By Frank Kamuntu

The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party on Wednesday 13th March kicked off the exercise of updating its register popularly known as the NRM Yellow Book amid a stern warning to the registrars not to interfere or manipulate member details in the register to avoid having non-existent members at the end of the exercise.

The rallying call was made by the Manager and Head of the office of National Chairman (ONC), Hajjat Hadijah Namyalo Uzeiye while monitoring the registration exercise in areas of Kampala where several supporters complained about irregularities in the ongoing exercise such as names missing in the yellow books while others had their names repeated several times.

Conducted spot checks on day 1 of @NRMOnline register update in Kalerwe and Kamwokya ghettos. Major issues: low turnout and register discrepancies including repeated names. Despite this, I urge Ugandans, especially bazzukulu, to register so we can strengthen our mighty party. pic.twitter.com/e8fBZYbaJb

— Uzeiye Hadijah (@ChiefMuzzukulu) March 13, 2024

Ms Namyalo urged the registrars and the leaders at the NRM secretariat at Kyadondo road not to mess up with what she described as Museveni’s Yellow book because this may cost the party’s political strength. She added that tampering with the registers may let down the president, yet the exercise is meant to promote him and the party.

The ONC boss also discovered that in some areas within and across the country where the exercise was taking place, the registrars were not well facilitated, leading to a low turn-up on the first of the registration renewal and update exercise.

In some places she reached out personally, Ms Namyalo established that some people who have been deployed to carry out the exercise were facilitated with only Shs10,000/- (ten thousand Uganda shillings) which caters for breakfast, lunch and transport, which she said was unfair given the nature and workload they have to undertake.

In several other areas across the country, the exercise was generally a fair one, with the turnout summed up as optimal as ONC coordinators and NRM mobilisers anticipate more people expected to turn up in the coming days.

The NRM Register Update exercise which runs until Sunday, March 17 is aimed at updating details of the ruling party and registering new members in all villages across the country ahead of the 2026 general elections.

The party expects to register an estimated number of between 17 million to 20 million members, who will see NRM winning the 2026 elections.

Registrations Across The Country In The Pictorial Below