Lack of political accountability is costing Uganda its future
What you need to know:
- The political period is here for us to participate not only as candidates but as people with power to choose reasonable and qualitative leaders who will promote transparency and accountability in governance, restore citizens' trust and build a political system that will serve all Ugandans with love and fairness.
As the National Anthem goes, Oh Uganda, May Gold Uphold thee, it’s the moment for this statement to be sung in silence for it to touch the hearts of our political leaders. The issue of political honesty in Uganda has had significant implications on the country’s development and the overall well-being of the general population.
The all-round lack of political accountability and transparency in this country will tear us into pieces, if not checked. Every country is as good as its citizens, and this explains why our recent budgets have been more focused on human capital development as a central priority, receiving a substantial allocation of Shs9.9 trillion in the 2024/25 budget which constitutes 26.3 percent of the total Shs72.136 trillion budget.
This investment affirms the government's commitment to enhancing education, healthcare, and social protection to ensure that we build skills that are relevant for the development of this great nation. This sounds great and it gives hope that maybe this skilled labour-force will be able to create jobs and end the challenges of unemployment, and also improve the debate in political spaces.
As this is happening, the country continues to experience rampant corruption at all levels, human rights abuse, judicial dishonesty and bias, and political persecution which all undermine the will of the people. What is more worrying, is the loud silence of our political class on such important matters and the few that have labored to comment, do so with a lot of reservations. But as it is rightly said that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, it’s just a matter of time the sword will be at your neck and no one will be there to speak on your behalf.
The need for political leaders to speak against bad governance is evidently in shortage. All we have are leaders, some of whom are, and would still do better as concert organisers, drumming and sanitising their superiors for favours against the desire of the bigger majority, no wonder the retention rate for parliamentary seats keeps declining estimated to be at 42 percent as per various studies.
This is something that political leaders should give much attention as we prepare to go for the general elections in early 2026. Amidst all this political dishonesty, there’s mushrooming political gerrymandering, with more districts and constituencies being created, and one wonders why the passionate President who championed the merging of Government agencies in the name of reducing government expenditure is creating more administrative units that will cost the same government money. Where is the honesty in this?
Where does the President’s transparency lie? All this is done to expand the patronage system which breeds political sycophancy that is becoming a serious concern. A political structure where leaders don’t account to the people who gave them the mandate but rather to a certain power centre is likely to frustrate service delivery, and take away the political power of that population. It’s a dangerous trend especially when citizens perceive their leaders as dishonest and corrupt.
This erodes trust in government and discourages the elites from participating in politics, which escalates poor public policy. There is a need for us as a country, especially leaders, to redefine our values, deal with moral decadence and find a common ideology that will lead Uganda to greatness. It’s the time to start attaching meaning to the words that compose our National Anthem.
Leaders need to remind themselves that this country is for Ugandans and we all have a duty to support its development, rather than be in positions of power for selfish and familial interests. There is a clear desire for accountability barazas where leaders should face the electorates and start ticking boxes, in comparison with their manifestos. This approach will eventually result into a scorecard which will guide the re-election of that particular leader.
Such approaches will help to re-align the roles of these leaders and also help the community to deeply understand what their leaders are supposed to do as opposed to the current demands of contributing to wedding parties, burials and paying school fees for children of voters.
The political period is here for us to participate not only as candidates but as people with power to choose reasonable and qualitative leaders who will promote transparency and accountability in governance, restore citizens' trust and build a political system that will serve all Ugandans with love and fairness. It’s time to imagine again and dream of a country where unity and inclusion is our blood line, where equality and justice are fairly dispensed, and where compassion and empathy is our common language.
Paul Rukundo Rwabihurwa,
Member of Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs
