Mbale Braces for Competitive Start to 2026 NRC Season
By Mwambazi Lawrence
Mbale is about to experience a transformation from a peaceful town into a full-blown theatre of dust, noise, and controlled madness. With the opening round of the KCB National Rally Championship just days away, the atmosphere is already electric and slightly unhinged. Garages are buzzing like disturbed beehives, mechanics are sweating like they are preparing a bride for introduction, and drivers are behaving like they are about to represent Uganda at the Olympics.
Time, as usual, is not on anyone’s side. It is running faster than a driver who has just realized he forgot to tighten wheel nuts. Everywhere you look, there is last-minute panic—gearboxes being opened “just to check,” engines being started every five minutes for no clear reason, and co-drivers flipping through pace notes like students revising the night before exams. If rallying had a subject called “Last Minute Preparation,” Ugandan crews would graduate with first-class honors.
It has been more than three months since the last full rally in Hoima, where Ronald Ssebuguzi and Anthony Mugambwa crowned their 2025 championship in style. Since then, the rally community has been going through serious withdrawal symptoms. Drivers have been seen overtaking bodas like they are on a flying finish, practicing handbrake turns in empty parking lots, and shouting “flat out!” in traffic jams. Even ordinary people have started wondering why someone is downshifting aggressively at a supermarket entrance.
And now, Mbale is here to restore sanity… or completely destroy it.
The entry list alone is enough to cause confusion, excitement, and small heart attacks among fans. It looks like a reunion of long-lost relatives mixed with new tenants who have just moved into the neighborhood and immediately started making noise. Familiar names are back, new combinations have formed, and some drivers have returned with machines that sound like they eat stones for breakfast.
At the center is the long-awaited return of Moses Lumala. For years, fans have been asking, “Where is Lumala?” as if he was a missing person. Meanwhile, the man has been quietly training at his farm in Mityana and now he says he has shaken off the rust and is ready to compete again. Armed with a Ford Fiesta NRC Proto, Lumala is not coming to make up numbers. He is coming to remind the young boys that rallying did not start on TikTok. His return has already sent a message through the paddock: experience never expires, it just waits for the right moment to embarrass people.
Then comes Ambrose “Omunyeto” Byona, a man who has never truly left rallying he simply changed roles to “professional spectator with refreshments.” Known for always being in the crowd with his famous jerrycan of “enturire,” Byona has decided that watching others have fun is no longer enough. He teams up with Susan Kalema, who has also been off the active scene for some time, and together they form what can only be described as a comeback team with unfinished business. Driving a Mitsubishi Evo X, the crew will likely start cautiously… but give them two stages and suddenly they will remember they used to do this for a living. And once that memory clicks, expect some serious dust and possibly some laughter in the service park.
From Ethiopia, Stefano Velari returns, clearly unable to resist the addictive chaos of Ugandan rallying. After sampling the terrain in previous events, the rally bug bit him so hard that it refused to let go. This time, he is not visiting he is committing. With a Mitsubishi Evo X and Robert Katabalwa on the notes, Velari is diving headfirst into the full season. However, Ugandan rallies have a way of welcoming you with open arms… and then introducing you to potholes, unpredictable weather, and spectators who appear exactly where you least expect them. Whether he dominates or simply survives, Velari is in for a full cultural and mechanical experience.
Fresh from the brutal Safari Rally, Rwanda’s Queen Kalimpinya is also heading to Mbale, proving once again that rally drivers do not believe in rest. While others are still recovering and telling stories about how tough Safari was, she looked at her calendar and said, “Let’s add another rally.” Together with co-driver Olivier Ngabo in their Subaru GVB, they are ready to take on the Ugandan crews. And this is not just a casual appearance she is committing to the full championship. In simple terms, the local drivers were hoping for a peaceful start to the season… but now they have an international champion in their mirrors.
As if that is not enough, some crews have decided to upgrade their weapons, because clearly, things were not chaotic enough already.
Musa Ssegaabwe has brought in a Skoda Fabia N5, a machine that had fans dreaming of fireworks. But in a twist that only rallying can provide, he has decided to park it for now and stick with his Evo IX. It is like buying a new suit and deciding to wear your old one to the party. Still, knowing Ssegaabwe, the Evo IX will be driven like it has something to prove. Expect him to attack stages with the kind of confidence that makes spectators step back just a little bit further.
Then there is Kevin Bebeto, who has upgraded from a Subaru N10 to a Mitsubishi Evo IX. The young simba has been quietly preparing, likely spending sleepless nights imagining perfect stage runs and dramatic finishes. Now comes the real test. Mbale will be his proving ground, and if the car cooperates and the nerves behave, we might witness the rise of a serious contender. But rallying being rallying, anything can happen from heroic stage times to sudden mechanical “character development.”
With all these storylines comebacks, new machines, international entries, and hungry young drivers the Mbale rally is shaping up to be less of a race and more of a full- action movie. Every crew wants those first championship points, because in rallying, a good start can make you look like a genius… and a bad start can turn you into a motivational speaker.As the countdown continues, one thing is certain: Mbale is about to host organized chaos at its finest.
Engines will roar, dust will rise, tempers will flare, and somewhere along the stages, someone will definitely say, “We almost had it.”
Welcome to the 2026 season. Let the rally madness begin.
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