Mary Mugasa, State Minister for Public Service, criticized the lack of an urbanization strategy, describing the current cities as politically motivated and organically grown without structured planning. She said, “The funding and the planning are not commensurate with what we have created.”
Uganda's urban development and severe housing shortage have been attributed to populist politics and inadequate funding, as highlighted during the second Sustainable Urbanization, Housing, and Land Management Program leadership committee meeting at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.
The program unites six ministries—Lands and Urban Development, Public Service, Local Government, Kampala and Metropolitan Affairs, Works and Transport, Finance and Economic Development, and Trade and Industry—alongside the National Planning Authority (NPA).
Judith Nabakooba, Minister for Lands and Urban Development and program chair, outlined the ambitious goals of the program under the National Development Plan III. These include reducing urban unemployment from 14.4% to 9.4%, addressing the housing deficit by 20%, reducing slum dwellers from 60% to 40%, and improving average travel times in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA).
Additional targets include doubling the paved road network from 1,229.7 kilometers to 2,459.4 kilometers and increasing solid waste collection efficiency from 30% to 60%. However, Nabakooba acknowledged the program’s limited achievements, blaming insufficient funding and rapid urbanization.
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Mary Mugasa, State Minister for Public Service, criticized the lack of an urbanization strategy, describing the current cities as politically motivated and organically grown without structured planning. She said, “The funding and the planning are not commensurate with what we have created.”
Mugasa also pointed out that land ownership policies have hampered development projects, leaving the government at the mercy of landlords. She added, “Government is like a beggar, begging from people yet we are the ones who gave it to them. Formerly, land belonged to the government, and in places where land belongs to the government there is better infrastructure.”
The minister emphasized the need for government commitment to enforcing the National Physical Plan, stating, “We gazetted the whole of Uganda as a planning area, but we haven’t enforced it. Where we have planned, everything is on paper, and we remain comfortable with unimplemented good policies and legal frameworks.”
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Dorcas Okalany, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, provided statistics revealing that 1.6 million people live in slums, only 9.9% of Uganda’s land is under a physical plan structure, and land tenure security titling covers just 30% of the land area. She explained, “This led to the underutilization of land, escalated land disputes, hampered the ability to implement urban planning strategies, and stifled the real estate market, housing development, as well as revenue generation.”
Okalany called for decisive action to finalize the land tenure security system, negotiate urban infrastructure projects, and build capacity for local authorities. She added, “We need to deepen research and data collection systems for enhanced transparency and accountability.”
Dennis Kasule Ssebunya
Freelancer