'We don't need live animals in Kampala City'
MP Kajwengye says modern economies do not move live animals hundreds of kilometres to the point of consumption. They slaughter, process, package and refrigerate livestock close to production centres before transporting finished products through efficient cold-chain systems.
Wilson Kajwengye
By Wilson Kajwengye
KAMPALA - The Kiteezi landfill disaster was more than a waste-management failure. It was a warning that Kampala can no longer sustain a development model that concentrates people, industries, markets, waste and economic activity in one city while the rest of the country remains largely a supplier of raw materials.
For decades, Uganda has moved live cattle to Kampala for slaughter, transported truckloads of unpeeled matooke to city markets and hauled countless tonnes of raw agricultural produce to the capital before processing. In the process, we have transferred jobs, wealth-creation opportunities and industrial growth away from production areas and concentrated them in an already overstretched city.
It is time to ask a simple question: Why are we transporting cows when what Kampala needs is meat?o
Modern economies do not move live animals hundreds of kilometres to the point of consumption. They slaughter, process, package and refrigerate livestock close to production centres before transporting finished products through efficient cold-chain systems.
Hotels, supermarkets, restaurants and butcheries do not need live cows arriving at their doorstep. They need safe, properly packaged meat.
Uganda's cattle corridor should therefore become a hub of modern abattoirs, meat-processing plants, leather factories, cold-storage facilities and logistics centres. Such investments would create jobs where the livestock are raised, increase farmers' incomes and stimulate local economies through a web of backward and forward linkages.
Veterinary services, feed suppliers, transport companies, equipment manufacturers and financial institutions would all benefit from increased economic activity.
Leather industries, pharmaceutical companies and fertiliser manufacturers would emerge around livestock processing facilities. Rather than exporting jobs to Kampala, regions would become centres of industrial growth in their own right.
The environmental benefits are equally compelling. Today, a significant amount of organic waste generated through livestock handling and slaughtering ends up becoming an urban management challenge.
Processing animals closer to production areas would keep manure where it belongs — near farms that need it as fertiliser. Nutrients would remain within agricultural systems, boosting productivity while reducing waste.
The same logic applies to matooke and other agricultural products. Why should Kampala continue receiving mountains of unprocessed produce when farmers' cooperatives and agribusinesses can undertake peeling, packaging, flour production and preservation closer to where crops are grown?
Kampala's growing waste crisis cannot be separated from this broader economic structure. As more raw products enter the city, so does more waste. Markets generate tonnes of organic refuse. Processing activities generate additional disposal challenges. The burden eventually falls on landfills, drains and city authorities struggling to keep pace with urban growth.
The lesson from Kiteezi is that waste management does not start at the garbage dump. It starts with the way we organise production, processing and distribution across the economy.
A cleaner Kampala requires more than additional garbage trucks or a replacement landfill. It requires reducing the amount of waste-intensive activity concentrated within the city. It requires taking industries closer to farms, ranches and production centres. It requires deliberate policies that encourage regional industrialisation and discourage the endless movement of raw commodities to the capital.
The question therefore is not whether Uganda can afford this transformation. The question is whether it can afford to delay it.
Government should establish regional agro-industrial parks and livestock processing zones throughout the cattle corridor, equipped with modern abattoirs, cold-storage facilities, leather-processing plants and environmentally sound waste-management systems.
Investors willing to establish processing industries in production areas should receive targeted tax incentives, affordable financing and infrastructure support.
At the same time, Uganda must invest in a national cold-chain network. Refrigerated transport, storage facilities and distribution centres would ensure that meat and other perishable products move efficiently from rural processing hubs to urban consumers. Once such infrastructure is in place, transporting processed products will become more economical than transporting live animals.
District local governments should also be empowered to champion value addition by setting aside industrial land, supporting farmer cooperatives and attracting agro-processing investments.
Every major agricultural region should have a clear strategy for ensuring that a significant proportion of its produce is processed before leaving the district.
Kampala Capital City Authority and central government should gradually tighten regulations on waste-generating activities that unnecessarily concentrate in the capital. The long-term vision should be a city that serves primarily as a centre of commerce, finance, innovation and consumption rather than a destination for raw commodities from every corner of the country.
Public procurement policies can accelerate this transition. Schools, hospitals, prisons and security agencies should increasingly source value-added food products from regional industries, creating reliable markets that encourage investment in processing facilities outside Kampala.
Most importantly, Uganda needs a deliberate National Urban Decongestion and Regional Industrialisation Strategy. Economic growth should no longer be measured by how much activity is concentrated in Kampala, but by how effectively prosperity is spread across the country.
Future industrial expansion should be directed to regional cities and municipalities where land is available, unemployment is high and growth potential remains largely untapped.
Imagine a Kampala receiving refrigerated trucks carrying packaged beef, processed dairy products, matooke flour and other value-added foods instead of convoys of live cattle and raw produce.
Imagine less congestion on city roads, lower waste volumes in markets and cleaner urban spaces. Imagine regional towns thriving with factories, warehouses and agro-processing plants that create jobs for young people where they live.
That is not merely an environmental vision. It is an economic one.
Uganda's industrialisation agenda will succeed only when production areas become centres of processing and manufacturing rather than collection points for raw materials destined for Kampala. The capital should be primarily a centre of commerce, services and consumption, not the country's default processing yard.
The debate, therefore, is not about cows or matooke alone. It is about building a modern economy that creates value where resources originate. It is about strengthening the linkages between agriculture and industry. It is about making our cities more liveable while creating prosperity across the country.
The cleanest city is not necessarily the one that collects the most garbage. It is the one that generates less waste in the first place
If we truly want to honour the lessons of Kiteezi, then we must rethink the flow of our economy. Kampala does not need live cows. It needs meat. It does not need unpeeled matooke.
It needs value-added products. And Uganda does not need more centralisation. It needs regional industrialisation that creates jobs where raw materials are produced, keeps manure close to the farms that need it, reduces waste flowing into the capital and allows Kampala to breathe again.
The future belongs to refrigerated trucks carrying packaged meat from Kiruhura, Nakasongola, Isingiro and Sembabule — not trucks transporting live cattle into the city. It belongs to processed matooke leaving western Uganda, not heaps of raw produce piling up in urban markets.
And it belongs to a development model that spreads wealth, industry and opportunity across the country while creating a cleaner, greener and more liveable Kampala.
The writer is Member of Parliament, Nyabushozi County