By KT Reporter
Food rights advocates have warned of a possible surge in hunger and food insecurity in Uganda following the upcoming national elections, urging citizens to stock food and keep emergency cash on hand in anticipation of likely shortages and price hikes.
The call was made by Agnes Kirabo, the Executive Director of the Food Rights Alliance (FRA), during a press briefing in Kampala. Kirabo said the warning is backed by official projections and called for early preparation by both households and the government to avert a full-blown crisis.
Her remarks follow findings from the latest government-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis. The IPC assessment, conducted across 48 of Uganda’s 148 districts, representing about 32 per cent of the national population, projects a worrying scenario for the months following the 2026 elections.
According to the report, over 7.56 million people are expected to face food insecurity between August 2025 and February 2026. Of these, 11,000 people are projected to be in Emergency, requiring urgent humanitarian assistance; 1.41 million are in Crisis, while 5.99 million are Stressed and at risk of sliding into deeper food insecurity if conditions deteriorate.
The IPC uses a five-phase scale to measure food insecurity, ranging from Minimal (Phase 1) to Famine (Phase 5). The report attributes the projected crisis to potential market instability, rising food prices, and transport disruptions expected during and after the election period.
Kirabo said that data and past trends indicate a recurring pattern of food insecurity in Uganda after every election period. “Our concerns are informed by evidence that each post-election period since 2011 has witnessed increased hunger and food price volatility,” she noted.
Historical data support these fears. After the 2011 general elections, Uganda experienced one of its worst food inflation spikes in recent history, reaching 30 per cent, with the prices of staple foods like maize flour, beans, and cassava doubling within months.
A similar pattern followed the 2016 elections, when the government released its first-ever IPC report, revealing that 10.9 million Ugandans (27 per cent of the population) were food insecure, including 1.6 million in Crisis.
In the 2021 post-election period, projections estimated 2.5 million people in Crisis (Phase 3), with Karamoja alone accounting for nearly 30 per cent of the total. The situation was worsened by COVID-19 restrictions and global food supply disruptions, leaving many households unable to cope with rising prices.
Lawrence Kanakulya, the Programme Officer for Advocacy at the Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM), said Uganda has an opportunity to act before the situation deteriorates.
“Every electoral transition in Uganda has been followed by a period of economic strain, rising commodity prices, and heightened food insecurity,” Kanakulya noted. “This time, the data has come early enough for all actors, government, NGOs, farmers, and communities, to prepare adequately.”
Meanwhile, Bernard Bwambale, a Public Health Nutritionist and Food Systems Specialist, emphasised the need to revive discussions around national food reserves and enactment of key legal frameworks, such as the National Food Act, to strengthen the country’s resilience to shocks.
Bwambale warned that Uganda’s current lack of sufficient food reserves and legal safeguards exposes citizens to recurring crises. He added that the early warning provided by the IPC report should not go unheeded.
He cautioned that, should the government fail to act on the projections, it could be held accountable in court for neglecting its constitutional obligation to ensure food security for all Ugandans.
With at least one in six Ugandans projected to experience food insecurity in the months after the elections, advocates are urging the public to take individual precautions, such as stocking non-perishable food and maintaining small cash reserves, while calling on the government to strengthen institutional measures to prevent the situation from escalating.
“The writing is on the wall,” Kirabo warned. “We can either act now or wait to be hit hard when hunger knocks on our individual stomachs.”
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