Governments, like potential Bumble matches, will say anything to get you to swipe right on that election ballot paper. And often, those promises made during the campaign trail are never kept.
Fact-checking website Africa Check today unveiled a tool to help voters keep track of their ruling parties’ promises. It’s aptly dubbed the Promises Tracker.
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“They campaigned and promised to change your life for the better. You voted for them. But have they kept their word?” asks Africa Check.
“We have picked out 10 key promises made by governments in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya and are tracking progress on them.”
“Our tracker covers campaign periods going back five years. To find the promises that mattered most, we looked through ruling party manifestos, political party websites and the transcripts of key speeches made during election campaigns,” Africa Check adds.
Each promise is explained in detail too, linking off to relevant internal sources. So it’s an excellent resource for potential voters and politics students.
Senegal is reportedly coming soon, but for now, It’s interesting to see just how much Africa’s major governments get done.
And the answer is: not much at all.
For starters, Kenya’s Jubilee Party, which has been in office for five years now, has only kept two of its key promises. These relate to increasing its counties’ budgets, and lowering the police-to-citizen ratio.
However, it has broken two key promises, relating to women hires at parastatals, and falling well short of its promised economic growth rate during its first two years of rule.
Nigeria isn’t faring much better.
The All Progressives Congress has not made good on any of its key promises thus far. It has since broken three promises too, also over-promising on growth rate, job creation and implementing a national gender policy.
And finally, South Africa’s ANC also fell under the microscope.
In power for more than 24 years, the African National Congress has only kept one promise made during its 2014 campaign according to Africa Check: it has opened two universities since January 2014.
Every other promise is either stalled, “in the works”, “not yet assessed” or broken.
Have a look at the Promise Tracker, and those promises explained in more depth, here.
Feature image: screenshot, Africa Check
