City on Demand

From the Local Council meeting. Uganda could soon have two more cities, in addition to the ever increasing number of districts, town councils, sub counties and villages.
Gulu Municipality in Northern Uganda, and Mbarara Municipality in Western Uganda, are the two towns that could be elevated to city status if local government officials are satisfied with the field findings.
The other town being evaluated is Mbale in Eastern Uganda.
Mbarara Municipality has three divisions and 30 kilometers of road network. Recently, Mbarara Municipality received 855 million shillings from the Ministry of Works to tarmack the roads, in preparation gaining city status.
Mbarara is the gateway into western Uganda, with transit routes to Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Northern Tanzania.
Entebbe was the administrative and commercial center of Uganda during the colonial times, until just after independence in 1962 when the capital city was moved to Kampala.
Kampala is up to now the only city in Uganda, acting as the administrative, commercial, industrial, political, cultural and educational centre, with a day population estimated to be over three million people.
According to Mbarara Municipality mayor, the town has day time population of over 200,000 people and a night time population of about 100,000. This is far below the required population of 500,000 for a Municipality to be elevated into a city.
This is not the only hurdle facing this town, tension is already high, poor sanitation, problems of solid waste collection and disposal, wrangles over divisions’ border demarcations, and revenue collection are threatening to tear apart the Municipality Council.
According to National Environment Management Authority, Mbarara Municipality leads in garbage collection at 55% and a landfill of 100 acres, the largest in the country. This it accomplishes with four garbage collection trucks.
Gulu town, which is set to celebrate 100 years of operation, is the gateway to Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan and Juba, Eastern Congo and a ‘headquarter’ of Non Governmental Organizations which are operating in Northern Uganda, majority offering humanitarian aid.
This award of city status to Municipalities could become the new trend after the people-driven-district-demand phase.
Already Jinja Municipality council is complaining that they too should be considered for elevation, as they were the first to table a motion to the minister of local government. Soon other municipalities could join in.
Jinja Municipality is based in Eastern Uganda; it is the entry point of goods into Uganda and the neighboring countries, and base station of hydro power dam on River Nile.
The country has witnessed an increase in number of districts under the decentralisation programme of bringing service closer to the people. The decentralization programme was started in 1993.
The number of districts has increased from 15 in 1966, to 38 in 1991, and 77 now. Thirty three districts were created and operationalised between the year 2000 and 2006. Currently there 77 districts, 150 sub counties, 13 municipalities and one city council.
Critics argue that this creation of new districts has increased expenditure on public service at the cost of development. This they add is only intended to score political goals.
Some columnists have claimed that expenditure on public administration grown consistently at an annual rate of 16 percent, from $ 100 million in 1998 to $ 200 million in 2004, while Uganda’s foreign debt is estimated to be $ 5 billion, up from $ 286 million in 1986, despite the continous debt waivers.
The increased expenditure comes in increased people representatives, commissioners and their support staff and utilities.
Once the proposed municipalities are elevated into cities, they will receive more funding from the central government. Already, according to 2007/08 budget of Gulu district, which was 6.6 bn, over 5.5 bn was expected from the central government.
The abolition of graduated tax towards the 2006 presidential elections left local governments with little sources of revenue to run their business, and now turn attention to the central government through the Ministry of Local Government for support. The compensation that was promised is yet to be delivered.
The Annual Assessment of Minimum Conditions and Performance Measures for Local Government 2007 Synthesis Report indicates that most districts did not collect enough money to run their budget.
Some districts like Pallisa in 2006, was reported to have sold off district vehicles so as to raise money to pay outstanding debts.
And now with more cities expected, public expenditure will increase, a move that could spell another political issue for a heated discussion.