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I was Ready to Face Museveni at Presidential Debate Says Bobi Wine

By Wassaja Carlos

Posted on December 1, 2025

KAMPALA; National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, widely known as Bobi Wine, has expressed disappointment over President Yoweri Museveni’s decision to skip the much-anticipated presidential debate held on Sunday 30th/11/2025.

The debate, organized by the Nation Media Group (NMG), convened all 2026 presidential candidates except the incumbent, who chose not to attend.

Bobi Wine, Museveni’s strongest challenger in the race, said he had fully prepared for a direct and public confrontation with the President over his four decades in power.

“I had really hoped to meet General Museveni here so I could publicly face him and hear what he has to tell us after 40 years in power,” Kyagulanyi said during the debate.

Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) are campaigning under the theme “Protecting the Gains,” a slogan that sparked national debate upon its release.

Bobi Wine said he had hoped to question the President directly about what he calls the regime’s “so-called gains,” pointing instead to deteriorating public services and human rights concerns under NRM leadership.

“Is he protecting the potholes? Is he protecting the rotten hospitals? Is he protecting the broken-down schools, the broken-down infrastructure? Is he protecting his power and right to torture citizens?” he said. “I had hoped to hear that publicly from General Museveni.”

Critics of the NRM slogan have claimed it refers to safeguarding wealth allegedly accumulated by elites over decades of political dominance. Museveni, however, has repeatedly stated that the phrase refers to Uganda’s economic growth since 1986.

At the NRM national conference in August, the President defended the slogan, saying Uganda’s economy had expanded from 3.9 billion dollars in 1986 to 66 billion dollars in 2025, with the goal of reaching a 500 billion dollar high middle-income economy.

While acknowledging Museveni’s right to skip the debate, Bobi Wine said the President’s absence symbolized a leader “stuck in the past,” insisting that the debate was about Uganda’s future.

“It’s his right not to be here because he is in the past, and we are discussing the future of our country,” he said.

As the 2026 elections draw closer, Kyagulanyi reiterated his readiness to challenge the status quo and push for political change after what he described as four decades of entrenched rule.