Celebrity Politics and the transformation of Uganda's political landscape. A case study of entertainers in Uganda's politics
| dc.contributor.author | Nicholas Mwayi Kkula | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-08-22T05:52:49Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-08-22T05:52:49Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2026-05-29 | |
| dc.description | Undergraduate | |
| dc.description.abstract | The politics of Uganda has experienced a noticeable and impactful change since 2017, marked by the unparalleled rise of entertainers and cultural celebrities into politics via its electoral system. Since the 2017 Kyadondo East parliamentary by-election victory of musician Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (Bobi Wine) marked the beginning of the phenomenon of celebrity politics, with numerous subsequent happenings leading to the introduction of new actors, modes of communication, and political behaviour into a political system long dominated by professional elites, liberation movement cadres, and military actors. Although the scale and rate of this development is very great, limited systematic scholarly examination of its causes, mechanisms and implications has been achieved. This paper examines how politics of celebrities can influence the transformation of the Uganda political situation in the period 2017-2026. It is informed by three definite objectives which are to investigate structural and contextual conditions which enable the entry and electoral success of entertainers in Ugandan politics and to evaluate the role of celebrity candidates in voter behaviour and national political opinion and the implications of celebrity politicians in governance quality and accountability processes. The research design is a descriptive and explanatory research design based on critical realist and interpretivist philosophy, which uses secondary data sources, only. The Uganda Elections Data Portal (UEDP), qualitative data analysis of mainstream Ugandan and international media, Afrobarometer country survey data, and parliament materials will make up the primary data sources. The theoretical framework combines Populism Theory created by Laclau (2005) and Mudde and Kaltwasser (2017) and Elite Theory in the lineage of Mosca (1939) and Pareto (1935). The results define political success of the celebrity in Uganda as based on a particular structural arrangement: a dominant-party system that seals off traditional channels of political opposition, a relatively younger population with a strong engagement of the entertainment culture, the fast development of social media as a form of political communication infrastructure, low levels of disillusionment with traditional political elites, and organisational inefficiency of political opposition parties. Data on the UEDP indicate that celebrity parliamentary candidates won with an overall estimated rate of about 38 percent in 2021, compared to a wait of about 22 percent among non-celebrity candidates in similar constituencies, with observable voter mobilisation in constituencies with contests. Data analysis of media content and Afrobarometer indicates that there is a highly age-differentiated trend in terms of public opinion: 68% of young people who were not yet 30 years old affirmed that they would prefer a politician outside of the traditional political elite, whereas 39 percent of people over 50 did. The analysis of heterogeneous legislative performance of celebrity MPs reveals on governance and accountability that the informal aspect of accountability is reinforced by the amplification provided by the media but yet diminished in attaching to the formal and established mechanisms of parliamentary oversight. Based upon the Pareto notion of elite circulation, the paper finds that celebrity politics in Uganda is much more a type of change in elite composition, as opposed to a major redistribution of political power. The paper finds the celebrity politics as a structural and sustainable aspect of the Ugandan political terrain that has actual but limited democratising impacts. Guidance is provided to the Electoral Commission, Parliament, political parties and future researchers. The research contributes novel theoretical and empirical insights in the fields of celebrity politics, African electoral politics and the democratic development in Uganda. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12311/3562 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Uganda Christian University | |
| dc.title | Celebrity Politics and the transformation of Uganda's political landscape. A case study of entertainers in Uganda's politics | |
| dc.type | Dissertation |
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