SON OF KAGUTA: Museveni’s contradictory politics, unfulfilled campaign promises, unfulfilled pledges

By Oweyegha Afunaduula

Ed Finn (2004) wrote that politicians lie to get elected. For them, as for no other profession, making grandiose promises they never intend to keep – and which most voters don’t expect to be kept – remains, inexplicably, a viable strategy for electoral success. He, however, gave six other reasons why politicians make grandiose promises they never intend to keep:

1. They can get away with it. There is no means of holding them accountable for broken promises.
2. There’s a good chance their lies will never be exposed.
3. They are convinced (often by their own polling) that most voters “can’t handle the truth.”
4. Even when exposed, their lies will continue to be believed by the people who want to believe them.
5. They can often manufacture plausible excuses for breaking their promises.
6. If all politicians are perceived as liars, why not vote for the ones who are most photogenic, most popular, most articulate, most entertaining? The politician’s best vote-getting attribute today is charisma, not veracity.

A combination or all of these reasons explain why, in the last 40 years of his rule, President Tibuhaburwa Museveni has made so many unfulfilled promises and pledges, which some people see instead as calculated political deceit.  Quite often unfulfilled promises and pledges are accompanied by a lot of contradictions and, hence,emerge as contradictory politics in the leadership and governance of Uganda. So, if there was Joseph Conrad’s contradictory politics in Germany (Armstrong, 1985), there is also Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s contradictory politics in Uganda. Contradictory politics is unavoidable where there are so many false promises and pledges. They are driven by political deceit for electoral advantage. Indeed, President Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s sustained instabilities, militarism and contradictions have shaped the political landscape of Uganda over the last 40 years. But we can also talk of the contradictory political philosophy of the National Resistance Movement, which being a personalist politico-military organisation, reduces to one person of power: President Tibuhaburwa Museveni. The very low tolerance for political diversity or pluralism (e.g. Mutingwende, 2024) by President Tibuhaburwa Museveni, and the accompanying arrogance of some politico-military leaders in the NRM, explain the current mutation of sociopolitical crisis waiting to explode into full-scale sociopolitical decay and collapse.

We have recently been treated to the contradictory positions on the 100 million Shillings secretly given by President Tibuhaburwa Museveni to Members of Parliament (MPs), with the President who gave the money on one side and the MPs who got the money on the other. The MPs denied getting the money, with the Deputy Speaker, Tayebwa, publicly maintained it was street talk,while the President confirmed giving out the money to the MPs, with reasons. There is a suggestion that some NRM MPs from Buganda had suggested to the President that if he wanted his quest to transfer the Coffee industry from the public to Enrica Pinetti and the Uganda Coffee Development Agency (UCDA) to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, he would have to give each MP 50 million Shillings. There was also a theory that the President wanted the MPs to support his quest and determination to have the UPDF Act changed to legalise the committal of civilians to his military courts. So, he decided to give each MP 100 million Shillings, which was of course political bribery of the MPs.

All this the President did against a pile of unfulfilled pledges to various communities in all parts of the country (e.g., Daily Monitor, 2021, 2023).He has also been dishing out billions of shillings to individuals, ostensibly to spur development, but unfortunately most of the money has gone down the drain.A 2015 report indicated that the President had not delivered on 817 pledges to Ugandans, which would cost him more than Shs12.9 trillion (Daily Monitor,2023). The President has made the false promises and pledges, sometimes as the President and sometimes as an individual to endear himself to the NRM and to voters (Kibet, 2025). The false promises and pledges have grown into a mountainous burden for the President, thereby injuring hischaracter. However, the President does not seem to be ethically and morally bothered. Many critical analysts believe that dishing out money to individuals or to preferred firms at the expense of the development, transformation and progress of Ugandans, is an abuse of the citizens of Uganda and also an abuse of power.

While explaining, on 11 April 2025, the leaked dishing out of 100 million Shillings to each MPs, the President explained that he got the money from the Classified Account – an account created to enable the military to acquire equipment and carry out its work. He justified or linked the 100 million-Shilling vivid political bribe to security concerns (Daily Monitor, 2025). Such money is what I recently wrote about in my article “Uganda: Unethical money, immoral money is used to buy indigenes off their land”.

One school of thought wonders, if money can be got from the Classified Account to pay MPs in what appears to be political bribery, why can’t money be got from the same account to improve the quality of education, health and lives of Ugandans or provide free sanitary pads to all our school-going children instead of backtracking on this commitment, citing economic constraints, when money is being wasted to buy the conscience of MPs either to thank them for endorsing presidential choices or to woo them to support forthcoming presidential choices? Contradictory politics harms the nation.

Is it true that public money is, these days,easily used just to service the interests of the President at the cost of ethical and moral integrity in our country; that instead of allowing the MPs to represent the interests, issues, problems and concerns of the citizens, MPs are set against these to serve the interests of the President? Jacky Kemigisa, in her undated article “Unfulfilled Presidential Pledges: Who keeps the President Accountable?” in Parliament Watch was, therefore, right to ask “Who will keep the President accountable if the MPs are within his armpit through presidentially exchanging the conscience of the MPs for money (e.g., Oweyegha-Afunaduula, 2025).

Not long ago, I wrote articles under the titles “Military politics, democratic deception and democratic disguise in Uganda”, which Charmer News published on March 26 2025. At the centre of military politics, democratic deceit and democratic disguise in Uganda is President Tibuhaburwa Museveni; and “How Militarised Personalist Parties Undermine Democratisation: Uganda’s National Resistance Movement in Perspective”, also published by Charmar News on 18 March 2025.  Again, at the centre of the militarised personalist ruling organisation for 40 years in Uganda is President Tibuhaburwa Museveni, the perennial Chairman of the organisation.

I have been motivated to write this particular article by Gift Mwonzora’s “Too Good to Be True: Unfulfilled campaign promises, pledges and political Deceit in Zimbabwe”. Zimbabwe was under President Robert Mugabe’s personalist rule for 38 years.

In this article I want to write on President Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s numerous unfulfilled campaign promises, pledges and instances of political deceit, which is quick to hide by repeated references to and justifications of his bush wars against the Amin and Obote regimes.

President Tibuhaburwa Museveni has ruled Uganda uninterruptedly for 40 yearsand, therefore, presents a suitable case study not only in personalist power but also in unfulfilled campaign promises, pledges and political deceit.

Long ago, former President Apollo Milton Obote of Uganda told Ugandans and the world that President Tibuhaburwa Museveni (then called Yoweri Museveni) was “a consummate, pathological liar who told the truth only by accident”. He must have closely studied the character of the President, by then a less known quantity, since he worked in the President’s office as a research assistant. However, there is also a historical account narrated by the late Lt Robert Namiti (the lawyer) when back in 1977 when he was a student at the University ofDar-es-Salaam, where he was studying Law. I met him when he had just fled Makerere University after participating in astudent strike that claimed the life of Ssemwanga. I noticed that Lt Namitiwas very comfortable in the circles of Apollo Milton Obote and Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania. In fact, one day he took me to the official residence of Kambarage Nyerere and took me around as if he was residing there. Many people -both security and non-security – knew him.

Lt Namiti told me that through Apollo Milton Obote, President Nyerere advanced Tz Shs. 750,000/to Tibuhaburwa Museveni, then called Yoweri Museveni for the purpose of executing a guerilla war against President Idi Amin Dada in the early 1970s. According to the account Lt Namiti’s account, Yoweri Museveni was then positing himself as a Member of Apollo Milton Obote’s Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) but had other plans. Lt Namit told me Yoweri Museveni had initially secretly started his own rebel group, which he named Front for National Liberation (FRONASA). According to Lt Namiti, Yoweri Museveni never accounted for the money to Julius Nyerere or Apollo Milton Obote, but instead used it to enhance the financial muscle of his rebel group. The failure to account, according to Lt Namiti, strained the relationship between Nyerere and Museveni on the one hand and Apollo Milton Obote on the other. Both Nyerere and Obote, according to Lt. Namiti, distrusted Museveni. Although I was in Tanzania from 1972 to 1980, I never got an opportunity to confirm Namiti’s account. However, ifit was true, it meant that Yoweri Museveni was a deceitful politician in the making.

In his article, Gift Mwonzora (2023) shows how politicians use campaign pledges and promises to hoodwink voters.  According to Gift Mwonzora, this is pronounced through false, fake and unfulfilled promises and misrepresentations. Many voters then fall for the lies, empty policy and programmatic promises by political candidates, thus falling vulnerable to deception by politicians. He submits that political deceit goes contrary to the dictates of democratic representation and participatory democracy. It is, therefore, critical in the process of de-democratising a country.

 One thing is true.False, fake political campaign promises injure the political reputation of the one that parades them (Aragonès and Palfrey, 2007).

Explanations of parties’ use of strategic ambiguity are usually framed in terms of voters’ prospective evaluations of parties. If used wisely, ambiguity can enable parties to appeal more broadly to voters (Ntounias, Schneider and Thomson (2024).In countries that are highly exposed to globalisation, governing parties face significant challenges to fulfilling the promises they made to voters. At the same time, voters punish governing parties that fail to keep their campaign promises (Ntounias, Schneider and Thomson, 2024). However, in quasi-military regimes exercising elections, the rulers will often employ political buying, vote stealing and brute force to curl voters into submission to their rule and avoid calls for accountability. Or else apart from political promises, they shamelessly employ lies, damn lies to voters to glue them themselves while not providing social goods and services and diverting money to other useless ventures, including buying political support of some key members in the opposition parties.

As the Daily Monitor records, has not left behind the numerous false promises and pledges to be buried in the past. Let me just list a few unfilled promises-cum-pledges the President of Uganda, the Fountain of Honour, has made over the last 40 years.

1. Tarmacking Jinja-Mbulamuti Road in Busoga
2. Busoga University
3. Public Sugar Processing Factory in Busoga
4. Unfulfilled promises in Bukedi
5. Unfulfilled pledges in Kisoro, includingconstructing John Kale Institute of Science and Technology 
6. Unfulfilled pledges in Kabarole, including compensation of families affected by Allied Democratic Forces.
7. Unfulfilled pledges in Kasese, includingupgrading Kasese Airfield to an international airport, revamping Kilembe Mines and Katwe Salt Factory, and addressing the land issues in the district.
8. Unfulfilled pledges, particularly the tarmacking of the Muhanga-Kisizi Road. 
9. Unfulfilled pledges in Tororo
10. Unfulfilled pledges in Bunyangabu District
11. Unfulfilled Promises in Arua, West Nile, includingMuseveni’s Shs350m Pledge to a SACCO made 7 Years ago.

The list is long. However, I should mention that the President at least fulfilled his promise of providing 36 motorcycles for Ghetto structures (PPU, 2024). Otherwise, we may remember the President most as the ruler of Uganda who consistently and persistently created archives of unfulfilled promises and pledges throughout the country.

While on a visit to Tororo in January 2019, however, the President told his then Minister in the President’s Office, Ester Mbayo, thus: “I know my kattala (responsibilities). You don’t have to waste time reminding me. If you total up of the kilometres we have tarmacked, they are much more than what is remaining. I have all of them in my head. So don’t waste your time reading”. He may be right but they are in their hundreds, or thousands, and time is not on his side. He has yet to implement the airports in Kanungu, Kidepo and Masindi, and to upgrade the Jinja Airport. The Standard Gauge Railway awaits to be constructed. Even the traditional schools await rehabilitation (Ochieng, 2024), which the Presidentpromised in his 2024 State of the Nation address. Unfulfilled promises and pledges undermine democratisation and delivery of services, thereby reducing public trust and confidence in the President and government. To confront the declining trust and confidence the president and the government are likely to divert money from development to buying political support to sustain the falsehood that the President and government are still popular.

For God and My Country.

Further Reading

Andrew Cohen Amvesi (2025). Museveni Unfulfilled Promise. WestNile Online, February 24 2025.https://westnileonline.com/tag/museveni-unfulfilled-promises/ Visited on 13 April 2025.

Daily Monitor (2013).  Museveni’s Unfulfilled Pledges. Daily Monitor, November 13 2013https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/museveni-s-unfulfilled-pledges-1558292 Visited on 12 April 2025 at 12:02 pm EAT.

Daily Monitor (2025). Museveni breaks Silence on MPs’ Cash Bonanza. Daily Monitor, April 11 2025https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/museveni-breaks-silence-on-shs100m-mps-cash-bonanza-4999152 Visited on 12 April 2025 at 11:49 am EAT.

Davi Ochieng (2024). Unfulfilled Presidential Pledges Leave Traditional Schools in Dilemma. Nile Post, May 18 2024 https://nilepost.co.ug/education/200300/unfulfilled-presidential-pledges-leave-traditional-schools-in-dilemma Visited on 13 2025 at 13:04 pm EAT

Ed Finn (2004). February 2004: Lies, Damn Lies and Political promises. Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. February 1, 2004https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/february-2004-lies-damn-lies-and-political-promises/Visited on 12 April 2025 at 10:49 am EAT.

Enriqueta Aragonès and Thomas Palfrey (2007). Political Reputations and Campaign Promises, Journal of the European Economic Association June 2007 5(4):846–884 https://www.iae.csic.es/investigatorsMaterial/a9167111438archivoPdf67375.pdf Visited on 12 April 2025 at 20:06 pm EAT.

Glencross, A. (2017). The Contradictory Political Philosophy of Brexit. Political Insight, 8(1), 26-29. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041905817702735 (Original work published 2017).

Hakim Kanyere (2025). Museveni Repeats Old Pledges During Busoga Visit, Leaving Major Issues Unresolved. Nile Post, January 27 2025.https://nilepost.co.ug/news/239472/museveni-repeats-old-pledges-during-busoga-visit-leaving-major-issues-unresolved Visited on 13 April 2025 at 11:26 am EAT.

Isaac Imaka (2016). Uganda: Museveni recycling Pledges to woo Voters, says Analyst. The Monitor, 5 January 2016 https://allafrica.com/stories/201601050474.html Visited on 13 April 2025 at 12:04 pm EAT.

Kemigisa, Jacky (?). Unfulfilled Presidential Pledges: Who Keeps the President Accountable? Parliament Watch, https://parliamentwatch.ug/blogs/unfulfilled-presidential-pledges-who-keeps-the-president-accountable/ Visited on 13 April 2025 at 11>03 am EAT.

Kibet, Daniel (2025). 25 Years of Unfulfilled Pledges: The Plight of Teriet Ndorobos. Daily Monitor, April 9 2025.https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/25-years-of-unfulfilled-pledges-the-plight-of-teriet-ndorobos-4995530#story Visited on 12 April 2025 at 12:07 pm EAT

mavengano estherand mhute isaac (2024). Sub-Saharan Political Cultures of Deceit in Language, Literature, and the Media, Volume II: Across National Contexts. HOEPLI.it Published, 12 2024https://www.hoepli.it/libro/sub-saharan-political-cultures-of-deceit-in-language-literature-and-the-media-volume-ii/9783031428852.html Visited on 12 April 2025 at 20:02 pm EAT.

Mutingwende, Andrew (2024). Contradictory Politics and the Mutation of Crisis in Postcolonial Zimbabwean Urban Clean-Up Campaign. Researchgate, June 2024https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381501172_Contradictory_Politics_and_the_Mutation_of_Crisis_in_the_Postcolonial_Zimbabwean_Urban_Clean-up_Campaign Visited on 12 April 2025 at 11:34 am EAT.

Mwonzora, G. (2023). ‘Too Good to be True’: Unfulfilled Campaign Promises, Pledges, and Political Deceit in Zimbabwe. In: Mavengano, E., Mhute, I. (eds) Sub-Saharan Political Cultures of Deceit in Language, Literature, and the Media, Volume II. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42883-8_21

Mwonzora, G. (2023). ‘Too Good to be True’: Unfulfilled Campaign Promises, Pledges, and Political Deceit in Zimbabwe.  Researchgate,  December 2023, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376464272_’Too_Good_to_be_True’_Unfulfilled_Campaign_Promises_Pledges_and_Political_Deceit_in_Zimbabwe Visited on 11 April 2025 at 1951 pm EAT

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2025). Military politics, democratic deception and democratic disguise in Uganda. Charmar News, March 26 2025. https://charmarnews.com/military-politics-democratic-deception-and-democratic-disguise-in-uganda/ Visited on 11 April 2025 at 14:17 pm EAT.

Oweyegha-Afunaduula (2025). How Militarised Personalist Parties Undermine Democratisation: Uganda’s National Resistance Movement in Perspective. Charmar News, March 18 2025. https://charmarnews.com/how-militarised-personalist-parties-undermine-democratisation-ugandas-national-resistance-movement-in-perspective/ Visited on 11 April 2024 at 14:03 pm EAT

Paul B. Armstrong (1985). Conrad’s Contradictory Politics: The Ontology of Society in Nostromo (Winner of the 1985 TCL Prize in Literary Criticism). Twentieth Century Literature Vol, pp. 1-21 (22 pages)Published By: Duke University Press.

PPU (2024). President Museveni fulfills Pledge of 36 Motorcycles to Ghetto structures. State House, September 4, 2024,https://statehouse.go.ug/president-museveni-fulfils-pledge-of-36-motorcycles-to-ghetto-structures/ Visted on 13 April 2025 at 12:38 pm EAT.

Prisca Wanyenya (2025). Govt breaks pledge on Free Sanitary Pads. Parliament Watch, Match 7 2025 https://parliamentwatch.ug/news-amp-updates/govt-breaks-pledge-on-free-sanitary-pads/ Visited on 13 April 2025 at 12:22 pm EAT.

Rick Klein, Averi Harper, and Alisa Wiersema (2021). Instabilities and Contradictions Shape political Landscapes. ABC News, December 10 2021 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/instabilities-contradictions-shape-political-landscape-note/story?id=81657507 Visited on 12 April 2025 at 11:24 am EAT.

The Observer Team (2019). Museveni raps Tororo Leaders Over Unfulfilled Pledges. The Observer, January 27 2019https://observer.ug/news/museveni-raps-tororo-leaders-over-unfulfilled-pledges/ Visited on 13 April 2025 at 11>55 am EAT.

Theodoros Ntounias, Christina J. Schneider, and Robert Thomson (2024). Campaign Promises, Political Ambiguity, and Globalization. IGCC Working Paper No 7. escholarship.org/uc/item/0050h951https://ucigcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024_wp7_ntounias-schneider-thomson_v2-FINAL-1.pdf Visited on 11 April 2025 at 20:14 pm EAT.