Yesterday Parliament voted for the establishment of new Cities in Uganda starting with this financial year clustered as follows:
1st July 2020: Jinja, Mbarara, Fort Portal, Masaka, Mbale, Arua & Gulu.
1st July 2021: Hoima, Lira & Soroti.
1st July 2022: Entebbe.
1st July 2023: Moroto, Nakasongola, Kabale and Wakiso.
Many governments in the past have strived to achieve this including Iddi Amin who left power without establishing a new city in Nakasongola district.
These new Cities will help decongest the main Kampala city by offering new opportunities for people in the areas with new infrastructure development like roads and factories due to increased budgetary support from the central government. This will in turn increase the size of markets in those areas for locally produced goods and in turn increase in revenue collection for government.
This feat is only possible now due to the efforts of the NRM government. The areas have been promised for long and it is fulfilling to see that government has made good on its promise. It also shows that government has achieved financial muscle necessary to support these cities something that has not come easily.
The naysayers allege that this is purely political rather than economic but they are just finding it hard giving credit where it is due. The population of these cities has been growing for a while and they are indeed cosmopolitan in nature bringing people from all corners and cultures from the country and East African region.
The development is clearly a threat to the opposition who have always used this point to claim that government had failed to fulfill it’s promise to the people of the areas.