supporters blew whistles and vuvuzelas, keeping the town lively throughout the day as they spread the NUP message.

Speaking before a mammoth crowd at Kyambogo University Playground in Paidha Town Council on Tuesday, 18 November, during the second day of his high-voltage West Nile campaign trail, Kyagulanyi singled out the glaring absence of tarmac roads in Zombo District, collapsing school buildings, chronically underfunded and drug-starved health facilities, and discriminatory salary structures that have sown division among teachers.

“The NRM has squandered 39 years yet left Zombo and West Nile trapped in underdevelopment. No tarmac, no medicines, demoralised health workers and teachers earning peanuts while they loot trillions, this is not failure, it is a political strategy of keeping regions on their knees,” the opposition leader charged.

Outlining his alternative people-centred agenda, Kyagulanyi, now affectionately dubbed “Jalar” (saviour) by locals, pledged that an NUP government would immediately overhaul the collapsed healthcare system with adequate funding and decent pay for medical workers, end salary discrimination among teachers, guarantee free quality education with modern infrastructure, slash punitive taxes on boda-boda motorcycles, compensate war victims, release all political prisoners, and launch an uncompromising war on corruption that bleeds the country of UGX 10 trillion annually.

Accusing the NRM of institutionalised vote-rigging since 1996, Kyagulanyi issued a clear call for mass voter turnout and ballot protection on 15 January 2026, declaring that “every stolen vote is a betrayal of Uganda’s future” and promising an end to four decades of dictatorship, tribalism, nepotism and industrial-scale corruption through servant leadership.

More than ten NUP candidates from councillor to parliamentary level were presented to the charged crowd as senior party officials urged total electoral sweep of the red-bereted ticket to deliver the radical change Zombo desperately needs.

NUP heavyweights amplified the message: 

Alur sub-region coordinator Abedican Mercy demanded an end to the 40-year status quo of empty promises.

West Nile coordinator Asega Jogo handed Kyagulanyi a memorandum from the People of Zombo, demanding revival of the tea project and Okoro Cooperative Society.

While Northern Uganda deputy president Linda Zedriga warned voters to stay vigilant against electoral fraud.

Local residents voiced overwhelming support, with Paidha’s Sunday Okweda castigating decades of broken NRM promises on the 119-km Nebbi–Paidha–Vurra road.

Mercy Kacwiny praised the pledge to resolve educators’ pay crisis, and elder Okweda Godfred vowed to vote NUP to finally cripple the corruption strangling service delivery.

Having kicked off his West Nile campaign in Pakwach on Monday and concluded Tuesday with a night rally in Nebbi Municipality, Kyagulanyi proceeds to Arua City and District tomorrow , Wednesday.

With Zombo historically an NRM fortress delivering over 80 per cent of votes to the ruling party since 1996, the massive turnout and shifting political currents , fuelled by strong independent candidates challenging NRM incumbents , signal a potential realignment as Uganda prepares toward the high-stakes 2026 polls.

Bobi Wine Campaigns at Kyambogo University Playground in Paidha town council on Tuesday November 18, 2025

Mike Rwothomio is news editor at zoomer Africa your number one grassroot information.