The role of democratic rights and obligations of citizens in enhancing public service delivery in Uganda

Irrespective of a two decade-plus long prevalence of several democratic participatory frameworks, and the excellent legal and policy frameworks for citizen participation in Uganda, exercising of democratic rights and obligations of citizens in Uganda is far from reality and the services rendered to the citizens are still poor. As an example of this ill reflection of reality, the electorate is still prone to hand-outs and is easily manipulated into participation. The general awareness level on citizens’ rights and responsibilities has swung out of balance in Uganda — for instance, based on the findings, the right to participate in decision-making and, subsequently, the right to demand for accountability on the quality of services delivered are not commonly known among the citizens in Uganda. The majority of the citizens are not aware of the government initiatives in place supporting citizen participation. Likewise, nepotism and corruption is still increasingly staining politics and government institutions that are supposed to form the basis for participation. Moreover, to a certain extent, there is censorship of the press, and no separation of powers. These not only attesting to the statement that participatory initiatives in Uganda are more like wish lists than substantive statements that are guaranteed in practice, but also raising questions such as: · How relevant have the democratic citizen participatory initiatives been to the actual involvement and participation of citizens in prioritising, planning, and decision-making on issues affecting citizens? · What is the citizen’s knowledge and understanding of the democratic citizen participatory initiatives? · Have the democratic citizen participatory initiatives promoted citizen participation that is strong in order to demand quality service delivery? Thus, to try and answer the above questions, this research aims to establish whether the quality of public services relates to the exercising of democratic rights and