Buganda NRM leaders want more constituencies

Jan 18, 2016

They also propose that Wakiso be considered for city status.

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) leaders in Buganda have drafted a set of proposals which they hope will enable their party presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni to win massively in the region.

Among the proposals, which they want forwarded to the NRM's Central Executive Committee (CEC), the regional party leaders want the Government to create new parliamentary constituencies in the densely populated districts of Kampala and Wakiso.

They also propose that Wakiso be considered for city status.

"This urban area has a population of 2,100,000 people and is the tourism, business and small-scale industries hub for Uganda," one of the leaders, Ambassador Kintu Nyago, argued while presenting the proposals on Saturday.

The proposals, which were channelled through the Buganda NRM vicechairman, Abdul Nadduli, were delivered by a three-man team which comprised Nyago, senior presidential advisor on Buganda affairs Vincent Semakula and Sylvester Kiguli, a veteran leader from Nakaseke district. The leaders argued that Wakiso and Kampala districts were underrepresented in Parliament, considering their big populations.

Uganda has 34.9 million people, according to the 2014 census.

Wakiso district has the largest population (more than two million people). With a night-time population of 1.5 million people, Kampala city
was ranked the second most populated district. Kampala's day-time population almost doubles the night-time one.

Parliament last year passed a proposal, which requires the Government to create another city to de-congest Kampala before 2021 as per the second five-year National Development Plan.

The leaders also noted that Wakiso and Kampala districts were ‘thinly covered' in terms of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and health services delivery.

They asked the Government to provide these services on a per capita formula, whereby more densely populated districts are allocated more
funds.

The leaders also urged the NRM government to establish a long-lasting solution to the rampant land conflicts, which have recently escalated into violence and murder. They urged the Government to pay off mailo land owners.

In order to fight urban poverty and provide employment, the leaders requested the Government to construct industrial parks in the seven densely populated subcounties of Wakiso district.

Other recommendations include a request to the Government to resolve the political crisis in Kayunga, construction of a specialised fisheries university in the island district of Buvuma and introduction of a presidential banana initiative in either Nakaseke or Namulonge.

Nadduli said the proposals were timely, genuine and presented in good spirit.

Nadduli, however, said some of the proposals like the construction of industrial parks and universities could not be achieved in the short term because they require heavy investments and thus, longterm planning.

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