President Museveni wants the money paid to political parties with MPs doubled, sources within the NRM have told Bbeg Media.
Museveni expressed this wish during a meeting with senior NRM officials, saying this could stem the flow of “foreign resources” to parties while ridding the country of foreign interference in the country’s political affairs.
“He said it is time to kick foreigners from our politics and the only way Uganda can do this is to boost funding for the parties,” our source said.
The proposal, sources said, is also premised on the fact that the country will soon start selling oil and will therefore be in a better financial position to fund many priorities.
We have been told that the president wants political parties to be paid at least Shs 200 million per MP starting in the 2026/2027 financial year. Currently government pays roughly Shs 100 million per MP per year.
Under Section 14A of the Political Parties and Organizations Act, 2005, the government is mandated to contribute funds or other public resources towards the activities of political parties represented in parliament to support their day-to-day operations.
This financial year, the government paid a total of Shs 44.9 billion to seven political parties that have representatives in Parliament. Of this, NRM took Shs 34.1 billion, the National Unity Platform (NUP) was given Shs 5.7 billion, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) received Shs 3.1 billion, while the Democratic Party (DP) and Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) each received Shs 908 million.
Justice Forum (JEEMA) was allocated Shs 100.9 million, and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) received Shs 100.8 million.
If the proposal is implemented, the budget for funding parties could shoot to Shs 90 billion.
Some analysts perceive the proposal as NRM’s strategy to control or weaken the opposition.
“The NRM’s history of manipulating electoral systems and state resources suggests that funding could be used to create a façade of pluralism while maintaining authoritarian control,” said one analyst.
