Evaluating KCCA’s mizigo ban proposal

Imagine a city without slums but only high-rise buildings dotted with sky scrapers and an organised network of roads. This could be the image of Kampala city in the near future if Kampala Capital City Authority proposal to ban mizigos (single and double-roomed houses) in the city is passed into law. This is reportedly evidenced by the number of rental rooms plans being delayed or deferred for redesign to reflect plans of apartments and high-rise buildings.

Officials at KCCA hint that the proposal is now before the Authority’s committee on physical planning that will review it before it is submitted to the Minister for Kampala to be presented before Parliament for debate. Once the proposal is endorsed, it will see Kampala embrace a new face of high rise buildings contrary to the common sight of congested houses.

KCCA spokesperson Peter Kaujju says, “The city is changing and calling for planning even when we can only implement a few of such plans. There are areas that are gazetted for particular mode of housing and we have a physical planning development structure that guides our work.”

ADVANTAGES
An urban planning expert and a lecturer at Makerere University, Dr Amin Kiggundu at Center for Urban Studies and Research (CFUSR), believes that KCCA’s plan is realistic and suits the rapidly changing status of Kampala City and its increasing populations.

“It [KCCA’s high rise proposal] is a good policy because of the rapid urbanisation as well as the struggle for the limited land resources,” he says. He observes that the housing sector is important because it is linked to many sectors (banking, insurance, steel manufacturing, cement manufacturing among others) and it has the potential to create more jobs than other sectors.

“Uganda has a young population that needs to be housed, educated and provided with healthcare. Therefore, venturing into high rise residential buildings will be one way of providing descent shelter for the urban residents in Kampala, to avoid slums and their associated challenges in the city,” he notes.

The Makerere University lecturer adds that while the plan is good, it should not be left to the private investors’ side as it is the case today. “The current housing development model [one ran by real estate dealers] has failed to address the housing needs of low income earners in Kampala and Uganda in general, [because] access to cheap capital is still a problem and KCCA seems to lack a clear housing financing and development strategy,” Dr Kiggundu says.

Additionally, Akright chief executive officer and president of the Uganda Property Developers Association, Anatoli Kamugisha, assert that the idea is positive, but, in an increasingly expensive investment environment, cost minimisation is a priority, which calls for partnerships to be realised. He says the concept will create an organised housing infrastructure in urban areas, although, it shouldn’t be relied on profit inclined private developers like real estate developers.

“Such ventures require substantial finances that are not readily available to many Ugandans. As real estate developer, we can’t invest in low-cost houses, which means government must come up with structures to partner with private developers to make such ventures less expensive for the low and middle income earners,” Kamugisha observes. He adds, “Government needs to get on board to lower the cost of buying or acquiring the houses for the low income earners who constitute majority of the population in the urban regions.”

FUTURE PLANS

The Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development is already doing something towards promoting organised housing infrastructures in Kampala and Uganda in general.

The ministry director for housing department, Ambassador Agnes Kalibala says government already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Uganda Land Owners Associations in Wakiso district who have shown interest in the concept of organised housing estates.

“We already have potential investors willing to invest in low cost but organised houses for our people and the projects are soon starting,” Kalibala said. The project, according to Amb Kalibala will include the construction of about 6,000 houses along Entebbe road in Wakiso district.

CAUTION
The proposal for the greater metropolitan Kampala is assumed to include Wakiso, Entebbe, Kira town council and parts of Mukono district. On how that can be achieved, Dr Amin Kiggundu an urban planning expert at Center for Urban Studies and Research (CFUSR)and a lecturer at Makerere University, suggests that it is important for government to establish a housing fund just like it did with the road sector (Uganda Road Fund).

He explains that such a special fund will offer cheap investable funds for real estate developers. “It is still very expensive to rely on commercial loans to finance housing in Uganda.” He adds, “The issue is not that there is no money. Institutional capital such as NSSF fund is available but still difficult to access by both the real estate investors and individual savers.” “We already have a policy to promote high rise residential buildings. Even with this law however, Uganda has not been able to attract high-end housing investors,” he adds.

HOW OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE DONE IT

Unlike Uganda’s case, Dr Amin Kiggundu, an urban planning expert at Center for Urban Studies and Research (CFUSR)and a lecturer at Makerere University says Kenya has been able to attract foreign companies investing in housing.

South Africa too, has been able to increase the supply of housing units over decade, thanks to affordable accessible housing loans to both individuals and real estate companies. “Many cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur have used institutional capital such as employee provident fund to fund housing infrastructure ,especially for the low income people,” Mr Kiggundu observes.

To allay any voices that government is not doing enough to address the housing challenge, Ms Kalibala says government is already on course towards better housing infrastructures. “We have already embarked on the process of enacting a bill for the housing fund, which parliament required us to present to the house for debate and I am certain it is underway in the ministry of Housing.”

In short, Dr Kiggundu notes that it is possible to promote high density housing in Kampala but the problem however, “It is not a top priority. The priority now is road and food market development.”