Youth MP Aspirant Gold Ikyiriza Pens Open Letter to Museveni Over NRM Electoral ‘Monetisation’

By Our Reporter

National Female Youth MP aspirant Gold Ikyiriza has penned an open letter to President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, urging him to intervene in what she described as the growing monetisation and manipulation of the National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) internal electoral processes.

In a September 2 letter, Ikyiriza, 24, who is seeking the NRM flag for the 2026–2031 term, said the party risks alienating the very young people it claims to champion if reforms are not urgently undertaken.

“The NRM must invest in raising leaders of integrity, not just politicians of money. If leadership is reduced to transactions, then the youth will lose faith in the very movement that was built on sacrifice, fairness, and service,” she wrote.

She accused sections of the party of sidelining “humble and poor youth” in favour of aspirants with financial muscle or political patronage.

According to her, recent youth elections, some of which were postponed, were marred by allegations of vote buying, infiltration by non-delegates, and manipulation of registers.

“Delegates are compromised, registers are tampered with, and those without investors are left voiceless. Leadership is turning into a business of dealers and investors, not patriots and leaders,” Ikyiriza lamented.

The youthful aspirant anchored her appeal on her own leadership journey, recalling service as Vice President of the Uganda National Students Association (UNSA) in 2024, and earlier roles at Makerere University and St. Peter’s Naalya SSS.

She argued that many of her contemporaries with potential have abandoned politics altogether due to what she called “systemic manipulation.”

Ikyiriza also invoked the memory of her late fathers, Sgt. Makana Geoffrey and Lt. Kamukama Geoffrey, both of whom died in the NRA/NRM struggle, saying the party they fought for should not be reduced to a “rejection movement” for those without money.

She appealed to President Museveni, in his capacity as NRM national chairman, to personally restore the party’s founding values. With Uganda’s youth making up more than 75 percent of the population, she said their inclusion was critical to the survival of the party’s legacy.

“What Uganda needs today is good leadership by the youth within the NRM. If nurtured and guided well, the youth will not only secure the future of the Movement but also guarantee stability, transformation, and continuity of your vision,” she wrote.

Her letter comes at a time when the ruling party faces mounting criticism over the conduct of its primaries and internal elections, where claims of monetisation and patronage politics have repeatedly surfaced.

Below is the open letter as authored by Gold Ikyiriza in full form

02/09/2025

An Open Letter from Gold Ikyiriza, Aspirant for National Female Youth MP 2026-2031 to The Chairman of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

Greetings to my Dear Chairman of the National Resistance Movement, H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and to my fellow youth in the NRM Party.

My name is Gold Ikyiriza, Aspiring National Female Youth MP (2026–2031).

To my fellow youth, the recently concluded 1st meeting of the Fourth National Conference of NRM and the postponed Youth Elections tested your patience and shaken your faith in the process. The confusion, delays, expenses, and frustrations are real and I feel them with you. Many of you endured sleepless nights and moments of doubt. I stand with you in this difficult time, not as a spectator but as one of you.

To our Dear Chairman,

When the NRA captured power and the NRM took over leadership in 1986, you and our fathers built a Movement on values, sacrifice, and discipline. For decades, NRM has been a mass Party of the people. But today, dear Chairman, many of us, especially the youth, are deeply concerned about the state of our Party.

Increasingly, the Movement seems to belong only to the wealthy and well-connected, while the humble and poor youth are sidelined. This culture of impunity, vote buying, favoritism, and manipulation threatens the very existence of our Party. Year after year, ordinary young people remain captives of money politics, given small tokens to silence their voices, while genuine leaders with ideas are pushed aside.

Mr. Chairman, is the NRM still the Resistance Movement of equality and fairness, or is it slowly becoming a “Rejection Movement” to the poor and humble youth trying to rise within it?

We see candidates imposed on us not for their vision or experience, but because they are backed by money, state operatives, or wealthy families. Delegates are compromised, registers are tampered with, and those without “investors” are left voiceless. Leadership is turning into a business of dealers and investors, not patriots and leaders.

This is not the Movement you built. It is not the Uganda my late fathers, Sergeant Makana Geoffrey and Lt. Kamukama Geoffrey, fought and died for. Their sacrifice, and yours, was for freedom, equality, justice, and opportunity for all, not for a few.

So I ask: Should positions in the Movement be auctioned to the sons and daughters of the rich? Should humble youth with ideas give up on their dreams because they cannot pay their way into leadership? I am only 24 years old, a fresh graduate from university, fighting hard to keep my dream alive in leadership. Where can I get the money to bribe young people?

Dear Chairman, we refuse to give up. I am only 24 years old, but like many of our youth, I share a big dream for my country and my Party. Together with many able young people I served with, many have given up on advancing their leadership potential. I served as a student leader in different capacities at all levels, for example, Vice President Uganda National Students Association (UNSA) in 2024, Women Affairs Makerere University 2023, Guild Representative Councilor in 2022-2023 and Academics Minister for St. Peter’s Naalya Senior Secondary School in 2019-2020.

These roles remind me of your own journey from a student revolutionary in 1962 to the leader of our nation today. You inspire me to keep fighting for what is right.

But today, it is hard for a humble youth with ideas to survive in such a system. Where do we place our ideas if everything is determined by money and connections? Why should youth believe in leadership if their leaders sell them out immediately after winning positions?

Chairman, we need your intervention. The recently postponed youth elections exposed the same forces of bribery, manipulation, and infiltration by non-delegates. Imagine, as a candidate and a delegate at the same time, I did not even have neither of my tags yet the non-delegates were cleared by candidates whose investors have access to power to compromise security so as to have access and campaign for their favored candidates. This is not sustainable. If not addressed, our Party risks producing leaders who serve investors and cliques instead of the young people.

What Uganda needs today is good leadership by the youth within the NRM. With over 75% of our population under 30, our Party cannot afford to waste the energy, creativity, and innovations of this generation. If nurtured and guided well, the youth will not only secure the future of the NRM but also guarantee stability, economic transformation, and continuity of your vision.

The NRM must invest in raising leaders of integrity, not just politicians of money. By empowering the youth, the Party will groom a new generation of disciplined cadres who can carry the torch of the Movement beyond you, ensuring that your legacy and that of our fathers lives on.

On behalf of many humble and honest youth like me, I kindly ask you, our grandfather, to hear our cry. Restore the values of the Movement. Protect the future of the youth. Remind the Party that leadership is about service, not money.

Long Live Our Dear Chairman. Long Live H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Long Live the NRM.

Yours faithfully,

GOLD IKYIRIZA
Former Vice President UNSA 2024
Aspiring National Female Youth MP (2026–2031)
Email: ikyirizagold@gmailcom
Tel: +256778042406 / +256741761086