The City Lord Mayor Erias  Lukwago on Thursday hosted a delegation of leaders from Mbarara city.

The leaders are on a benchmarking visit at the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). 

While receiving the Mbarara delegation of political and technical staff, led by Mayor Robert Kakyebezi and Resident City Commissioner Col. Mwesigye James at the Lord Mayor's Parlour, Lukwago appreciated the team for choosing to benchmark at KCCA.

He recounted to the Mbarara delegation the journey of Kampala city from when it first became a Municipality in 1950 to this day and hoped the two cities will continue engaging, especially in the areas of garbage management, local revenue, land management and other areas of mutual interest.

Kampala City Lord Mayor Erias  Lukwago

Lukwago said the central government should make provisions to directly fund the development budgets of cities since their local revenue currently being relied on is insufficient and not effective. He added that cities must be planned and have a special legal regime to spur development and identity.

He said currently, Kampala city is lobbying central government to plough back at least 3% of the national budget to transform the city since up to 65% of the  country's GDP is generated from cities. He also urged other city leaders to join him in asking for special funding for cities.

Deputy Lord Mayor Doreen Nyanjura appreciated Mbarara city mayor for fulfilling his long-standing promise of visiting KCCA and asked for an interactive engagement to enable appreciation of best practices since Kampala city, too, is still grappling with challenges on garbage collection and management,  infrastructure, lighting and public health amongst others.

KCCA executive director Dorothy Kisaka highlighted the Smart City Agenda currently being implemented in Kampala aimed at achieving a vibrant, attractive, sustainable and inclusive city and called on the Mbarara delegation to join in the fellowship with KCCA.

The engagement was attended by the speaker and deputy speaker of KCCA, the city executive secretaries, directors, technical staff amongst others.

Kakyebezi said the visit to the city is expected to help them try to copy what KCCA has done to improve service delivery.

He said that Mbarara, like Kampala, is still grappling with garbage collection and revenue collection.