President William Ruto and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni during a past meeting at State House, Entebbe.
President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM) have committed to strengthen their working relationship by sharing leadership tips.
UDA hosted a high-powered delegation from the Ugandan ruling outfit in Nairobi for a three-day benchmarking tour that concluded on Saturday, two months after President Ruto-led party dispatched a 19-member delegation of top officials to Kampala for an exchange program with NRM.
In a joint Communique, UDA Secretary General Hassan Omar and his NRM counterpart Richard Todwong said the parties will jointly strengthen political cooperation, economic development and good governance.
President William Ruto (left) holds talks with President Yoweri Museveni during a past meeting at State House, Entebbe.
They also committed to foster regional and global engagement for the two neighbouring countries.
"The NRM delegation learnt a lot from the working of the Presidential Economic Council towards a people driven empowerment model-the Bottom Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA)," states the statement.
During their three-day official tour, the NRM team held talks with their UDA counterparts, the Presidential Economic Council and Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja. The also visited Kibra's and Mukuru’s affordable housing projects.
According to UDA, the benchmarking mission aimed to foster inter-party collaboration and explore the country’s development models, particularly the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) by the Kenya Kwanza administration.
During the February visit to Kampala, Mr Omar led top officials of UDA as President Ruto seeks to borrow lessons from NRM that has been in power since 1986.
President Yoweri Museveni (right) with then Deputy President William Ruto at the Mubende State Lodge, Uganda.
Mr Omar had also led a delegation from the party's secretariat to visit the NRM Leadership Institute for a benchmarking exercise, with the Secretary General revealing UDA’s interest in starting a similar institute while emphasizing the importance of learning from the NRM's model.
NRM was founded as a liberation movement that waged a successful protracted war against past dictatorial regimes. On its website, NRM claims that it has restored political stability, respect for human rights, national unity, peace, security and the rule of law.
It also credits itself with the introduction of democracy as well as enfranchising the people of Uganda through restoration of regular, free and fair elections.
Critics have, however, pointed out continued stifling of the democratic space by NRM. Individuals perceived to be critical of President Museveni have been arbitrarily arrested and detained.
Claims of manipulation of election have also remained widespread in Uganda during Mr Museveni’s 39 years of stranglehold.
UDA has also been engaging Communist Party of China. Both NRM and Communist Party of China are seen as not to be the best political parties to look up to for progressive countries that believe in democracy and the rule of law.
President Yoweri Museveni (right) when then Deputy President William Ruto at Entebbe State House, Uganda, in 2018.
In 2024, UDA reached out to Communist Party of China in its quest to transform itself into a formidable political outfit, which would outlive its founders.
In its engagement, UDA sought funding to the tune of Sh1 billion from the Chinese party to support its political activities.
The party also sought the support of the party to build its official and permanent party headquarters on a piece of land that they have already acquired in Nairobi.
In March last year, then UDA Secretary-General Cleophas Malala received a delegation of the Communist Party of China officials at the party's headquarters along Ngong Road.
The officials were led by Jiang Xinzhi, the Vice Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference since 2023. UDA top officials later in the year visited the Chinese party to pick lessons in running political parties.
Jubilee Party of former President Uhuru Kenyatta had also tried to engage the Chinese party in its quest to remain influential even beyond his 10-year tenure.
In 2014, then President Uhuru Kenya met Guo Jinlong, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party at State House, when Jubilee announced its intention to strengthen cooperation with the party.
The plan was to avoid the journey to the graveyard that had been walked by nearly all past powerful ruling parties from Kanu of former Presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi and the National Rainbow Coalition and the Party of the National Unity of Mwai Kibaki.
But the party dramatically disintegrated when Mr Kenyatta fell out with his then deputy, Dr Ruto.
