Environment
Campaigns and the Environment: Uganda’s Silent Ballot Box
Today, the race to State House has been formally launched. When the nominations close Wednesday 24th September, the campaign gear will have been fully engaged.
During our campaigns motorcades usually snake through the traffic, blaring music from speakers stacked on pickup trucks. Posters gaze at us from walls, poles, and even tree trunks along roads. Food vendors make money by selling snacks to crowds gathered around to listen to politicians, and much more happens during this period. But when the noise fades, candidates win, and others lose, and the supporters go back home, a different picture emerges: plastic bottles, torn posters, and heaps of food wrappers clogging the roadside drains.
This is a familiar scene. After every Uganda’s election cycle, campaigns leave behind a footprint measured in waste, noise, and damage to the environment.
Campaign Footprint
In ‘ordinary’ seasons, Kampala alone generates more than 2,200 tonnes of solid waste daily. This figure rises sharply during election periods. Uganda continues to lose approximately 90,000 hectares of forest each year, while urban noise levels average over 65 decibels.
These already unfortunate levels are often surpassed by the loud convoys and rallies that characterise our campaigns. Although Uganda banned certain kaveera starting in 2007/8, plastics still flood the environment during campaign seasons, undermining the intent of the ban.
The irony, environmentalists argue, is that Uganda has maintained kaveera ban. Yet, during political seasons, plastics in the form of campaign materials return with full force.
Choking on Waste
Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) estimates that much of the daily tonnage of the waste the city generates comes from households and markets. During campaign seasons, however, the usual volume swells as banners, posters, disposable bottles, and food packaging are discarded after rallies.
In Bwaise, a low-lying suburb, residents say they dread rainy days – and much more – during campaign and election periods.
“The trenches fill up so fast because of plastic bottles and paper,” explains 38-year-old Ruth Nakato, a shopkeeper. “When it rains, the water floods our homes. Campaign posters are part of the rubbish that blocks the drains.”
Trees Turned Billboards
Along Entebbe Road, towering trees are pockmarked with nails, each holding up the faces of smiling candidates. While the posters grab prospective voters’ attention, they wound the trees and the general environment, and sometimes fatally.
Government tells us that Uganda already loses thousands of forest hectares annually. The loss is driven mainly by agriculture and fuelwood. Urban trees face their own battle in campaign seasons.
The Noise Factor
Campaign music trucks have become a symbol of energy and mobilisation in Uganda’s political space. Yet the sound levels often exceed recommended safe limits. Studies show that in busy urban centres, noise levels already average 65 decibels or more – well above World Health Organisation standards.
In Wandegeya, shoe mender James Byaruhanga complained of sleepless nights whenever there are campaigns in the area: “Normally, during campaigns the rallies end late, and the convoys pass with sirens. You cannot rest, you cannot even hear yourself think. I just hope the campaigns for 2026 are carried out in a better way.”
Beyond human discomfort, noise pollution disrupts urban birdlife, scattering species that love quieter habitats.
NEMA’s Role Amid the Frenzy
National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has the unenviable task of ensuring the environment is not forgotten. NEMA’s mandate is to regulate, supervise, monitor, and coordinate all matters relating to the environment in Uganda.
During campaign periods, NEMA should work with KCCA, local governments, and law enforcement – more than ever – to curb violations. It should issue warnings against nailing posters into trees, penalise excessive noise offenders, and remind stakeholders that wetlands and water bodies must remain protected regardless of political seasons.
“NEMA does not take sides in politics,” says an impeccable voice at the Authority. “Our role is to protect Uganda’s right to a clean and healthy environment, which is enshrined in the Constitution. Campaigns are seasonal but environmental degradation can last generations.”
Other Voices
I have had the opportunity of interacting with many other Ugandans, and their voices reveal both hope and frustration. In Masaka, Sarah Nanyonga, a food vendor told me, “When rallies come, we earn from food sales, but the rubbish left behind is too much.”
Her concern about waste is echoed in other places such as Entebbe, where a boda boda rider, David Musoke, lamented, “Trees in the city are few, and now they are used like billboards. It is painful to see all these campaign posters flying on these trees.”
His sadness about the vanishing greenery mirrors the frustration in others like Nakato who remarked: “We need leaders who campaign without leaving us floods of plastics and litter in form of campaign material.”
Together, these people’s voices paint a picture of communities that benefit from such political activities but are deeply worried about the environmental costs left behind.
A Greener Way to Campaign
Experts suggest that campaigns can be run more sustainably. In some countries, candidates have shifted to digital campaigning, biodegradable posters, and solar-powered sound systems to reduce their ecological footprint.
Uganda could adapt these ideas. Posters could be recycled into school charts after elections. Political parties could commit to growing trees instead of damaging them. Even small gestures – such as discouraging litter of plastic water bottles at rallies – would make a visible difference.
The Silent Ballot Box
As Uganda heads deeper into the campaign season, the energy of democracy is undeniable. Yet so, too, is the ecological footprint it leaves behind. Campaigns are temporary; ecosystems are permanent.
The environment, in many ways, is the silent ballot box. It records not our political choices, but the impact of how we choose to exercise democracy. Its verdict – clean air or choking smog, fertile soil or barren land, shade-giving trees or scarred trunks – will be delivered to generations long after the campaign songs fade. Over to you.
Mr. Lubuulwa is the Senior Public Relations Officer at NEMA.
