Engage Mengo on greater Kampala plan-Wakiso LC5 Chairman

Wakiso district chairperson, Matia Lwanga Bwanika has urged government to engage the Mengo establishment in talks before implementing the proposed Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA).

Bwanika told New Vision that Mengo is a powerful stakeholder to be ignored in the strategy. "The Kingdom owns almost 75% of the land in Wakiso so you can't ignore them," he said.

Proponents of the strategy unveiled recently by the National Planning Authority (NPA) and Kampala Minister, Beti Olive Kamya aims at ensuring that the four districts are jointly planned and developed with modern infrastructure and all the necessary amenities.

Asked about his opinion on GKMA which has received criticism from a cross section of the public, Bwanika said he had little concern about it. 

"A good leader should follow the law," Bwanika said. "Kampala operates under the KCCA Act yet districts are under the Local Government Act and the two are incompatible."

Meanwhile, Mukono Municipality MP, Betty Nambooze says the strategy is a plot to illegally annex parts of greater Kampala into an authority that will operate indecently under the minister of Kampala.

Nambooze further noted that she has written to the Speaker of Parliament to stay the discussion on the matter which was brought under the KCCA amendment bill 2015.

Experts in physical planning argue that the idea of Greater Kampala Metropolitan is long overdue, explaining why the four districts are entangled and trapped in a web of spatial disgust and inefficiencies in sanitation, drainage, housing and transportation.