Xavier Radio Ug News 24 7
RUBANDA, UGANDA — In a powerful display of voter accountability, Prossy Akampurira, the Rubanda District Woman MP and one of the Commissioners of Parliament who benefited from the controversial UGX 1.7 billion “Service Award” payout, has been decisively voted out of office.
The resounding defeat comes after months of sustained public outrage over the hefty payouts to parliamentary commissioners—a scandal that saw Akampurira personally receive approximately UGX 400 million. On the campaign trail, voters repeatedly confronted her with a pointed question: “Why are you giving us 2,000 shillings in handouts when you pocketed 400 million of our money?”
The UGX 1.7 billion allocated in “Service Awards” sparked nationwide condemnation earlier this year, with activists, media, and ordinary citizens condemning it as an outrageous misuse of public funds at a time of severe economic hardship. In Rubanda, the issue became the central theme of the election, transforming the race from a routine political contest into a referendum on greed, accountability, and the social contract between leaders and the people.
Opposition candidates and civil society groups in Rubanda framed the election around a stark contrast. They circulated powerful infographics illustrating what UGX 1.7 billion could have done for the district:
Pay the annual salaries of 2,180 secondary school teachers under Universal Secondary Education (USE).
Cover a full year of school fees for 85,000 pupils under Universal Primary Education (UPE).
Pay the monthly salaries of 1,700 nurses for an entire year.
Buy sanitary pads for 680,000 school-going girls.
“This was not just an election; it was a moral reckoning,” said a local community organizer in Rubanda Town. “People here struggle every day. They see their schools lacking teachers, their clinics without nurses, and their children going without basic needs. When they learned that one person received money that could have transformed entire sectors, they decided her time was up.”
Akampurira’s campaign, which relied on the traditional NRM machinery and last-minute small cash handouts, failed to counter the overwhelming narrative of betrayal. The symbolic “2,000 shillings” she allegedly distributed at rallies became a potent metaphor for what critics called “insulting tokenism” in the face of grand corruption.
Her defeat is seen as one of the most significant upsets in the 2026 elections and sends a clear warning to other politicians implicated in similar scandals. It demonstrates that despite challenges to electoral fairness, organized civic awareness and voter resolve can still enforce accountability at the ballot box.
“The people of Rubanda have spoken with one voice,” declared the winning candidate in her acceptance speech. “They have said that leadership is about service, not self-service. This victory belongs to every parent, every teacher, every nurse, and every student who knew that 400 million shillings taken by one leader is a future stolen from thousands.”
The result in Rubanda is being celebrated by anti-corruption activists as a landmark moment in Uganda’s political landscape, proving that even amid election-related violence and intimidation, the issue of corruption can mobilize voters to deliver a powerful and peaceful verdict
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