COMMENT: Broken projects, broken trust

Essay 5 of 7: How Uganda Forgot Its Citizens

COMMENT | Gertrude Kamya Othieno | Across Uganda’s landscape, scattered like monuments to forgotten promises, are the carcasses of public projects. Half-finished classrooms overtaken by shrubs. Health centres without drugs or staff. Roads that begin with gravel and end in potholes. These are not just signs of inefficiency. They are symbols of a broken relationship between the state and its people.

In a functioning republic, development projects reflect a dialogue between the state and its citizens. They are designed, funded, completed, and maintained as proof of partnership and mutual obligation. In Uganda, however, projects are often launched with spectacle, then quietly abandoned when attention fades.

This pattern is well documented. According to the Auditor General’s Consolidated Report for 2023, numerous government projects remain incomplete due to poor planning, contractor negligence, or misallocation of funds. Roads, schools, and health centres are among the most affected. In some instances, budgets were released, and contracts awarded—but the infrastructure either stalled mid-way or never started at all.

The cycle is familiar. Groundbreaking ceremonies are held with great pomp. Leaders pose for photographs with spades and bricks. Budgets are announced. Speeches are made. And then, the silence. The contractor disappears. Funds are “exhausted.” The project stalls, sometimes for years. Communities are left staring at empty structures and faded billboards.

In response, citizens have taken matters into their own hands. In Kole District, for instance, local women have spearheaded road maintenance after waiting too long for government action. Elsewhere, parents contribute to roofing classrooms, and villages collect funds to complete borehole construction. While these acts of resilience are admirable, they expose a silent abandonment by the state. Civic participation should complement, not replace, government responsibility.

The culture of incompletion also fosters deeper cynicism. People begin to see public office not as a platform for service but as a route to enrichment. Projects are launched not to serve the community but to access funds. Development becomes performance, something to be seen doing, not something to actually deliver.

And when failure is normalised, trust erodes. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics’ National Service Delivery Survey (2021) shows a growing public dissatisfaction with key services, particularly in health, education, and infrastructure. Citizens disengage. They stop attending meetings. They stop voting. They stop believing.

This erosion of trust is not theoretical – it is lived. When a mother walks past an empty health centre on her way to a private clinic she can not afford, she doesn’t just lose time and money. She loses faith in the republic.

Meanwhile, the media and civil society grow weary, and scandals no longer shock. Investigative reports circulate briefly before being drowned out by the next crisis. Corruption becomes part of the background noise. And the cycle continues.

But a nation can not build on abandoned foundations. The promise of public service must be reclaimed, not just through slogans, but through completion. Projects must not only start, they must finish. And they must serve.

The history of development in Uganda and across much of postcolonial Africa has often prioritised visibility over viability. Both colonial and post-independence regimes have favoured grand symbolic projects that photograph well but fail to meet long-term needs. This legacy of performative development persists to this day.

We must move beyond the politics of the spade and ribbon and return to the quiet dignity of completed work.

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Gertrude Kamya Othieno | Political Sociologist in Social Development (Alumna – London School of Economics/Political Science – LSE) | Affiliated to Global People’s Network (GPN) – A Socio-Cultural Movement |  Email – gkothieno@gmail.com