As Uganda moves toward the 2026 General Elections, new political hymns have emerged. Some candidates, in their creativity, have gifted us three verbs that have taken the internet and village trading centres by storm. Mukalonde, which means vote. Mukakuume, which means protect it. Mukabanje, which means demand for it. It all sounded harmless enough, even motivational. Until someone added a fourth commandment that every citizen should become an agent. Just like that, twenty one million voters are being prepared for a second job they have not applied for.
The Electoral Commission then stepped in calmly, firmly, and with the law in hand, to remind everyone that elections are not group work. Speaking to the media, EC Chairperson Justice Simon Byabakama dismissed the idea of voter protection groups as an invention not found anywhere in Uganda’s electoral laws. He could not have been clearer. Polling stations are for voters to vote and accredited agents, not self appointed protectors wearing jackets sourced from downtown Nasser Road the night before voting.
This raises a genuine question that many Ugandans are now whispering with amusement. If we are being taught Mukakuume, protect it, yet the EC insists that protection of the process is already secured through accredited agents, where exactly does this leave the enthusiastic disciples of this slogan? Are they supposed to protect from home? Protect from WhatsApp? Or protect spiritually? Because when the EC says that showing up in unapproved jackets amounts to impersonation, some people may need to quietly fold their uniforms and keep them for Christmas.
EC roadmap update issued on 26 November 2025 details the extensive preparations already underway. There are more than fifty thousand polling stations, more than one hundred thousand biometric voter verification kits, more than eighty three thousand nominated candidates, a structured recruitment and training process, and a clear call for lawful participation. These facts, which form the backbone of the 2026 election cycle, make it difficult to imagine what additional protection a random unaccredited individual can offer at a polling station. The EC has already built the safeguards. The law has already provided the framework. The accredited agents are already officially responsible for monitoring the vote.
Irony is never in short supply during campaign season. Some of the same candidates urging everyone to distrust the system are the very ones who stood in long lines for nomination, submitted their forms, took campaign photos, danced on vans, and printed posters with confidence. If they had no faith in the process, would they have gone through the trouble of participating? Would they have attended harmonised campaign meetings? Would they have designed manifestos and fought for crowds? It is a fair question.
Justice Byabakama went further and warned that illegal processions, impromptu roadside rallies, and staged traffic blocking stunts are not part of lawful campaigning. According to him, crowds do not simply appear. They are manufactured. It was a polite way of reminding candidates that charisma is good, but so is obeying traffic laws.
All this leaves the ordinary Ugandan caught between poetic slogans and practical law. Do we Mukalonde quietly? Do we Mukakuume from a distance? Do we Mukabanje after the swearing in? The call to become agents in large numbers has collided with the EC position that the polling station is not a community hall. Only accredited individuals will be allowed inside. Everyone else will participate in the traditional way, by casting one vote and then going home to wait for results.
As we prepare for the 2026 elections, the greatest lesson may be that democracy works best when everyone understands their lane. Candidates should campaign. Accredited agents should monitor. The EC should administer. Voters should vote. No jackets, no drama, no invented roles.
In the end, the real power remains where it has always been, inside the ballot box, not inside slogans. And perhaps that is where our national energy should go, not into forming voter protection squads, but into showing up peacefully, choosing wisely, and trusting the legal process in place.
Because truly, Mukalonde is enough. Mukabanje will come later. And Mukakume is already covered by the law.