KAMPALA, Uganda — The mounting cost of winning office is forcing elected officials to focus on recovering campaign “investments” rather than serving the public, leading to a crisis of accountability in Uganda’s political system, analysts and current lawmakers warn.
As the 2026 elections draw closer, civil society groups are raising alarms over the lack of transparency in campaign financing, arguing that opaque money flows undermine democratic integrity.
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According to the Alliance for Finance Monitoring, political parties and candidates spent a combined total of Shs796.6 billion in 29 sample districts during the 2021 general elections, marking it as the most expensive campaign process to date.
Denis Nyangweso, the Samia Bugwe Central MP, noted that the high cost stems from an electorate that has lost trust in leaders and prefers candidates who offer money.
“Votes have become expensive because many electorates have lost trust in leaders and prefer candidates who give them money,” Nyangweso said.
This environment forces many candidates to sell property or borrow large sums of money to finance their campaigns. Nyangweso cautioned that after winning, these officials are “pressured to recover this money within five years,” often struggling to focus on serving their constituents and risking imprisonment due to unpaid debts.
Former Rukungiri Municipality MP Ronald Kaginda Mugume confirmed that new legislators frequently borrow from moneylenders and banks, who expect rapid repayment.
“Many people go to Parliament with the false belief that it is a source of wealth,” Mugume said, stressing that Parliament is a platform for raising the concerns of the electorate, not a business venture.
Robert Ssekitoleko, the Bamunanika County MP, argued that excessive spending leads to poor performance in Parliament as leaders focus on recovering their money instead of public service.
Marion Agaba, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Coalition Uganda, or ACCU, stated bluntly that democracy in Uganda has become a “commodity for sale.”
“Today, candidates with large amounts of money are more likely to be voted into office and once elected, they often fail to effectively represent the people’s interests in Parliament because they secured power through bribery rather than public trust,” Agaba said.
Agaba warned that this commercial transaction creates unaccountable leaders: “This has become a business where someone says: ‘Let me invest sh50m, and when I enter office, I will recover sh2b.'”
The ACCU director called for new laws to regulate campaign spending limits and require disclosure of funding sources. She also demanded that the Electoral Commission, or EC, and the Judiciary enforce existing laws against voter bribery.
The EC has repeatedly warned candidates against accepting illegal funding and has appealed to religious institutions to halt fundraising activities, cautioning that donations construed as bribery could lead to the nullification of an election.
