Do populist state measures – especially when launched by a politically powerful leader – deliver improvements for the stated beneficiaries? To answer these questions, we analysed a populist intervention by President Yoweri Museveni in Uganda to address rampant land conflicts. In 2013 he set out to halt land evictions. The promise to deal with land evictions “once and for all” has yet to be realised over a decade later. This could result in heightened populist state activity in the run-up to and after the election.