By Kaleb Yiiki

Arua

With the Creation of New Districts and Cities in Uganda, West Nile District and City Leaders have been urged to follow the available Application Guidelines to create new administrative units.

Government of Uganda had issued a directive to halt the creation of New Administrative Units at the Lower Governments, citing lack of funds to manage the administrative Costs at these levels.

This has been evidenced in Maracha District where the Ex-gracia for the local Council leaders for the newly created 11 Sub counties in Maraca district could not be paid. Formerly, Maracha District had 8 Administrative Units and this totals the Number of Maracha District’s Administrative Units that includes Town councils and Sub counties to 19.

Hon. Asea Bosco the Maracha District Vice Chairman calls on the Parliamentarians to consider the issues of allowances for political leaders. He castigated the Members of Parliament in Uganda for their Lack of consideration of the lower local Government leaders in terms of their emoluments. “You’ll find that the salary of a Member of Parliament in two months will equal the total net salary for a district Local Council chairman for five Years. Maybe if a commission could be constituted to review this, it would be better because all the political leaders seem to be unsatisfied with the allocations from the central government.” he pressed.
  
In a recent Function in Arua City, Hon. Wadri Sam Nyakua made an appeal for more divisions to the Minister of State for Urban Development who represented the Speaker of parliament as the Chief Guest.

He told the Minster that the people of Ayivu need three more city divisions to be created in Ayivu because; Ayivu had seven sub counties which were collapsed to form one Division in the City. “You tell His Excellency that his voters are in Ayivu and if he wants his Votes to continue increasing come 2026 and beyond, he should listen to the cry of the People of Ayivu. Decentralization is supposed to take services closer to the people and if Ayivu is left like this, we shall be working against the principles of decentralization,” he warned.


Hon. Wadri Sam Nyakua (with Mic) during another event recently

Similarly, in another event, Hon. Wilfred Saka the Chairman Terego District inquired from the Commissioner for Local Government whether there is still room for the creation of new Sub counties aware  of the fact that there is a ban on the creation of new administrative units. “Is there a modality of creating new administrative units in the districts?” he asked.

In response to all these, Swizene Kinga Mujanga, the Commissioner in the ministry of Local Government said, funds allowing, the creation of new administrative Units is possible but guided the leaders to make proper considerations while making such decisions. He says, many times the local government Leaders begin the process without studying clearly the implications such creations will have on them, then at the end of the day, the same people who submitted for their creation come back to ministry of Local Government. One of such complaints commonly brought is about loss of revenue because of the creation of a new town council, or they have lost the headquarters.

Mujanga implores the Local Government Leaders that when they begin the process of these requests, they should be very aware of the future implications in case such units are approved so that they don’t go to lament when the implications are high on their part. “So it’s important to do enough research so that the justification of what you are doing should be mindful of the implication of the new units.” he advised.    
  
Decentralization plays a vital role in Uganda by improving service delivery, empowering local communities, promoting equitable development, stimulating economic growth and enhancing governance.

COVER PHOTO: Swizene Mujanga, a commissioner in Local Government Ministry advising Terego district leaders By Kaleb Yiiki