Ugandans Applaud Government's Covid-19 Response but Suspect Pervasive Corruption

30 September 2024
Afrobarometer (Accra)
By George William Kayanja

Most citizens are dissatisfied with provision of pandemic-related relief to vulnerable households.

Key findings

  • As of early 2021, an overwhelming majority (88%) of Ugandans said they were at least "somewhat well informed" about COVID-19 and efforts to combat it.
  • In both 2021 and 2022, more than eight in 10 Ugandans applauded the government's performance in managing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Nearly three-fourths of respondents endorsed the use of police and security forces to enforce health mandates during a pandemic.
  • As of January 2022, 71% of adults said they had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. o More than eight in 10 residents in the North (86%) and West (83%) reported getting the vaccine, rates that are about 30 percentage points higher than in the East (55%).
  • Trust in the government's capacity to ensure vaccine safety grew between 2021 and 2022, from 49% to 59%.
  • In 2022, the vast majority (87%) of Ugandans said they had not received any government assistance to limit the negative effects of COVID-19.
  • Fewer than one in five citizens considered the distribution of pandemic-related assistance to have been fair, and just one-third (33%) were satisfied with the government's efforts in this area.
  • Eight in 10 Ugandans (81%) said "some" or "a lot" of funds intended for the COVID-19 response were lost due to corruption.
  • A majority of respondents said the government should invest more resources in preparing for future public health emergencies, even if it comes at the expense of other health services.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected the health and economic well-being of people around the globe, though to varying degrees (OECD, 2022). Uganda's geographical location, rate of population growth, influx of refugees, and weak health care infrastructure make the country particularly vulnerable to public health emergencies. In the past, outbreaks of cholera and the Ebola virus have led to high mortality rates, due in part to late detection and inadequate coordination by the Ministry of Health. And even though those outbreaks were contained, poor record-keeping has delayed the development of future response strategies (Kayiwa et al., 2022).

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government rapidly instituted response measures that included a national lockdown and a supplementary budget of UGX310 billion (roughly $80 million) to mitigate the social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

The strict lockdown, which lasted from March 2020 to August 2021, included bans on transportation, the closure of schools and places of worship, and quarantines for incoming travellers. Analysts specialising in health care have lauded the Ugandan government for being prepared to respond to this public health emergency before the first case was registered, going so far as to call its response "a role model for pandemic containment in Africa" (Sarki, Ezeh, & Stranges, 2021).

However, some critics argue that the government's overall response was insufficient. For example, a report by the Bertelsmann Stiftung (2022) says that "relief programs have primarily been directed toward the urban population in Kampala and surroundings, while economic response measures were mostly focused on the formal sector, therefore not effectively reaching the poorest and most vulnerable citizens."

This dispatch explores Ugandan citizens' evaluations of the government's COVID-19 response based on Afrobarometer surveys completed in early 2021 and in early 2022.

Overall, most Ugandans praised the government's management of the pandemic and endorsed the use of the police and military to enforce public health mandates during a crisis. But most were dissatisfied with government efforts to provide assistance to vulnerable households and suspected pervasive corruption related to COVID-19 resources.

Self-reported vaccine uptake rates were relatively high, and trust in the government's ability to ensure vaccine safety grew by 10 percentage points between 2021 and 2022.

More than half of citizens said the government should invest more resources to prepare for future public health crises, even if it means fewer resources are available for other health services.

George William Kayanja is a senior researcher for Hatchile Consult.

Read the original article on Afrobarometer.

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