NRM Party's Manifesto "Protecting the Gains", Are Nonexistent Gains but Failures Just - Says FDC Party's Hon Oguzu Lee Denis, Maracha Constituency MP.

By Oguzu Lee

23-9-2025. 

As 2026 elections approach and party loyalists assemble to celebrate yet another architecture of false achievements, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) will unveil a manifesto that boldly proposes to "protect gains" that exist primarily in the alternative universe of political propaganda. While the ruling party's narrative of progress and prosperity grows increasingly detached from the daily experiences of ordinary Ugandans, it is crucial to examine the underlying causes of these disconnects and explore potential solutions by critically looking at sectors that matter. Protecting the Gains is nothing else except attempt to whitewash failure framed as success. 

For instance under health sector, what gain will the NRM be protecting exactly?

The chasm between promise and reality is visible even for the blind can see. The NRM manifesto is said to prioritize "a well-educated, skilled and healthy population as essential in facilitating socio-economic transformation and personal well-being". However, the grim realities of Uganda's healthcare system starkly contrast with these promises. Despite the health allocation increasing to 7.8% of the budget in the 2025/26 financial year after 4 decades, it remains woefully inadequate in the face of 15% health budget commitment promised under the Abuja Declaration of 2001.

A real manifesto that protects gains should have addressed these challenges and offered potential solutions that include increasing health budget allocation to meet the Abuja Declaration's 15% commitment. A healthcare system that turns citizens into medical tourists outside Uganda is no gain to protect. Protecting gains should have offered to improve doctor-patient and nurse-patient ratios through targeted recruitment and training programs while proposing to enhance the functionality and quality of health facilities, particularly in rural areas. 

Education: what is the gain being protected, protecting poor quality? The NRM manifesto boasts of improved literacy rates, claiming they have risen to 82.8% from 43% among 15-24 year-olds. However, these figures tell nothing of the crumbling education infrastructure, inadequate materials, and overwhelmed teachers that characterize Uganda's education system. As of now, 1600 parishes lack primary schools. The country lacks 22,000 classroms. Children are at home because of avoidable salary disparity-occasioned industrial action. Protecting gains would mean imvesting in education infrastructure development, including classrooms and educational facilities. Providing adequate training and support for teachers to enhance their pay & capacity and ensuring equitable access to quality education, particularly for marginalized communities

In employment and poverty alleviation, Museveni is protecting statistical illusions. The Mirage of economic progress what is exciting some youth. 

The government proudly proclaims that the national poverty rate has fallen from 56% in 1992/1993 to 16.1% in 2023/24. However, this statistical improvement stands in stark contrast to the lived reality of Ugandans, who ranked poverty and unemployment among their top three concerns. Today many youth are on ropes and streets guarding roads. To address these challenges, potential solutions should've prioritized policies to promote job creation and entrepreneurship, particularly for youth, enhancing the effectiveness of wealth creation initiatives, such as the Parish Development Model and Emyooga and addressing corruption which IGG says costs the country 20 trillion annually and ensuring transparency in the implementation of anti-poverty programs

Road infrastructure: The manifesto proposes protecting inaccessibility as mother fail to make it hospital, farmer's crops perish on the road while transporters count avoidable repair costs. Much as the government boasts of efforts "to improve road infrastructure development", voters have consistently ranked road network/transport as a top concern. To achieve genuine progress, manifesto should have shown proposed investment in road infrastructure development, particularly in rural areas and proposed adequate funding and resources for road maintenance and construction while plementing effective project management and monitoring systems to prevent corruption and ensure timely completion. With all the above missing, there are gains to protect. 

The accountability deficit is unspeakable. The NRM members are being mobilised to participate in protecting impunity as a gain while their leaders navigate sanctions. That makes it not only unforgotten manifesto but fits it into what Sarah Bireete, Executive Director of the Centre for Constitutional Governance calls a "ceremonial document"—"important during nomination, irrelevant during implementation". Real protection of gains would mean patching accountability deficit by srengthening institutional frameworks for manifesto implementation and monitoring, enhancing transparency and accountability in governance and decision-making processes and fostering a culture of citizen engagement and participation in policy-making and governance which is missing in the its protection of unfounded gains. 

In view if the above, it's only appropriate Ugandans of sound mind should reject the protection of failure because the NRM's manifesto represents a profound betrayal of the Ugandan people. It's an attempt not merely to whitewash failure but to frame it as success. Ugandans must reject this protection racket for failure and demand tangible progress in addressing the country's development challenges. By exploring potential solutions and holding leaders accountable, Ugandans can work towards a brighter future that prioritizes genuine development over political propaganda.

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