Rweindeire talks with Kamuntu at the Colline Hotel Mukono yesterday

By Raymond Baguma
and Joel Ogwang

UGANDA’S high population growth is a result of electricity shortage, which compels couples to go to bed early and have sex, the state minister for planning, Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu, has said.

He was speaking at a workshop on the upcoming National Development Plan in Mukono yesterday.

The one-day workshop was organised by the National Planning Authority and aimed at harmonising the activities of the planning authority.

Kamuntu said: “Only 9% of Ugandans have access to electricity,”

“While the rest of the world is working in shifts, we in Uganda are going to bed early. Then we complain that the population is growing, why not?” he remarked.

Kamunutu said improving the country’s physical infrastructure would lower the high population growth rate even without birth control measures.

According to statistics from the Population Secretariat, Uganda’s annual population growth rate stands at 3.4 percent and is one of the highest in the world.

Kamuntu said Uganda’s economic growth was being threatened by the rising population.

He said there was need to increase efficiency in the country’s agricultural sector through mechanisation, setting up of roads, as well as electricity infrastructure.

He said planning was vital in achieving the development mission of the Movement party, and President Yoweri Museveni’s vision to transform Uganda from peasantry to an industrial economy.

The district planners expressed concern about the shortage of planning staff in districts and said the planning units were not well-equipped and fully functional.

Dr. Abel Rwendeire, the acting NPA chairman, said land in Uganda was not being utilised well.
He cited unplanned construction of residential houses and burial grounds.