NRM felt very sad for your suffering, Museveni tells Karimojong
“The NRM felt very sad for the suffering of the Karimojong. In Nakapiripirit (district), there was a woman who had been married to nine husbands and they had all died in war. That is why the NRM said the gun must get out of the population and we removed 41, 000 guns from Karamoja,” Museveni said.
Museveni also told thousands of his NRM supporters that when Dr Milton Obote was overthrown in January 1971 by Idi Amin, his army was 8,000.
KARAMOJA - President Yoweri Museveni has told the people of the Karamoja sub-region that his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party felt very sad for their suffering and decided to remove the guns from the population.
He made the remarks on Friday (October 24) while addressing his first 2026 general election campaign rally in the sub-region at Abim Primary School playground in Abim district.
“The NRM felt very sad for the suffering of the Karimojong. In Nakapiripirit (district), there was a woman who had been married to nine husbands and they had all died in war. That is why the NRM said the gun must get out of the population and we removed 41, 000 guns from Karamoja,” he said.
In 2001, the sitting government undertook a disarmament exercise to rid Karamoja of illegal arms and ammunitions.
Museveni also told thousands of his NRM supporters that when Dr Milton Obote was overthrown in January 1971 by Idi Amin, his army was 8,000.
“When we defeated Amin in 1979, his army was 20,000 but you hear now in Karamoja, we removed 41, 000 guns. This was suicide. When I came here in 1979, the whole population of Karamoja was 190,000, but when I see here in the file, you are now more than 1.5 million,” he said.
He noted that the population has gone up more than 10 times. “Why? Because the gun has been eating few people now and the disease also. The population is going up because of immunisation and peace,” Museveni, the NRM presidential candidate, said.
The NRM government launched immunisation programme in 1987 to prevent the six childhood killer diseases.
The average immunisation coverage at that time was 34%. Today, over 90% of Ugandan children are vaccinated, not only against the six killer diseases, but 13 diseases, which has reduced infant mortality rate, according to the ministry of health statistics.