Lukwago asks govt to return new city ordinances for accent

The Lord Mayor of Kampala capital, Mr Lukwago, has asked the Ministry for Kampala to return all the new city laws to his office for approval.

The mayor revealed this among his agenda policy plans for the coming financial year 2024-2025, a move he said will help solve the long

standing political and administrative quandary in KCCA.

According to Lukwago, the current administrative structure governing Kampala City wields a multitude of power centres that have affected the policy making processes within the institution.

"Both Presidential and Ministerial Directives tend to override policies made by elected leaders under their respective organs and oversight mandate hence rendering the legislative role of council ineffectual," Lukwago said.

He said his office has always underscored the significance and centrality of a well-structured physical development plan in the transformational journey of Kampala into a functional city, but all efforts in that direction are yet to come to fruition.

The Lord Mayor called upon all stakeholders within the KCCA and central government to demonstrate good will and commitment towards streamlining the functioning of the institution in the forthcoming financial year.

Legislators a fortnight ago grilled the Kampala ministry officials over the duplication of roles at KCCA.

After appointing an executive director in charge of the Authority, the central government further befuddled the administration with a Ministry in charge of Kampala to boot.

Officials at the City Hall are thus left to largely perform ceremonial duties.

Lord Mayor Lukwago has asked the Ministry of Kampala to speed up the process of ratifying all council ordinances and submit them to his office by the first quarter of the fiscal year to ensure KCCA's efficiency.

Low funding

The new laws include the Kampala Capital City Law Enforcement Ordinance, the Kampala Capital City Outdoor Advertising Ordinance, 2022, the Kampala Capital City Gender Based Violence Ordinance 2022, and the Kampala Capital City Green infrastructure Ordinance 2020.

He also ordered the Authority Council to fast-track the processing of the Bills for Ordinances already tabled by the city executive within the first quarter of the financial year such as the Kampala Capital City (Public Transport Management) Ordinance, 2023, the Capital City Historical Buildings and Sites Ordinance, 2022 and The Kampala Capital City CCTV Ordinance, 2022 among others.

The opposition mayor further cited limited finance for the city's development agenda as a long-standing issue.

"One need not to reiterate that the current KCCA Strategic Development Plan that was adopted in 2019 envisioned a functional and liveable city by June 2025," he said.

"However, this plan required a projected Shs1.4trillion per year for its implementation."

Owing to the unstable macro-economic dynamics, he said that the figure has been revised and currently requires an annual budgetary

projection of Shs2.1 trillion.

Lukwago noted that whereas the National Budget has been spiraling annually to a tune of Shs72 trillion this financial year, the KCCA budget has been stagnant and in some cases plummeting, save for this coming financial year where it has registered some enhancement of the development vote.

The political wing of Kampala capital city also stated it faced issues from crumbling infrastructure, with only 654km of the whole 2110km of road network paved.

Lukwago said limited efforts owing to insufficient resources have resulted in increased potholes and drainage system failures.

"It is regrettable to note that after 61 years of our independence, the capital city is inundated with menacing floods, mud and dust," he added.

However, in the next financial year, government has allocated over Shs190 billion under the Integrated Urban Development Master Plan for Kampala Special Planning Area in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA) and Shs550 billion under Kampala City Roads Rehabilitation Project as well.

KCCA shall construct 77.91kms of roads under GKMA, KCRRP and government funding as well as undertaking routine and periodic road maintenance of 650km paved and 500km gravel roads, respectively.