The parliament of Uganda passed a total of 15 new cities that had earlier been seconded to be upgraded to city statuses. The towns to be elevated to city status over four years period are Jinja, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Masaka, Mbale, Arua, Gulu, Hoima, Lira ,Soroti, Entebbe, Moroto, Nakasongola, Kabale and Wakiso. These were for a long time investigated on to see whether they met the minimum requirements to earn the city status.
With a majority of 312 votes out of 313, MPs voted for the Motion for resolution of Parliament on alteration of boundaries under Art 179(1) A of the Constitution and declaration of cities under Section 7(2a) of the Local Gov’t Act.
Only Sarah Opendi from Tororo voted against the motion, saying that the recent budget that was passed by parliament for FY 2020/21 does not fully address the demands of some of the Local governments, Districts and Municipalities.
The cities are to start functioning in a series of phases as follows. Arua City, Gulu City, Jinja City, Mbarara City, Fort Portal City, Mbale City and Masaka City will commence effective 1st July 2020. Hoima City wiil commence too on July 1, 202, Entebbe and Lira Cities on July 1, 2022 while Moroto, Nakasongola, Soroti, Kabale and Wakiso Cities will be expected to be enacted on July 1, 2023.
It should be noted that currently, Uganda has a total of 134 districts. The idea of having some major towns elevated to city status was to decongest the current Kampala city and bring better services nearer to a larger population other than having them all concentrated in one city.
Regardless of having passed these cities, a larger portion of the population still feels this was un called for in an occasion where the country still has too much to deal with in other sectors.
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