Government Moves to Further Amend Local Government Act.

The Local Government Ministry is considering further amendments to the local government Act to introduce provisions too specific to the management of the newly created cities.

In July last year, the government started operationalizing seven new cities including Hoima, Mbarara, Mbale, Gulu, Jinja, Masaka and Fort portal following their elevation from municipalities.

However, the actual operations and funding of the new cities was affected by a court petition by the former Masaka District Chairperson who challenged the legality and inauguration of the interim leadership of the cities.

After the swearing-in of the substantive leaders of the new cities, the local government Ministry is considering several amendments to the current law to facilitate the effective management of the new administrative units.

The draft amendments according to Justinian Nuwagaba, the Commissioner for Urban Administration in the Ministry of local government are necessitated by the need to have customized provisions that can enable effective management of the new urban local governments as well as drawing a clear distinction between them and the districts.