OPINION: Uganda at 64 — How Local Governments Are Turning Public Investment into Better Services

From Masaka’s roads to Kitabaazi and Bukakata, the test of decentralisation is whether services last

By Brian Mugenyi

“Oh Uganda! may God uphold thee, we lay our future in thy hand.”

As Uganda marks 64 years of independence, those lines from the National Anthem are a reminder that the country’s future rests with citizens, leaders and the institutions that deliver public services. Independence is not only a date. It is a chance to ask what has been built, what still fails, and whether ordinary people can use the roads, clinics and schools paid for in their name.

Happy Independence Day.

For a journalist on the local-government beat, the national story is also a local one: a road that links a village to a market, a health centre that shortens a journey for treatment, a school that gives a child a chance. Under President Yoweri Museveni’s government, districts, cities and lower councils have been the machinery meant to turn national priorities into services. At the Ministry of Local Government, Permanent Secretary Ben Kumumanya and the technical teams are charged with supporting that system. The useful question on this anniversary is not praise. It is what the investment has delivered, whom it reaches, and what remains unfinished.

Masaka City, Kitabaazi Health Centre III, Mutungo Health Centre III and Bukakata Seed Secondary School are a practical place to start.

Roads, and what they are for

In Masaka City, upgrades to roads, drainage and street lighting have changed how residents, passengers and traders move. Much of the work has come through the Uganda Support for Municipal Infrastructure Development programme. The improved network includes a 7.2-kilometre stretch of Broad Way Road from the Nyendo roundabout to Kijjabwemi, a section of Villa Road, the 1.4-kilometre Nyendo–Kitovu Cathedral Road, and Kigamba, Somero and Kooki Street.

The engineering team says more than 1,000 solar streetlights have been installed under the same programme, extending visibility and supporting evening trade. Engineer Abby Ssembajjwe, who served as acting city engineer, said one kilometre of tarmac with streetlights and walkways costs about Shs3 billion. “The city has also identified a target of constructing 23 kilometres of roads in the coming financial year,” he said. The department’s recent work has involved retired city engineer Augustus Tulibalungi, Ssembajjwe and substantive city engineer John Muzibira.

Better roads can move goods, get farmers to market and ease the trip to a clinic or school. They can also cut vehicle wear. Properties built in road reserves remain a dispute the city forum, technical teams and political leaders are still handling. The test is whether the surface stays passable, the drains clear and the lights work after the contractor leaves.

Kitabaazi: a building is not care

Kitabaazi Health Centre III was upgraded from Health Centre II in May 2025. An African proverb warns that a river may be full while the thirsty still suffer if the water never reaches them. Budgets and buildings matter only if patients are treated on time.

Officer-in-Charge Bobic Kiweewa says the centre handles about 7,000 in-patients and 8,400 out-patients a year, figures that should be checked against facility records. “Government has invested significantly in this facility, and the impact can already be seen through the increasing number of people accessing healthcare services,” he said. He also said more clinical officers and support staff are needed as numbers grow.

The project was funded by the government through the Ministry of Health, with support from the International Development Association, supervised by Arch Design Limited and implemented by Prizma Limited at a reported contract value of about Shs1.32 billion, excluding VAT. The facility is reported to have nine health workers and 25 beds across maternity, children’s wards, labour and care for premature babies. Women account for about 65 per cent of patients, according to information supplied for this story. Nursing Officer Ritah Kabasita said the investment had helped health workers serve communities while building their careers.

Sharif Lubega, of Bwala Village, said he received a blood test free of charge. Former Masaka City town clerk Daniel Christopher Kaweesi has argued that public care can ease pressure on household incomes. A national figure of about Shs659.343 billion, cited in source material as a health-sector financing projection, is not the Kitabaazi contract. Year, budget line and document must be confirmed before it is published as a national allocation, and it must not be presented as money spent on this facility alone.

Mutungo: infrastructure needs staff

In Makindye-Ssabagabo, leaders welcomed the operationalisation of Mutungo Health Centre III and called for more workers. Mayor Moses Otimong said the facility would bring immunisation, family planning and maternal care closer to residents, but warned that buildings without staff repeat the experience of Kakoola. “Health workers must accompany the infrastructure,” he said. He put construction at about Shs3.6 billion and equipment at about Shs360 million, a total of roughly Shs3.96 billion.

The 2024 census figures supplied for this story put the municipality at 439,605 people in 114,527 households. Area legislator David Sserukenya has cited congestion, medicine shortages and the need for staff housing. Dr Geoffrey Kisuze was clear about the occasion: “Today we are not commissioning; we are operationalising.” He said outpatient care, immunisation and HIV services would be offered, that workers had been deployed, and that government would supply medicines. Residents will judge that promise by whether care is there when they arrive.

Bukakata, and the limit of access

Bukakata Seed Secondary School opened in 2012 with 12 students and has grown to more than 450, according to school stakeholders. Built at an estimated Shs3.5 billion on about six acres given by the Masaka Catholic Diocese, it serves Bukakata, Lambu Landing Site, the Kalangala islands and neighbouring communities. A grid connection has opened computer studies, science practicals and evening work. Head teacher Emmy Kasule said years without reliable power had held back ICT, research and prep. “Today we are entering a new chapter of transformation,” he said.

City speaker Achilles Mawanda has called for more land for expansion and agriculture. The hope of reaching 1,000 learners depends on teachers, materials and welfare, not enrolment alone. Stakeholders have also raised governance disputes. Those must be handled by procedure, so argument does not displace the duty to learners.

The next test

Decentralisation was meant to put administration nearer the citizen. It works only when mandates are matched with money, competent staff, clean procurement and public scrutiny. At 64, Masaka’s roads, Kitabaazi, Mutungo and Bukakata show the same rule: a road must remain usable, a clinic must have people and medicines, a school must teach. That is the difference between a contract and a service, and the measure by which this independence should be judged.

Brian Mugenyi covers local government and is a journalism student at Kampala University.

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