When no one is clapping for you, don't do it for the applause
At Makerere University, three young Ugandans who had just won real elections returned to the hall where their political lives began — not to celebrate, but to think aloud about what power is actually for. Lawrence Alionzi, Robert Maseruka, and Gracious Kadondi, each shaped by Uganda's 2026 election cycle, offered their generation a different grammar of politics: one built on shared challenges rather than tribal allegiance, on conviction rather than convenience, on service rather than spectacle. Their presence at the Emerging Leaders Programme panel was itself a kind of argument — that values-driven leadership is not merely aspirational, but achievable, and that the question now is whether it can survive contact with the machinery of governance.
- A generation of Ugandan students is watching peers only slightly older than themselves win actual elections and return to campus to explain how — creating both inspiration and pressure to imagine politics differently.
- Alionzi's party switch from NUP to NRM drew scrutiny, but he reframed the tension entirely: party labels, he argued, are paint on an animal that still behaves the same way, and the real enemies are poverty, illiteracy, and disease.
- Maseruka sounded an alarm beneath his optimism — every generation either fulfills or betrays its mission, and Uganda's next forty years will be shaped by choices being made right now.
- Kadondi's 6,800-vote victory, won largely by people who had never even followed her online, offered evidence that values-based voting is already happening among young Ugandans — not just being preached.
- The deeper question hanging over the three-hour conversation was unresolved: whether the integrity these leaders demonstrated as students and candidates could survive the far heavier pressures of actual governance.
Makerere University's main hall filled with a particular kind of energy when three young politicians who had actually won elections took the stage to reflect on what they had learned. The Ekyoto panel, organized by the Emerging Leaders Programme, brought together Lawrence Alionzi, Robert Maseruka, and Gracious Kadondi — all former or current guild presidents, all freshly emerged from Uganda's 2026 general election cycle.
Alionzi, now 26 and mayor-elect of Arua city, addressed head-on the controversy of his switch from the National Unity Platform to the NRM. He offered no apology, only a reframe: political parties are not the whole of political identity. What mattered in Arua, he said, was a simpler truth — the Ayivu are not enemies of the Terego, and the Terego are not enemies of the Maracha. The real enemies are poverty, illiteracy, and disease. He had visited 469 villages twice during the primaries, holding ten rallies a day, and he urged students to measure every decision against a single question: does this move me toward my vision or away from it? On legacy, he was deliberately modest. Sometimes we make history, sometimes history makes us.
Maseruka, MP-elect for Mukono South, turned the conversation toward systems. Uganda lacks structured spaces where young people can be trained in leadership, he said — and that absence is a national risk. His core message was generational: every generation has a mission, and it is upon that generation to either fulfill or betray it. What Uganda looks like in forty years will be determined by how this generation treats itself today.
Kadondi's story carried its own quiet force. She had won the guild presidency with 6,800 votes, yet only around 800 people had been following her on social media. Thousands voted for her without ever having her contact. She read this as evidence of a real shift — people voting for what someone stands for, not for money or connections. She also named the barrier she had faced as a woman in a role long dominated by men, noting that Makerere has in fact had five female guild presidents. And she closed with a principle about mentorship: if my candle is lit, it costs me nothing to light another.
What the three hours produced was less a set of lessons than a portrait — of a generation beginning to articulate a different relationship to power. Not as a prize or a party, but as a responsibility. Whether that articulation would hold once these leaders moved deeper into the machinery of governance remained an open question. But the conversation itself, in that packed hall, was already something.
Makerere University's main hall filled with the kind of energy that comes when young people who have actually won elections stand up to talk about what they learned. The Ekyoto panel, organized by the Emerging Leaders Programme—a values-focused initiative championed by First Lady Janet Museveni—brought three guild presidents to the stage: Lawrence Alionzi and Robert Maseruka, both former leaders of the student body, and Gracious Kadondi, who currently holds the position. All three had emerged from Uganda's 2026 general election cycle. Hundreds of students packed the venue to listen.
Alionzi, now 26 and mayor-elect of Arua city, opened by addressing the question that had followed him since he switched from the National Unity Platform—the party that had elected him guild president in November 2022—to the NRM. He did not apologize. Instead, he reframed the entire conversation. Political parties, he said, are not the only measure of political identity. A monkey painted a different color will still jump from tree to tree; the label changes nothing about the animal. What matters is the work. In Arua, he had campaigned on a simple idea: the Ayivu people are not enemies of the Terego, the Terego are not enemies of the Maracha. The real enemies are poverty, illiteracy, and disease. He had visited 469 villages twice during the primary elections, holding ten rallies a day, grounded in what he called practical realities rather than theory. When students asked how he knew he wasn't being misunderstood, he said: I know unity is okay in whatever form.
Alionzi spoke about decision-making with the clarity of someone who had actually made decisions under pressure. When faced with a challenge, he told the students, look at your vision. Ask yourself: does this move me toward it or away from it? He compared political struggle to childbirth—each arena unique, each with its own pain. On his legacy as guild president, he was modest to the point of deflection. Sometimes we make history, sometimes history makes us. I think I'm just a result of history. He warned against seeking validation from applause. When no one is clapping for you, don't do it for the applause. Do it for some other reason. For as long as that reason is there, I will continue to do it, and only time will tell my story.
Maseruka, now Member of Parliament-elect for Mukono South, shifted the conversation toward structure and systems. Uganda lacks places where young people can be properly involved, educated, and trained in leadership, he said. The ELP fills that gap. But his core message was about generational responsibility. Every generation has a mission, and it is upon that generation to either fulfill or betray that mission. What Uganda looks like in forty years will be determined by how we treat ourselves today. He called for unity that transcends tribe, religion, and political party—a unity rooted in a shared vision of the country's future. He emphasized that leadership must be rooted in conviction, not convenience, and that personal discipline is the foundation for influencing others.
Kadondi's victory as current guild president carried a different kind of significance. She had won with 6,800 votes, yet only about 800 people had been actively following her social media. Thousands voted for her without ever having her contact information. This, she said, reflected a generational shift. People voted for what she stood for, her potential and capability—not money, not patronage. We have not lost our generation, she said. She also addressed the specific barrier she had faced as a woman in a position traditionally dominated by men. People say Makerere cannot be led by a female, yet the university has had five female guild presidents. She had wanted to prove that even as a woman, she could lead. Beyond her own victory, she spoke about mentorship and creating space for others. If my candle is lit, it doesn't cost me anything to light another. She urged leaders to empower those coming behind them, to break the cycle of gatekeeping.
What emerged from the three hours was a portrait of a generation thinking differently about power. Not as a prize to be seized or a party to be joined, but as a responsibility to be lived. These were young people who had run campaigns in villages and on social media, who had won elections, and who were now trying to articulate what they had learned. They spoke about unity without erasing difference, about conviction without rigidity, about legacy without ego. The students who filled the hall were watching people only slightly older than themselves demonstrate that it was possible to think and act differently in politics. Whether that demonstration would hold, whether these values would survive the machinery of actual governance, remained to be seen. But in that moment, the conversation itself was the point.
Citações Notáveis
Political parties are not the only sensors of belonging as far as the political arena is concerned.— Lawrence Alionzi
Every generation has a mission, and it is upon that generation to either fulfill or betray the mission.— Robert Maseruka
People voted for what the person stands for, their potential and capability, not money.— Gracious Kadondi
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did Alionzi switching parties matter so much that he had to address it first?
Because it looked like betrayal to people who had voted for him as a guild president on an opposition ticket. But he was saying something deeper—that the party label was never the point. The point was the work. That's a harder argument to make, so he had to lead with it.
And did the students believe him?
That's the thing about a room full of young people. They're watching to see if you're actually thinking or just performing. Alionzi was thinking out loud. He wasn't defensive. He said, look, I went to 469 villages twice. I held ten rallies a day. I know what people need. That's harder to dismiss than a speech.
Maseruka kept talking about Uganda in forty years. Why that timeframe?
Because he's saying: you're not just making a choice today. You're building the country your children will inherit. It's a way of making the present feel consequential without being preachy about it. Every generation either fulfills its mission or betrays it. That's a weight, but it's also an invitation.
And Kadondi's victory—the fact that thousands voted for her without knowing her—what does that actually tell us?
It tells us that money and personal networks stopped being the only currency in at least one election. People voted for what she represented, what she could do. That's a crack in the old system. Whether it holds depends on what happens next, on whether she and people like her actually deliver something different.
So this panel—was it about celebrating them, or was it about them trying to teach something?
Both. But mostly it was them trying to articulate what they'd learned so the next cohort doesn't have to start from zero. That's what mentorship actually is. Not handing down a playbook. Showing your thinking.