Museveni criticises agitators of districts
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (L) and President Museveni arrive for the opening of the 17th Commonwealth Local Governments Forum in Kampala yesterday. Photo by PPU
What you need to know:
According to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony, his country has practiced the decentralised system of governance since the 4th Century BC.
President Museveni has lashed out at proponents of the creation of new districts describing them as selfish individuals who have failed to apply for public service jobs and start lobbying for jobs as district chairpersons.
While opening the 17th Common Wealth Local Governments Forum yesterday, Mr Museveni said when the NRM government took power in 1986, Uganda had only 36 districts but the number has been growing over the years where they now stand at 112, thereby increasing the cost of public administration.
“My government has overseen the implementation of the decentralisation programme in Uganda but this idea of crying for districts all the time is being done for selfish reasons. These are people who fail to apply for jobs in Public Service and they want to become district chairpersons or woman MP and they start campaigning for new districts,” he said.
He said the government was coming up with a scientific formula for creating new districts where at least no new district will be created within a geographical distance of 20 square miles.
“When we were creating these new districts we had several considerations in mind which have been abused but we think a distance of 20 square miles is good enough for new districts to be created for service delivery,” he added.
Sri Lankan experience
According to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony, his country has practiced the decentralised system of governance since the 4th Century BC.
“I am happy that I am here for this conference whose theme is; “Developmental Local Government; Putting local government at the heart of development, because there is a lot to share with you,” he told the delegates.
The resolutions from the Kampala conference, which ends tomorrow (Friday), are to be presented to the Common Wealth Heads of governments meeting (CHOGM) which Sri-Lanka will be hosting this year where Mr Rajapaksa is the incoming chairperson.
