Priced beyond youth: How the Youth MP seat is Uganda’s costliest Parliamentary Election

By Lawel Muhwezi

Priced beyond youth: How the Youth MP seat is Uganda’s costliest Parliamentary Election

You are probably wondering why I am writing this story. After all, monetisation has evidently become part of our country’s political culture. Money no longer merely supports politics in Uganda; it defines it. But sometimes the reality hits differently when you confront the scale of it. When you realise that even affirmative action seats, specifically created to give young people a fair chance at leadership, have become accessible only to those with extraordinary financial muscle.

I was having a casual conversation with a colleague who had been involved in managing the campaign of Mercy Kanyesigye in the National Female Youth MP race, mentioned, almost in passing, that more than six billion shillings had been spent. Six billion. I thought I had misheard him. Youth politics? Six billion? I knew elections were expensive, but was it this bad?

When Makerere University hosted a conversation on monetisation of youth politics on 6^th March, 2026, I asked Julia Muhumuza, who was a candidate in this race, how much the winner spent. She responded that she wasn’t counting, but it was billions and billions of money. 

This sparked an investigation into the structured system of spending in Ugandan elections. I spoke to several campaign insiders and mobilisers, including Kato Laban, who supported candidates in the Western Region Youth MP race before later working with Kanyesigye’s team. What emerged was not rumor, but a structured system of spending that begins long before the national vote and intensifies at every stage.

Youth MPs are chosen through an electoral college system composed of district youth leaders and structures, unlike directly elected MPs. According to Kato, spending begins at the district level, where aspiring MPs finance electoral college hopefuls with campaign materials, logistics, and facilitation. Teams “plant” loyal candidates in district youth structures to influence voting. By the time district-level elections conclude, significant sums have already been deployed.

Funding sources are not difficult to trace. Many of the leading candidates come from politically and economically connected families. Mercy Kanyesigye is known to be related to a one Emma, a prominent figure in the Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) and a businessman dealing in gold. Western Region Youth MP elect Mwine Tumwebaze is the son of Apollo Kirimi, a prominent businessman in Mbarara, who owns Kirimi Supermarkets and real estate investments. Northern Uganda Youth MP elect Elma Kapel Challa is the daughter of Esther Anyakun, a minister in President Yoweri Museveni’s government. Their opponents, too, largely fall within similar socio-economic brackets. Affirmative action, intended to level the playing field, appears increasingly dominated by those already positioned near power and capital.

As voting approaches, the expenses escalate. Delegates must be transported to the voting venue. Buses and coasters are hired, or cash is sent to facilitate the district’s team to travel. Then comes what insiders refer to as the “keep home fee.” Delegates are given money to compensate for the days they will spend away from their families. The reasoning is straightforward: if they had remained home, they would have been working and supporting their households. Candidates, therefore, pay for that absence.

Perhaps the most revealing phase is what insiders describe as “holding.” Delegates arrive several days, sometimes up to a week, before voting. They are accommodated in hotels and kept away from rival candidates. Outside Kampala, hotel rooms range between UGX 30,000 and UGX 70,000 per night. In Kampala, rates rise to between UGX 70,000 and UGX 120,000. Multiply that by hundreds of delegates over several nights, then add meals and other daily facilitation, and the figures quickly run into billions. Campaigns often include entertainment. For example, in this just concluded election, Kampe Diana, Mercy’s opponent and NRM candidate, hired musician Eddy Kenzo to perform for delegates, turning the political process into something resembling a private festival.

Then comes the most direct transaction: cash per vote. Multiple sources confirm that during both party primaries and the national vote, delegates were given approximately UGX 1 million per vote. In some cases, UGX 500,000 was distributed initially, with promises of the balance later. In others, full payments were reportedly made, with additional top-ups during party primaries. By this stage, ideology and policy are overshadowed by arithmetic. Loyalty is negotiated in cash.

And there’s the counting and declaration. During the voting and declaration phase, there are also efforts to sway electoral officials themselves, despite their constitutional duty to protect the integrity of the vote. This also comes at a cost. Being voted and that result reflecting, and then being declared, is a whole different thing. 

In the aftermath of the Mercy Kanyesigye victory in the National Female Youth MP election that was witnessed by the National Electoral Commission chairperson, Simon Byabakama, Diana Kampe Ampaire filed a petition at Hoima Chief Magistrate’s Court seeking a recount of the ballots cast in the closely contested race. Kampe alleged irregularities in the counting process 

Kanyesigye had to hire high-profile advocates, including Asuman Basalirwa, who pushed back vigorously in court, and early in the proceedings, a recount was ordered. However, when the court later inspected the voting materials, it found that the ballot box integrity had been compromised, with evidence suggesting tampering with the seals and serial numbers, a discovery that ultimately led the magistrate to cancel the conditional recount order and uphold Kanyesigye’s win.

Legal fees now included, one wonders how much was spent not just on winning votes, but on influencing the very process meant to ensure they were fairly counted?

With this kind of spending, democracy risks losing its meaning. Youth MPs were created as a bridge between Uganda’s young population and Parliament, a mechanism to amplify concerns about unemployment, education, and opportunity. But when entry into Parliament reportedly costs billions of shillings, accountability becomes complicated. A candidate who has invested such sums faces immense pressure to recover them politically, economically, or otherwise.

Yet the responsibility does not rest solely with candidates. Delegates, too, have internalised the monetisation of politics. According to Kato, many demand payment because they believe elected leaders rarely return to serve them. “If they will not help us later, at least we benefit now,” he said. It is a logic born of distrust, and it sustains the cycle.

Oremo Odwe who contested in the Northen Uganda Youth MP in NRM primaries, tells of a story in the final stages of the campaign, his campaign team which was from his home area in lango called him, “We love you so much, we want you to win, you are the most competent, however, your opponent has offered shs 800,000 if each of us sign, but we want you to be our leader, do you have money to counter this offer?” that is when he realised his run was over. 

Uganda has one of the youngest populations in Africa. And while affirmative action was designed to democratise representation and open leadership space for ordinary young people, the 2026 Youth MP elections reveal a system where access is heavily mediated by wealth and proximity to power. Whether reform is possible remains uncertain. But one truth is difficult to ignore: when the price of leadership reaches billions, the voices of ordinary youth are outpriced out of their own democracy.