Kampala region has emerged as the most critical of government performance, according to findings from the latest Sauti za Wananchi survey by Twaweza, a non-governmental organization that tracks citizens’ views on governance and public services.
The study, conducted between February and March 2025, shows that the Kampala region, which is the home to the country’s central business center, has the highest proportion of residents who are critical of government actions and policies. According to the report, residents of Greater Kampala recorded the highest levels of government criticism at 48%, followed by the Central region (45%), Eastern region (42%), and Western region (38%).
The report also shows that the Northern region registered the lowest rate of government criticism at 26%. Among the major concerns raised by residents of the Greater Kampala and Central region are high unemployment rates and poor health services, which stand out as the two biggest problems. Other pressing issues include inflation, corruption, hunger, and poverty.
The report also notes that Kampala residents are less worried about land and property disputes and poor transport systems. This is, however, not the first report indicating that Kampala residents lead in mistrusting and criticizing the government. Last year, the Ministry of ICT released data showing that at least 78% of online messages by citizens about the government and its agencies carried negative sentiments.
The data, published under the Government Communication Snapshot, revealed that only 12% of online messages about the government were positive. Such negative online sentiment, according to Col. Edith Nakalema, the head of the State House Investors Protectorate Unit, discourages potential investors from engaging with Uganda. For years, President Yoweri Museveni has publicly accused Kampala residents and voters of electing opposition politicians, a trend he claims sabotages government development programs.
The president has repeatedly argued that opposition leaders focus more on criticizing him than on lobbying for development projects for their constituencies. “Such leaders only sit in Parliament to receive their salaries but never advocate for their electorates,” Museveni has said on several occasions. While addressing Kampala Metropolitan ghetto youth rally at Wampeewo in Kasangati Town Council in Wakiso District recently, the president blamed poor service delivery in the Kampala Metropolitan area on voters who, he said, had been “hoodwinked by opposition politicians.”
According to Museveni, these opposition leaders neither lobby for their communities nor popularize government programs such as the Parish Development Model (PDM). Museveni has particularly been critical of Kampala voters for electing opposition figures to the position of Lord Mayor, which has been dominated by opposition politicians for the last 20 years, from Ssebaana Kizito to Nasser Ssebagala, and now Erias Lukwago.
The president said this compelled the government to transfer key administrative powers from the Lord Mayor’s office to that of the Kampala Capital City Authority Executive Director. “I am in the government and I support you, but I am far from you. I need to work with an MP who is close to you. Vote for representatives who care for you. For these ghettos to get problems, it was a result of being hoodwinked by opposition leaders. Because you have spent close to thirty years in opposition. From Ssebaana Kizito to Ssebagala, now you have brought Bobi Wine.
All those who do not care about you,” Museveni said. Previously, leading opposition figure Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu had accused Museveni of deliberately weakening the powers of elected leaders by transferring authority to appointed officials, only to later blame elected leaders for failures in service delivery. “Gen. Museveni blamed the problems of Kampala on elected leaders who were always from the opposition to his rule. As always, he came up with a law that took away the power of elected leaders and placed it in the hands of his hand-picked officials. He boasted that he had effectively captured the city.
A decade later, things are worse.” Kyagulanyi said, adding that, “The residents of Kampala have to contend with terrible roads, sickening traffic jams, floods occasioned by poor drainage, a broken-down healthcare and education infrastructure, and now the garbage crisis…. All resulting from corruption, inefficiency, abuse of office and the blatant disregard for the common good. This is but a symptom of regime failure.” Kyagulanyi recently said.
As the clock continues to tick towards next year, when the country elects leaders across all levels, there is less reason to think that people in the Kampala Metropolitan area are going to deviate from the norm and elect candidates subscribing to the National Resistance Movement.
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