Inside FDC's 2026 election manifesto, plan to 'fix economy'

KAMPALA - "We don’t want to be known by what we oppose, but by what we stand for and what we offer," the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party said in a statement when unveiling its 2026 general election manifesto last week.

“Our manifesto lays out, in detail, how we are going to fix this economy,” the party, which is facing a credibility crisis following allegations of receiving ‘dirty’ money from hostile groups in the last general election, added in a statement shared on X, formerly Twitter, on August 13, 2025.

Its manifesto sets out what its plans would be, should its presidential candidate Nathan Nandala Mafabi win next year’s election, which is shaping up to be the most crowded in the recent past, with so far 136 aspirants picking nomination forms for presidency.

On the issue of democracy and governance, FDC promised to restore a two-term presidential term limit in the Constitution, reduce the powers of the President regarding appointments and require that all public service appointments be effected through an open, transparent and competitive process.

The party also promised to eliminate all forms of policy, legal and administrative restrictions to the legitimate operations of the media and civil society.

Government restructuring

On restructuring the Government and eliminating waste, it vowed to undertake appropriate reforms to reduce the size of parliament from the projected 420 MPs to not more than 190, reduce the size of the Cabinet to not more than 21 ministers, and strengthen offices of permanent secretaries, directors and commissioners.

It also promised strengthening decentralisation and local economic development by adopting policies to achieve administrative and fiscal decentralisation, and supporting federal and local governments to become units of economic organisation and transformation.

On the issue of corruption, the once main opposition party vowed to strengthen anti-corruption institutions and mechanisms to detect and prevent corruption and stealing of public funds.

“Locate and recover all stolen public funds and public assets that have been stolen and expropriated through illegitimate means. Undertake legal and administrative reforms to ensure expeditious prosecution of corrupt persons in both the public and private sector,” it says.

On economic development, the party promised to offer Ugandans an alternative economic growth path that is focused on accelerating inclusive development, creating employment and fostering equity.

It said it would make job creation and economic transformation the overriding rationale for economic policy and a target of creating at least 5 million new jobs over the next five years as well as design lending facilities that ensure and improve access to affordable long-term credit for Ugandan businesses, with a special window to guarantee access to credit for women and youth-owned enterprises.

It also promised to ensure a stable macro and fiscal policy environment by taking prudent actions to manage public expenditure and simultaneously increase revenues.

The agriculture question

On the issue of agriculture, it promised to increase the budget allocation to the sector from the current 3% to 10% within the first three years of its term and establish and fully capitalise a national agricultural bank as the epicentre for agricultural finance delivery.

“Through this facility, agricultural financing will be made affordable and widely accessible through appropriate outreach programmes,” FDC stated, adding that it will also give priority to reviving and strengthening agricultural co-operatives as fully owned citizens’ organisations.

It also promised to undertake a public lands audit by establishing a formal judicial inquiry to ensure that all public or government land grabbed through illegitimate ways is fully recovered.

It also promised to improve land tenure security by accelerating titling and registration of land with a target of registering at least three million parcels over the next five years and develop a mechanism providing for a direct dividend payments system as a measure to eradicate household poverty using revenues from oil and other mineral resources.

Health

On health, it promised that the starting salary for a nurse will be shillings 650,000 while that of a doctor is shillings 3.5 million.

It also said if elected, it will establish a health insurance scheme to ensure coverage for all citizens who do not have insurance from private health service providers or work-based insurance schemes, and establish a nation-wide emergence ambulance and air rescue service that will be accessible to every citizen in need and offer specialised services for women and especially mothers.

On education, it promised to pay a primary school teacher shillings 650,000 as starting salary and sh1m for a secondary school teacher.

It also promised to design and implement a publicly funded school feeding programme for primary and secondary school children.

On energy, it promised that the generation capacity will be fast-tracked to reach 4,000MW and that it will also create incentives and develop appropriate partnerships to fast-track the design and implementation of other renewable energy sources with particular emphasis on solar energy, wind energy, biomass energy, and geothermal.

It also promised to reform the procurement laws to eliminate red tape, increase transparency and accountability, and shorten the period for project approvals to not more than six months.

“Partnership with local construction firms will be a standard requirement for all publicly funded public works. This policy is intended to increase the rate of local participation measured by the value of business arising from such partnership,” the party added.

Analysts weigh in

Veteran journalist and political analyst John Kakande said all the things FDC is proposing are important but some are not realistic.

“For example, reducing the size of parliament would require you to go back to parliament. Merging constituencies is not easy unless you create districts with more or less the same number of people; otherwise, it will not be equitable because a lot of areas will be underrepresented.

So, the people discussing the issue of cutting the size of parliament need to be more scientific and look at the population size because some districts are big and others are small,” he said, noting that such districts don’t deserve the same number of MPs.

Kakande said a good manifesto should be focused on a few actionable items because all the things FDC is promising to do would require a lot of resources.

“But the question is: do you have the resources? It is like having a shopping list which does not take into account the issue of resource envelope,” he said.

Kakande also said the issue is not that the sitting government does not have good plans, it is execution.

“Execution is the biggest problem. So, I would have loved to see what FDC says about the execution of government programmes,” he emphasised.

Populist views?

Gerald Karyeija, a professor of public administration and management at the Uganda Management Institute, said the FDC is raising popular and populist views.

“Some of the things they are promising to do are also what the [sitting] government is trying to do like strengthening the fight against corruption and improving salaries. But the proposals are a fair representation of what has been on the ground, although there is nothing novel,” he said.

Karyeija emphasised that the FDC plans are an amalgamation of sentiments that have been dominant, especially in the Opposition space.

“This now makes other opposition political parties to be more innovative and creative than singing the song that has been on the table. The FDC is responsive and sensitive to some of the issues on the ground, but it faces the reputational challenge and trust,” he added.