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.

Herald new year

From the Edge. We are days old into the new year. Some resolutions for the new year are already broken, while are others are still that; resolutions.
The first of the broken resolution is the government’s suspension of the recovery plan for northern Uganda.
2008 was historic, so was 2007, 2006, …. and so will be 2009.
Here at muheebwa.blogspot, an audit of 2008 will not been done, for the simple reason, not that many fellow writers have done the audit, but because even if we audit, our society has become unresponsive to such involvements.
We shall only do the analysis of 2009 as it grows, not glows.

Word of Counsel

Kyadondo North; In the just concluded by-elections in Kyadondo North constituency, one of the candidates received 25 votes; the second last received 60 votes. And the first runner up lost by 60 votes.
All participants were young men and women, in the quarter a century age bracket. They have ambitions and rolled out their sleeves to redeem their natives.
All of them had campaign teams, have families, relatives and friends.
If you receive 25 votes in your home constituency with a voting capacity of 80,000 voters, despite the fact that only 25% turned up, then as a young enterprising individual, my counsel is; revise your strategy not tragedy.
I listened to the winner of the by-election, irrespective of the means used, on a radio talk show. The description by the FDC fire-woman from Busoga as ‘an amateur’ will be upheld for the moment. The lady even opted to leave the show and instead join a thanks giving party of her sister, the deputy speaker, who is from the other house of rulers.
At a tender age, all contestants seem ambitious and curious. When your ambitions over ride your abilities, then your one step away from real disaster.
Read the results of the by-election one more time.

People & Power

Demand for City Status; A New Phase
Guest Writer from Kampla House. Uganda will soon have two more cities, in addition to the 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 will be elevated to city status this November if local government officials are satisfied with the field findings.
The other town thought to 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 and a night time population of about 100,000. This is far below the required population of 500,000 for a Municipality to be considered for elevation 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.
The other town under consideration is Gulu.
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 of which offer humanitarian aid to the 20 year-war affected population.
This award of city status to Municipalities could become the new trend after the people-driven-district-demand phase.
Already Jinja Municipality council is raising alarm that they too should be considered for elevation, as they were the first to table a motion to the minister of Local Government. And analysts predict that 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 electric power dam on River Nile.
Mukono town council has also set a by-law against peeing on the radside and walls, in a bid to increase chances of earning a city status, (as if in the city, they don't pee on the walls, roadside and grass). The country has witnessed an increase in number of districts under the decentralisation programme, aimed at bringing services closer to the people. It is common for a homestead, clan or anthill to agitate for a district. All it takes is for one kinsman to munch a fatty rat, wear dead banana leaves and a pronounciation is made. The decentralization programme was started in 1993.
The number of districts has increased from 15 in 1966, to 38 in 1991, and as I write this, am not sure of the number. 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. Our bar-liamentary committee observed that those against district invetion are those who have failed to eat from them.
Some columnists have claimed that expenditure on public administration has 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 continuous debt waivers. The population has also grown, estimated to currently be nearing the 30 million mark.
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. This attempt has increased laziness, drunkardness and gigger infestation, says an unpublished report by agencies.
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. A lousy start, I will tackle this another day.
And now with more cities expected, public expenditure will increase, a move that could spell another heated political issue of contention.

The Pyramid

Former Pyramid, now Tower Shadow
Nasser Road. The increasing numbers at Makerere University is of great concern to both the university and the quality of graduates it produces.
The university has realised oscillating ranking amongst African and global universities. This has left parents to ponder other alternatives before they let their children join the 85 year old premier institution.
An investigation into the numbers revealed that the university population has more than doubled in recent times.
According to the University’s Public Relations Office, there are currently over 32,000 students at Makerere, compared to the optimum number of an approximated 16,000 to 17,000 students.
The university has 32 academic and administrative units housed in 80 buildings, covering an area of 300 acres. There also 22 faculties/institutes/schools offering day, evening and external study programmes. The university has ten halls of residence, six for boys, three for girls and one unisex for post graduate students.
This means that the facilities that were initially planned to be used by one student are shared by two.
A random survey in the Faculties of Social Science, Arts and School of Education has something to concretise these observations. Students in these faculties hardly have enough sitting space and lecturers have to use a public address system.
The whooping numbers has warranted that some of the students attend lectures from outside the designated rooms. The common scramble for seats among students has introduced first come-first seat syndrome.
Information from the university links show practically sugar coated figures, allocating a lecturer to student ratio of 1:21 (One lecturer to 21 students).This is but a marketing line since there is clear show of scrambling for seats in the overwhelmed faculties.
Because of limited facilities, it is common for students to do revision under trees especially during exam periods.
Given the crowded lecture halls, lecturers over strain and students miss out on basic education prerequisites like tutorials. In a random survey we conducted in seven faculties, tutorials were non-existent.
It is appreciated that the university has a library which is accessible through the online catalogue ( OPAC).
The library collection consists of 384,800 monographs with an annual addition of about 2,250 books, excluding donations and exchange, and 82,000 bound serials with an annual subscription of 330 serial tittles.
The university also has a book bank system which keeps basic departmental text books based at various departments.
“The book bank system is also used, and has a collection of basic textbooks kept in departmental libraries, currently approximated at 182,000 books,”
The book to student ratio either at the library or book bank is still wanting.
The university has computers with internet for research by students. There eight internet kiosks in the university faculties, with plans to create more. However, the number of computers in these kiosks is too small, and students find themselves scrambling for a computer.
Because of the scarcity of books for instance at the faculty of law, most students are compelled to use the outside library at Law Development Centre (LDC).
In 2005-2006 academic year, due to increasing pressure from the public, the University council suggested a possible solution of reducing intake by 10% to ease off the figures.
This has since taken effect but it all seems far from reality with the seemingly growing figures.
The numbers have logically undermined the education standards at the oldest university.
Makerere University, was at one time was the solely funded government institution. In 1997, the university introduced the private sponsorship scheme.
The private scheme is reported to have made the government reduce its sponsorship package for the university. The university was at crossroads and in a search for sustainable financial muscle, had to succumb to the pressure to admit more private students who could bring in more money.
The premier institution has 10 halls of residence, besides a stream of hostels built around the university. At least four students live per room in the hall.
But in a survey carried out in Mary Stuart, one of the three girls’ halls, 6 students were found residing in one room.
Could the crowding in halls of residence be contributing to the notion of the graduates from Makerere called being half-baked?
It looks like the Quality Assurance Policy which is in the Ten Year Development Programme under the theme, ‘Repositioning Makerere to Meet Emerging Challenges’, adopted by the university has not been implemented.
. The numbers are but a component of the challenges Makerere University has to deal with.
On the other hand, problems like the payment of lecturers and subordinate staff has become almost chronic issue.
One wonders where all the money raked on the private students’ scheme ends up. Majority of the students at the institution are on private programme. Little wonder, MUK, is almost at pains trying to put clear what might be happening with the coffers of the institute.
There is a general belief that graduates from Makerere University are half-baked. This is in the wake of the deteriorating standards.
A number of factors could be used to blame for this and the growing number compared to the structures and resource banks at the institution partly explain this.
In spite of the blame on numbers, the challenges facing Makerere cannot be discussed in isolation from challenges facing other public universities and indeed the natural dimension.
I deeply acknowledge the work of my coursemates in the generation and development of this piece.

Watch your Phone

Beware Of Your Phone
Kampala. As security agents receive orders not to discuss security details over the phone, I literally sense a smell. If the security operatives themselves suspect someone to be tapping their phones, then how safe is the Ugandan telecommunication system? This is a serious item on the agenda.
Kampala is under a red-stand security alert, as we celebrate our political independence.
A 22-page Phone tapping bill, The Regulation of Interception of Communications Bill was tabled before the floor of parliament on 10th April 2008 by security minister, Amama Mbabazi. The bill empowers security operatives to tap phone in ‘matters of national security’. The opposition condemned the move and described it as a move to suffocate the opposition. But now the hunter is hunted.
Other countries in Africa where the phone tapping laws exist include; Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Egypt. Net sources say Angola used the technique of phone tapping against the late Savimbi. Opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye once on a local radio talk show with the late Col. Noble Mayombo was involved in a debate arising from tapping Besigye’s phone.
Who is tapping? The revelation by security commanders against using the phones, despite the current security stand is worrying. If our security system cannot guard its own messages and information, how efficient is it then? Also, how secure are national secrets and other intelligence briefings.
The solution is, let’s go manual.

Baruuli Get First Victory

The Baruuli, a dissident group of Ugandans have a better gift for this year’s independence. The Kabaka’s visit to their area was, ironically with help from central government, cancelled/called off/blocked.
Baruuli do not recognize the Kabakaship of Buganda, they instead have their own leader, SaaBaruuli. Buruuli county is one of the ‘lost counties’, that leave a bitter taste between the Baganda and Banyoro.

Pay Before Service

Pay Before Service
Makerere. Internet at Makerere University has been disconnected by the service provider, Uganda Telecom, because of outstanding bills.
As the norm, and in spirit of the ancestors, students are threatening to strike if the university does not pay reconnection fees.
Also, in spirit of the administrative procedure, contradicting responses are coming from the administration.
The spokesman says they have sent the cheque to the service provider.
The amusing vibe is from the vice chancellor, the professor. According to him, most of the students threatening to strike are yet to clear their tuition and other university bills. This in principle means that students should agitate for the services only after paying.
The loud question is; Should the students then deduct internet charges from the money they owe between themselves and university? This is in illogical sense that they are not using the internet.
In the era of global networking, an institution worth a name should maintain internet connection, irrespective of the ‘speed’. For the government’s leading public institution to have its internet disconnected is a testimony of intentions of its care takers.
This is the up tenth time that internet at the once referral university in Africa is disconnected over unpaid fees. Of course recent rankings show the university has taken a fall to about the 50-something placement.
The university administration should develop dynamics of modern day school managent.