Facilitate LC 1 chairpersons to perform their functions effectively

By Walter Akena

On Monday, May 4, 2020, the village chairpersons (Local Council (LC) One) joined the scientists, medical professionals, and security personnel in the praise list of the Head of State when he recognised their roles in the struggle to contain the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

In his latest address to the nation, the President noted that the LC l Chairpersons (which he says he prefers to call RCs) made villages a no go area for strangers or suspected COVID-19 patients; he gave the example of the student who secretly returned from Tanzania but was traced and reported by the LC Chairperson and put in quarantine and several other such incidences.

The President had previously recognised this office in his book "sowing the Mustard Seed" in which he mentioned their mobilisation role in the liberation war between 1980 and 1986. In fact, during its guerrilla campaign against the second Obote government, the NRA/M established Resistance Councils (RCs) in the villages under its control, as well as some similar but clandestine structures in contested areas.

These structures were loosely based on the neighborhood committees organized in the "liberated zones" of Mozambique by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) in the late 1960s. Although originally designed as support structures for the NRA fighters, the resistance councils grew into a model that was viewed as "popular democracy".

The LC system became the bedrock on which the decentralisation policy adopted in 1992 was founded. The LC, therefore, provides a rallying point for citizens for localised planning and participation in the governance process.

Section 50 (b) of the Local Government Act (CAP 243) defines the roles of a village (local council) chairperson as; i) being the political head, ii) presiding at meetings of the council, ii) monitoring the general administration of the area under his or her jurisdiction and,  iv) performing other functions that may be necessary for the better functioning of the council, or which may be incidental to the functions of the chairperson or imposed on the chairperson by any law.

Besides these roles, the village chairpersons often go out of their ways to perform other functions that is a testament that the life of a village chairperson is a life of complete sacrifice. Sometimes, village folks storm the LC's residence in the dead of the night, knocking on his/her door to settle family matters.

They have to settle cases of domestic violence, family disputes, they have to ensure the village is secured, most times they are witnesses to land transactions, they have to monitor and supervise government programmes and many other duties. However, they perform all these duties without a single penny! Although they have their own families to look after, in some instances, the village folks look up to their chairpersons for their welfare.

With no formal salary attached to the office, the village chairpersons are facilitated with UGX 120,000 annually which translates into UGX 10,000 monthly. Although it is required that Sub-county councils allocate 25 percent of their locally raised revenue for operations of village councils in every financial year, most Sub-county councils have failed to remit these monies. This is coupled with the fact that the Chairpersons do not receive any material support to facilitate their offices; pens, papers, and other stationaries, no village chairperson has received any such facilitation.

To make ends meet, most LC chairpersons have employed strategies with no legal basis to keep their offices afloat. For instance, asking for 10% compensations from every land transaction or charging fees for accessing introductory or recommendation letters.

Aware that it may be practically impossible and unfeasible to pay salaries for the over 7,000 LC chairpersons in the country, government and Parliament could consider amending the Local Government Act with a view of legalising payments to the LCs. For instance, the monies paid for such services like introduction and recommendation letters, endorsing land transactions could be standardised in a schedule in the Local Government Act.

This will facilitate the works of the village chairpersons because they need stationaries and logistics to do their work effectively. It is about time we recognised and appreciated the roles played.

The writer is a project officer local government council scorecard initiative at ACODE
Walter.akena@acode-u.org