Hajjat Namyalo Hands Over Sh15m Run Kits To Buganda Kingdom, Katikkiro Mayiga Hails Her Kingdom First Approach

By Gad Masereka

The political distance between the ruling NRM and Buganda Kingdom narrowed further on Wednesday after President Yoweri Museveni, through his party’s grassroots mobilisation arm, injected 15 million shillings worth of running kits into the Kabaka’s annual birthday run against HIV/AIDS.

Hajjat Hadijah Namyalo, who heads the Office of the National Chairman (ONC), delivered the 15,000 kits directly to the Katikkiro of Buganda, Charles Peter Mayiga, at Bulange Gardens in Mengo. The handover, which lasted just under an hour, marked the third consecutive year the President has channelled support to the kingdom’s flagship health campaign through Namyalo’s office.

What made Wednesday’s encounter noteworthy was not the donation itself but the absence of political posturing. Namyalo, whose office operates from the ONC headquarters in Kyambogo, did not mention elections or party loyalty. Instead, she anchored her remarks on a deadline set by the Kabaka himself: the elimination of HIV as a public health threat by 2030.

“President Museveni’s commitment towards fighting HIV has never changed,” Namyalo told the gathering, standing a few metres from Mayiga. “If we pull together as Ugandans first, that 2030 target is achievable.”

Mayiga, a lawyer known for weighing his words carefully, responded with a statement that cut across the usual political divisions. He did not thank the NRM. He thanked Namyalo personally for showing up consistently, then added a remark that drew quiet applause from kingdom officials present.

“All politicians should copy Namyalo. In whatever she is doing, her kingdom comes first,” Mayiga said. “We can change religions and political parties, but we cannot change our tribes.”

The Kabaka Birthday Run, now in its eleventh year, has grown from a modest cultural procession into one of East Africa’s largest single day HIV awareness events. Last year’s edition attracted more than 50,000 participants. This year’s run, scheduled for April 19 starting from Mengo Palace, will celebrate Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II’s 71st birthday while directing proceeds toward prevention campaigns targeting adolescents, a group where new HIV infections have remained stubbornly persistent.

Between 2019 and 2023, the run has helped distribute over 200,000 HIV testing kits across the central region, according to kingdom health records. Organisers say the event’s strength lies in its neutrality. No political party banners are allowed on the route. No campaign slogans are chanted. The only uniform permitted is the branded run vest.

Namyalo’s office has quietly respected those rules. The ONC, which functions as the President’s long arm for grassroots mobilisation outside the formal party bureaucracy, has participated in three previous runs without displaying NRM regalia. That discipline has not gone unnoticed at Bulange.

“She comes as a Muganda first, then as a politician second,” one senior kingdom official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to address the media, said after the handover. “That is why the door remains open.”

After receiving the kits, Namyalo promised immediate distribution to the Bazzukulu, a Luganda term for grandchildren that both the kingdom and the President have adopted to refer to young people. The ONC plans to use its network of coordinators across the central region to ensure the vests reach runners in remote villages, not just in Kampala.

Mayiga used the brief ceremony to also thank Museveni for recent anti corruption efforts, drawing a straight line between good governance and effective health service delivery. “Money meant for HIV drugs must not end up in private pockets,” he said.

As Namyalo’s convoy pulled out of Bulange, kingdom staff began unloading the kits from a green ONC truck. The boxes were plain, unmarked by party symbols. Within hours, they would be counted, sorted, and stacked inside the kingdom’s stores alongside other donations from corporate sponsors and foreign missions.

For the thousands who will line up at Mengo Palace on April 19, the origin of their running vest may not matter. What will matter is the simple act of showing up, wearing the same colour, running the same route, and for one morning, remembering that a virus does not check ID cards before it infects. That, in the end, is the point of the run.