Vote On New Cities Flops Again

For the second time, parliament yesterday failed to vote on the creation of new cities due to lack of quorum.

On Tuesday last week, Local Government Minister Tom Butime tabled a resolution to have 15 Municipalities that include Masaka, Arua, Mbarara and Jinja among others declared cities.

However, the house couldn’t handle the matter as it failed to raise the required two thirds of legislators to vote on the issue hence pushing it to this week.

Similarly, on Tuesday, deputy speaker Jacob Oulanyah deferred the matter until next week to allow some of those participating in the ongoing East African Community (EAC) inter-parliamentary games to vote.

“I am told other honourable members are engaged in the games, so we have not been notified. And the whips have also tried so we will not be able to handle these various matters today,” Oulanyah ruled.

This decision also affected other matters that were set to be handled such as the alteration of district boundaries of Kapchorwa and Arua to create Terego district among others.

Any measure to create an administrative unit or alter a district boundary must be supported by majority of legislators under article 179 (2) of the 1995 constitution.

The cities in question

According to this motion tabled by Minister Butime last Tuesday, seven cities are set to be operationalized on July 1 2020, including Fort Portal, Mbale, Masaka, Mbarara, Jinja, Arua and Gulu.

In the same vein, Hoima will follow in 2021 while Entebbe and Lira’s city status shall take effect in 2022.

The rest of proposed cities of Moroto, Nakasongola, Soroti, Kabale and Wakiso shall be actualized the next year.

The proposed cities have been allotted two divisions each.

For instance, Mbarara City shall comprise of Mbarara North and Mbarara South while Mbale City shall consist of industrial and Northern Divisions