The 23rd Guild Presidential race is heating up — and this time, students won’t be queuing at polling stations. They’ll be voting from their phones
Kyambogo University is days away from one of the most anticipated student elections on the campus calendar, and the field is set. Six candidates are in the race to become the 23rd Guild President, with more than 40,000 students expected to cast their votes on Thursday, May 8, 2026.
The race to replace outgoing guild president Emmanuel Andama — whose tenure ended last month — has generated real heat on campus, with campaigns, debates, and the inevitable group chat noise that comes with any election season.
The candidate list spans different faculties and different visions, but three names have emerged as the race’s frontrunners.
Edward Agaba, campaigning under the slogan “Sanitising the System,” is positioning himself as a reform candidate — someone who wants to clean up how the institution is run for students. Gregory Michael Edigu, whose campaign runs on “Power Back to the Students,” is making a similar argument: that students have been sidelined from decisions that directly affect them. Adrian Ssenabulya, a National Unity Platform-leaning candidate running on “Revolution of Solutions,” rounds out the main trio, though observers note that within his faculty, the competition with fellow candidate James Okello may be closer than the slogan gap suggests.
The other three candidates bring different energy to the race. Sharon Nuwahereza is the only woman in the field — running on a platform of unity and change. James Okello is campaigning to “break the silence,” and grassroots observers say he is more popular at the student level than his positioning might suggest. Faikah Ibanda has built his candidacy around the rallying cry “Nothing About Kyambogo Without Us” — a message aimed squarely at student inclusion and consultation.
Interestingly, three of the six candidates — Ssenabulya, Nuwahereza, and Okello — come from the same Faculty of School and the Directorate of Arts and Humanities, which sets up a fascinating internal battle that could split votes in unexpected ways.
Across the candidate platforms, the themes converge on a few pressure points: tuition and fee policies, academic affairs, freedom of expression, and student welfare. Both Agaba and Edigu have been explicit that students lack channels to meaningfully air grievances — and that a guild that is genuinely empowered can change that.
The outgoing guild president Andama, however, offered a sobering reality check. “Many students, including the aspirants, have not understood the role of a guild president,” he said. “Their main role is advisory towards the students’ body and the school management, but many are only looking at the position in another way.”
It is the kind of thing you say at the end of a tenure, and it is worth the incoming winner taking seriously.
Kyambogo will conduct its elections electronically through the university’s student portal — a system that has been in place since 2017 but has not always gone smoothly. This year, the university administration is insisting it is prepared.
The Dean of Students, Ms. Bridget Mugume, explained the rationale plainly: “Kyambogo University is moving from ballot voting to e-voting because there were numerous complaints. It brought a lot of congestion, the voter turnout was low, and out of the several reports by the university council, they considered e-voting due to its advantages.”
The IT officer, Nasser Mugwanya, confirmed the system’s security design. “The system is very secure. We’ve been using it to collect fees; now we’ve incorporated another module of e-voting. On the day of voting, the students just have to update their bio data so that a code is sent to them on their phones,” he said.
For students without smartphones, the university has designated voting areas — three computer labs will be open on election day for those who need them.
Electoral Commission Chairperson Brian Atime urged students to turn out in large numbers and to ensure their phone numbers and email addresses on the student portal are up to date, so that verification codes are delivered correctly.
Kyambogo’s 40,000-plus students will vote electronically on Thursday. It follows the same path taken by Makerere University just last month. The question now is whether the voter turnout will actually improve under the digital system — because if there is one thing every guild election at every Ugandan university has in common, it is the gap between students who care enough to campaign and students who remember to actually vote.
Six people are fighting for this seat. Only one will get it. The rest of that story gets written Thursday.
