UNCC needs sh7b to revamp National Theatre

By John Agaba

THE minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Muruli Mukasa, presiding over the inauguration of the new Uganda National Cultural Centre (UNCC) board on Wednesday, launched the centre’s five-year strategic plan that includes redevelopment of the National Theatre into a one-stop cultural centre in East Africa.

According to the strategic plan, on completion, the centre will be Hilton Hotel-like, towering, cultural complex — housing a hotel, commercial spaces, and an administrative building.

The main auditorium will be, simply put, extravagant, with turn-key equipment and lighting and an audacious stage. 

There will be sitting for outdoor theatre performances, a national archives museum, and a local crafts market, plus a car park. The middle will be a sunken garden with a fountain, convertible as a stage. It will be accentuated with the water falls towards the VIP area.

“It is definitely an ambitious plan, but a beautiful one too, that will cost, according to the plan, over sh7b. When completed, it will take Uganda’s theatre and the arts to another level. And maybe you and others who never come to the theatre, will find reason to go, if not to appreciate culture and art, to feel the ambiance of the place,” said Robert Musiitwa the UNCC Public relations Officer.

Muruli Mukasa welcomed the plan, and asked the incoming UNCC board of trustees chairperson, Eng. Dr. Michael Odongo Moses, to do whatever is possible “within the law and outside convention to have the funds to build the centre.

“Lobby, fundraise, so we build this place. We need to make this a one stop centre for theatre and the arts, not only in Uganda, but in the region and across Africa,” Muruli Mukasa said.

Incoming chairperson Eng. Dr. Michael Odongo Moses, who is also the executive director, Uganda Road Fund, welcomed the challenge and promised to do “all that is possible legally” to move the dream of UNCC forward.

Outgoing Chairperson, Prof. Mercy Mirembe, said her and her (outgoing) board had conceived the strategy — it was the new board to deliver it.

UNCC executive director, Francis Peter Ojede, highlighted the importance of preserving and promoting culture and the arts in Uganda.

He commended ministers Muruli Mukasa, Sulaiman Madada (state minister for elderly and persons with disability) and Lukia Nakadama (state minister for gender and culture), who too graced the function, for their continuous leadership in promoting culture in Uganda.

During the function Muruli Mukasa also launched the artists’ registration form, meaning the centre will start registering all performing artists in Uganda to “know how many they are, and to streamline them.”