By Frank Kamuntu
Nearly five years after Parliament approved the elevation of 13 Municipalities, one District and a town council to be elevated to City statuses, the cry for the new administrative units has been lacking adequate funds.
The Government which came up with the plan of creating 15 strategic cities had wanted to operationalise them in phases of three per political term but because of the elective positions that come with such administrative units, there was pressure to have at least 10 for the start. Voters in each of the 10 cities were given a gift of three Members of Parliament who include a City woman MP and two Division directly elected legislators while to serve locally, a City Mayor, a City Council, Division Mayors and their councils were elected.
Those municipalities that got the node in 2020 are; Masaka, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Hoima, Lira, Gulu, Arua, Mbale, Soroti and Jinja. Meanwhile, the approved cities of; Wakiso taking the entire Wakiso District Local Government area; Entebbe, Kabale, Moroto and Nakasongola (from a Town Council) were to become operational by July 1, 2025 with each City coming up every financial year. However, none of these cities has been operationalised.
Gov’t Plea
The Minister of Local Government, Raphael Magyezi has revealed plans by the Government to halt the planned operationalisation of these five Cities due to lack of funds.
While appearing before Parliament’s Public Service and Local Government Committee to defend the 2024/25 ministerial policy statement for the Ministry of Local Government, Magyezi pleaded with the legislators to take a position on whether to implement the operationalisation of the pending new Cities or halt the process until the 10 existing ones are fully functional.
The five cities were already approved, but they aren’t yet operational and from experience of the MPs, especially MPs who are representing the Cities, what is your guidance as a Committee? Should we proceed and say, despite the challenges that we are meeting in the 10 cities, let us go ahead and operationalise the decision of Parliament? Or, is it the considered opinion or the view of the Committee that we halt and first fully implement the 10 Cities which then means, I will then need to inform the Cabinet that it isn’t advisable in the next term to talk about another five cities? Magyezi asked.
However, Committee Chairperson, Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, said that it isn’t within the powers of the Committee to change a resolution of Parliament in which the creation of 15 Cities was approved. He said that initially, the House had approved operationalisation of the new cities in three phases but it was later changed to have 10 cities starting on July 1, 2020.
I don’t think this Committee will contradict Parliament because this Committee is part of Parliament and so, the decision has to be implemented as Parliament decided. I don’t think for us to say we halt them, the decision was taken and it isn’t within our mandate to reverse that decision, so the Ministry needs to implement the decision of Parliament, said Mapenduzi.
He also reminded the Committee that there was a decision taken some time back that barred the creation of new administrative units in the middle of an electoral term because doing so would require holding of elections. This was part of the amendments made to the Local Governments Act, whereby any new administrative unit would have to be operationalised six months to the next general elections.
So you can only create them when the term is about to expire so that you have the elections held together if we are fair, unless we are saying we want these cities to kick off in 2031 because if we are saying they shouldn’t then that means that after 2026, because the requirement is that you can only create when you have the next elections, he added.
Minister Magyezi however told the Committee to differentiate between creation of new administrative units from operationalizing those that have been created and the cities up for discussion are already created but the challenge the Ministry is facing is to either wait until everything is okay before the others come on board.
 Or we say, whatever challenges we are meeting, let us move. There is a financial implication and I hear some voices somewhere who will quickly say, there is no money. But also, there is a political element of some of these things. I would propose that you come up with a position of the Committee to Parliament, which will guide us as Cabinet. We may look at other things, I can be the Minister in charge of Local Government and then I am the one to cause a position against the Parliamentary Resolution because I have to implement it despite the challenges. If we are going to wait until Gulu, Arua, Soroti are 100 percent funded, then you will have to answer a question about Kabale and Moroto, what about Entebbe and Wakiso? noted Magyezi.
Hoima City East Division MP, Patrick Isingoma suggested that the operationalisation of the five new cities be stayed so that the Government fully funds those running instead making all the 15 suffer the same fate.
Judging by what the Minister is saying, it seems to me like there are two alternatives, we can go ahead and roll out the remaining cities, but it seems there could be possibilities of delaying the process until when we are in a better position to roll out. I am of the view that there is already too much in terms of the 10 cities, which needs to be done, a lot is yet to be done and therefore, if you are adding on another burden of the five, I don’t know, said Isingoma.
Buzaaya County MP, Martin Muzaale also made the case of the new Sub-Counties and Town Councils that were created by the Ministry of Local Government about the same time the Cities came up. He said that these lower local Governments are also struggling with financing with many having staff that have not accessed the payroll.
We are talking of Cities, but we also have town councils which aren’t operational. It is a big thing and that is what I ask. What is the plan that the Ministry of Local Government have on these Town Councils that were created. We are paying salaries, we are paying money to these people and they aren’t delivering anything, so we need to sit down and agree and push our recommendations to Parliament, said Muzaale.
The 10 Cities have also been caught in fights for buildings with the mother Districts which had their headquarters in Municipalities that were elevated.
 Audit concerns
The development comes at the time Auditor General, John Muwanga in his December 2023 report raised concern about operationalisation of the 10 new Cities that received UGX 427.337 billion to fund their operationalisation and only UGX 371.283 billion was spent, while UGX 41.220 billion was swept back to the consolidated fund by June 30, 2023.
The Audit report also revealed that all the Cities had not implemented the new approved City structure, which has greatly demoralised employees since most of them are in acting capacity thus affecting the delivery of services. The implementation of the new Cities was further hampered by the non-disclosure of liabilities in five Cities amounting to UGX 1.763 billion resulting from the merger of 75 Lower Local Governments.
Experts have argued against the functionalisation of the other new Cities given the challenges those running are already grappling with, arguing that if not addressed, the remaining ones won’t be any different.
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