Government directs Masaka to reapply for city status

MASAKA. Government has given Masaka Municipality authorities a two-week ultimatum to resubmit their application for acquiring a city status.

According to Local Government Minister, Mr Tom Butime, the earlier application lacked some vital information such as council resolutions of neighbouring districts that had their areas annexed by Masaka Municipality.

“I think the matter has been resolved, what is left is submission of resolutions from Kalungu and Lwengo districts allowing annexation of Kalungu Rural and Kingo sub counties to the proposed new city,’’ Mr Butime said while meeting local leaders from the sub region in Masaka Town on Wednesday.

Last year, councilors in Kalungu rural Sub County passed a resolution supporting its annexation to Masaka Municipality.

This followed the expansion of the municipality boundaries to include Kitengeesa and Ssamariya parishes in BuwungaSub County, Kirimya in Kabonera, Kalangala in Mukungwe and some parts of Kingo in Lwengo District.

Mr Butime said if municipal leaders resubmit the required information in the given time frame, government will assess and see whether the municipality can be elevated to city status during the first phase of the 2020/2021 financial year.

“The fresh application should clearly show the population for each area being annexed to the municipality,” Mr Butime said.

Last month, cabinet approved the creation of nine cities, five of which will become operational effective July 1, 2020.

The cities include Arua, Gulu, Jinja, Fort Portal, and Mbarara. These will be elevated from municipal to city status by July 1, 2020. The other two cities that will become cities on July 2021 are Hoima and Mbale.

The move is part of a government plan to turn nine municipalities into regional cities.

Fort Portal, Mbarara and Hoima will be regional cities in western Uganda; Entebbe in the central region; Lira, Arua and Gulu in northern region while Mbale and Jinja cities will serve the eastern region.

According to government’s earlier plan, Masaka was to be considered in 2023 in the fourth phase of creating new cities together with other towns such as Nakasongola, Moroto, Wakiso and Soroti.

The commissioner for Urban Administration in the Ministry of Local Government ,Mr Justinian Nuwagaba, said to enable municipalities attain city status,they had also relaxed the population requirement of 500,000 people ,adding that a municipality can now become a city if local leaders prove to government that they have 300,000 inhabitants.

Currently, Masaka Municipality has an estimated population of 251,000 people.

Mr Nuwagaba advised Masaka leaders to have a structural plan for all areas that have been annexed to the municipality to ensure orderly planning of the proposed city.

While attending a special service at St. Paul Cathedral, Kako in Masaka on June 9, Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II questioned the criteria used to select the first five municipalities to be elevated to city status in 2020, saying Masaka would have been one of those since it has all the qualifications to become a city.

However, recently, Masaka Mayor Godfrey Kayemba Afaayo, faulted legislators hailing from sub region for ‘their lack of cooperativeness’ which he said led to the failure to have the region attain a city status.

Masaka is one of the oldest urban units in Uganda. It became a township in 1953, a town council in 1958 and later elevated to a municipality in1968.

Although local leaders are currently pushing government to elevate the town to a city, challenges like poor garbage and waste management, lack of functional public toilets, lack of well-developed structural and physical plan and low local revenue collections may affect the municipality’s chances of becoming a city.