On Wednesday 22 September, Clad in a Black suit Grace Musimaami has arrived at the Independent Electoral commission office at At exactly 10:00am flanked by two men and two ladies whom he claims are farmers like him to pick presidential nomination forms.
Immediately he has been ushered into a room to pick the form from where he has been asked to identify himself.
“This is my identity card as a farmer and that is my number, grace flashed out a card showing it to the Electoral officer followed by his National Identity card.
Aged 38, Grace Musimaami an Agriculture and Science journalist has told the electoral official that he intends to run as an independent aspirant because farmers are nor a political party but he in the race to be a president who will help farmer’s by promoting Agriculture.
The Farmers 2016 presidential aspirant Grace says that he has deeply analyzed the proposed manifestos for all the 48 presidential aspirants, but none has prioritized agriculture.
“All these it be Mbabazi , Besigye name them, they all talk about regime change and throwing out president Museveni not Agriculture the Backbone of Uganda. Trust me with over 60% of Ugandans in the Agriculture sector behind me i am going to be the next president.
He has explained that he is dismayed that it’s the farmers who are poor yet they feed the 36 million people in Uganda.
“it is the children of the farmers who don’t go to school, the few who attend school study under trees and don’t even complete studies, how can this be? when i become the president of Uganda in 2016 the farmers standards of living are going to change swiftly because i am a farmer i know what they go through and what they need” he explained.
When asked by Journalists, Grace has pledged that he is not a joker in the race adding that he will tomorrow begin on a rapid process to collect signature to second his candidature and by next week he will be through with the process.
Grace Musimaami shoots the number of presidential hopeful s who has picked Nomination forms to 49. Of these 10 are sponsored by parties while 39 say they will run as independents.
According to the Independent Electoral commission deputy Spokesperson Paul Bukenya, presidential hopefuls can still pick nomination forms until the September 29 which is the set deadline for returning the Nomination forms.
“Grace Musimaami is the 49th Presidential aspirant; we have given him the forms and he is expected to return them all the required signatures that is 100 signatures from fully registered voters from at least 75 districts of Uganda representing all regions as required from all Presidential aspirants.
By Joshua Mutale