UGANDA’S POLITICAL ACTORS UNWITTINGLY INVITING THE MILITARY INTO THEIR GAME
Uganda is in the thick of an election circle. The ruling party the National Resistance Movement (NRM) is conducting their primaries for the various offices to elect members that will carry their flag in the 2026 general elections. The incidences of electoral malpractices plus some cases of violence notwithstanding, the exercise is going well. The NRM Secretariat has set up a tribunal to manage the emerging grievances by those who feel they lost unfairly. The adoption of multi-party democracy in Uganda in the late 1990s brought about the logic of periodic renewal of government leadership (at local, district and national levels) through general elections. In this regard, two important observations need to be made to grasp the context of the emergence of liberal democracy in many African countries including Uganda. One of the consequences of this situation has been the commercialization of our electoral contests. For one to appeal to the voters and be voted for, you must have financial security on top of perfectly articulating what you intend to offer once voted into office. This has become a heavy investment and therefore the resort to violence by both political leaders and ordinary citizens as a medium of political engagement and interaction is inevitable. This therefore becomes a zero-sum game in which loss amounts not only to political exclusion but to marginalisation from the socio-economic benefits expected to accrue to those in charge of the political system. Like most African developing countries, multiparty democracy is still young and not fully understood by the stakeholders. As a result, political players are yet to pray by the rule book. Yes, we have the constitution, the electoral laws designed by the Electoral Commission, the penal code and other regulatory measures but still we ignore them and go by the ‘rule of the jungle’ to attain the ultimate prize i.e electoral victory. This exactly explains the current challenges being experienced as political parties conduct their primaries. This therefore makes it difficult for security agencies especially the UPDF to stay in their barracks when clearly the threats are way beyond what the Uganda Police Force can offer. In this regard, special commendations go to the police and other security agencies who were able to tame the levels of violence, especially on the 17th of July 2025 when the voting day took place. The management of the whole exercise by joint security was perfect otherwise hundreds of lives were going to be lost. The Uganda Police Force (UPF) currently has approximately 53,000 officers. The police-to-population ratio is now at 1 to 812 Ugandans. This is still insufficient for the whole country during elections. Remember, not all the 53.000 personnel are into operation. A good number are in general administration, investigations, international duties and guard duties as well. Therefore, it gets sad to hear some people, especially from civil society organisations contending so fervently that the UPDF should not involve themselves in providing security in this highly charged electoral atmosphere. Why should we lose many lives and property before calling on other security agencies to come and control the situation. Imagine what would have happened in places like Kasambya, Isingiro, Lwemiyaga, Rubanda, Rwampara, Lwengo, Namutumba, Kiboga and others in the just ended NRM parliamentary primaries if UPDF had not reinforced the Uganda Police Force. In the 2007/8 Kenya General Elections, 1,200 people were killed in the election violence and as many as 350,000 people displaced. Farm production was disrupted and lots of property was destroyed. So was transport and tourism and this resulted in a sharp economic downturn. For this mayhem to end, the Kenyan government had to bring in the military to control the situation that had literally gone out of hand. Joint deployment makes no harm for purposes of proactive engagements that curtail any dangerous catastrophes in such election season. If the UPDF deployments are not anywhere near the polling station and they are told clearly not to involve themselves in electoral management because clearly is the work of the Electoral Commission and helped by the Uganda Police Force. Therefore, their presence does no harm to our democracy. We must also realize that as a developing country, we are still lacking certain capabilities to manage our electoral processes. We don’t have advanced biometric voting systems. In some countries voting is done at home and there is no need for people to line up in the various voting centers. People vote weeks before the set date. Campaigns are conducted online using multimedia platforms. These advanced biometric systems help in curbing electoral malpractices that quite often attract dissatisfaction leading to violence. Therefore, in the absence of such advanced technological capacities, not enough police personnel to police every corner of this country during elections, it is imperative that all our joint security systems are activated to provide security during elections to minimize violence, death, loss of property and other electoral malpractices. After all their counter deployments are always intelligence led. The writer is the Acting Executive Director Uganda Media Centre
By Obed Katureebe
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