Uganda registers decline in Democratic Index

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Security and Governance Program report has revealed that Uganda registered a decline in Democratic Index and failed to hit the required target which indicates a deterioration in its international ranking.

This was revealed at the launch of the performance review in Kampala.

The report shows that the decline from 4.94 to 4.6% against the target of 7.3 calls for more efforts geared towards the Governance and Security Programme in realizing the 7.3% target for 2022/2023 and the 8.6 target for 2024/2025.

The Democratic index is an international measure of the principles of electoral or representative democracy, which is based on parameters that include; electoral process and pluralism, functioning of the government political participation, political culture, civil liberties, and free and fair elections.

The Governance and Security Programme brings together 32 Government Agencies responsible for upholding the rule of law, ensuring security, maintaining law and order, Public Policy Governance, access to Justice, promoting Human Rights, accountability, and transparency. These include the office of the Presidency, the Ministry of Security, the Judiciary, Prisons, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Police, and the Attorney General’s office among others.

The report comes at a time when the opposition National Unity Platform Political-NUP party is demanding the release of its supporters allegedly detained during and after the  2021 elections and also complaints of illegal detentions, kidnap, and violation of freedom of speech and expression by the armed forces.

The Minister for Presidency Milly Babalanda in a speech read for her by the Security Minister Jim Muhwezi, said that such a decline calls for more deliberations in identifying prevailing gaps and double their effort so as to achieve the targets.

The minister also said  from the National Development  Plan III Review,  the Governance and  security program realized a very low performance of 17 percent  performance which is very concerning and requires  collective interrogation and  remediation

The First Deputy Prime Minister  Rebecca Kadaga said the Government is on course to improve the Democratic index and will create an enabling environment for Democratic governance. She also said that the government remains committed to delivering public services regardless of the challenges encountered.

The report further revealed that there were interventions put in place to avert and manage human trafficking. It indicates that in 2022/2023, at least 700 victims of trafficking were rescued and provided temporary shelter, medication, food, and transport.

“The challenge, however, remained with regard to the number of officers and men in Uganda Police and prisons resulting into very high police population ratios and higher wader prisoner ratios”, the report indicates.

The report further states that the program ensured that policies and submissions to Cabinet are consistent with the Country’s development aspirations and as such, a  total of 217 submissions to Cabinet were reviewed for adequacy and harmony to national, regional, and international commitments.

According to the report, the Constitution as amended was also translated into 21 local languages, bringing the cumulative total to 33 out of 65 languages.

The Governance and Security Program received 7.529 trillion Shillings in the current financial year.

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