Assessing the impact of politics on the performance of the media sector in Uganda has been an issue of discussion all over the world. Although media influence has increased tremendously in the last decade, researchers are yet to agree on the impact of politics on the performance of media. The context of analysis of politics on the performance of media in Kampala District that revealed media can act as a double-edged sword. The study reviewed various literature on hate speeches & messages, political participation & violence, social protest movements and challenges facing media reporting. From the review the study adopted a conceptual framework developed from the libertarian theory and social responsibility theory of media reporting based on Aday Andersen (1974) & Buor (2004) with the propagation of social unrest as the dependent variable which relies on the media political incitement as the independent variable. The study used a cross sectional survey design, applied qualitative and quantitative approaches and collected data using interviews and questionnaires. Stratified random sampling technique was applied to the study population of 209,500 people from the Kampala district from which the samples of 84 participants were selected. The study found that politics on the performance of media in Kampala district was escalated by vernacular (local) FM stations. In particular, 76.7% of the media in Kampala, publish content with hate speeches and 60.4% broadcast messages of hatred and intolerance through media platforms like Twitter, Facebook (69.4%) on a monthly basis. Most of the incitement makes most people uneasy (76.7%), resulting in social unrest (53.5%) aimed at influencing Government decisions. This was associated with the wave of murders, kidnapping as the residents (50%) were expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership (53.5%). Government should address the political concerns of its people. More importantly, there needs to be stringent regulations including legal action and control of vernacular (local) FM stations which are prone to manipulation by political elite. This should be coupled with training of journalists on conflict reporting and development of a standard conflict reporting procedure.