A new era has dawned for Uganda’s capital city of Kampala following parliament’s recent decision to place it under direct governance by the central government.

This makes Kampala different from the country’s other 110 to 120 districts (the number grows faster than you can keep track), which, under the decentralisation system, are governed by their elected councils.

Kampala has changed management systems several times since Independence 48 years ago. One mayor, the late businessman Walusimbi Mpanga, was appointed by the military government in the 1970s on account of his ability to bankroll the city’s services.

There was also a military governor, Lt Col Nasur Abdallah, who ruled the “Central Province” comprising Kampala and Entebbe townships, and is remembered for banning the wearing of sandals during his reign.

From mid 1985 to early 1986, the city was divided into several sectors, each administered by one of the several armies jostling for political power, with the government of the day running the central business district.

Then the National Resistance Movement/Army overran them all and installed Commander John Kazzora as new boss, with the title of Special District Administrator.

He recruited several NRM city cadres, one of them a lady surgeon who was to become the country’s longest serving vice president.

Elected district chairmen under the “Movement system” ran the city from the late 1980s until a decade ago when the city started being ruled by mayors and councils belonging to (opposition) political parties.Even the harshest NRM critics agree the opposition city government has been an unmitigated disaster.

For Kampala’s residents, it matters financially who is running the city. For years, many salaried residents used to pay their graduated tax in neighbouring districts, where the rates were lower than what they would have paid if they were registered in Kampala.

Still, the honest few who paid in Kampala raised enough money in the 1990s to build several new primary schools, by adding just a thousand shillings each per year as education levy!

Today graduated tax is no more but for developers, the fees for plan approval fall sharply if your building is on the outer side of the official Kampala boundaries.

The “dual citizenship” of many Kampala residents arose because the city was physically located in three districts — Wakiso, Mukono and Kampala itself.

That was when I last checked but due to the above-mentioned mushrooming of districts this may no longer be the case.

The geographical and political location of Kampala will continue changing as the city grows into other districts.

But also there is a Constitutional matter, because the districts of the central (Buganda kingdom) region are Constitutionally defined, and a growing Kampala means a shrinking kingdom, something the monarchists are bound to find unpalatable.

It is surprising though that as the government keeps redefining the management of Kampala, they have not considered privatisation as an option.

We have privatised almost everything that involves revenue, from railways to electricity distribution, and Kampala management also involves big time money.

An even more viable option would be to create a powerful Authority under a consistent CEO like the present Revenue Authority boss, Allen Kagina. We have a few such people, another being the “founder” of the Electoral Commission, Stephen Akabway, whose middle name for most Ugandans is “Integrity.” Retiring principal judge Justice James Ogola is another. Uganda is not an integrity desert after all.

Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International fellow for development journalism; [email protected]