The Chairperson of the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) Kigezi Chapter, Reverend Father Gaetano Batanyenda, has praised the government’s decision to halt the creation of more cities.
The outspoken former priest of Kitanga Parish in the Kabale Diocese was reacting to the communication by the State Minister of Finance (General Duties), Henry Musasizi, in which he revealed that the government had decided to halt the creation of Kabale City and other administrative units. He explained that the cities had turned into economic burdens for the country, referring to a 2020 Parliamentary resolution that approved the creation of 15 new cities in addition to the capital, Kampala.
The new cities were supposed to be operationalized in clusters beginning July 1, 2020, through to July 2023. The Financial Year 2020/2021 would see Jinja, Mbarara, Gulu, Mbale, Arua, Fort Portal, and Masaka taking effect. The second cluster of cities covered Hoima, Lira, and Soroti, scheduled for operationalization by July 1, 2021, followed by Entebbe that would take effect as a city on July 1, 2022. The last cluster would be Moroto, Nakasongola, Kabale, and Wakiso cities, scheduled for operationalization on July 1, 2023.
“We have come to realize that these cities are not adding much to the improvement of livelihoods, apart from creating more political jobs such as RCCs, Lord Mayors, etc., and so consuming a lot of funds that would rather be channeled to social services and other programs for economic empowerment,” Musasizi said.
Father Gaetano agrees with Musasizi that cities and other administrative units are an economic burden whose pinch is mostly felt by the low-income earners. The former Kabale Municipality Mayor observed that those calling for the cities were only looking for jobs in the government while ignoring the plight of Ugandans languishing in poverty due to the high cost of administration resulting from fragmenting local governments.
“Most of them are Ugandans who were promised jobs during the last elections. Their only hope remains in the creation of administrative units, no matter how that will impact the economy,” he added.
Father Gaetano argued that low-income earners should not be deceived into fighting for city statuses since some business tycoons in Kampala were waiting for an opportunity to expand their empires in the new cities, technically displacing those who cannot meet the policy standards of the city due to financial constraints.
“What our people do not know is that cities are for people with large financial muscles. City councils may, for example, design physical planning policies that favor only those with large sums of capital. This would literally mean that low-income earners have no space in the cities,” he said.
Father Gaetano further said that Uganda’s focus should now be on reducing the debt burden by fighting corruption and cutting unnecessary government expenditure. He added that God himself could be shaking his head at the debt burden faced by Uganda.
“Can you imagine some Ugandans expect the government to borrow more money for operationalizing cities? Did you see the Ministry of Finance announcing that they are choking with unpaid loans? I think God himself must be shocked at the rate of borrowing in this country,” he said.
In a revised budget call circular issued last Friday, Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary Ramathan Ggoobi stated that the government was in crisis because the debt burden was increasing while revenues were not increasing proportionally. So, a decision was made to stop borrowing new loans, as Uganda was heading towards a debt trap.
Uganda’s public debt stood at Shs 86
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