By Simon Turibamwe
The long-awaited elections for the Six new districts approved by the Parliament in 2015 have hit a snag after the minister announced there is no money to fund them. According to David Bahati, the state minister for finance and planning, the government is not able to fund elections for the newly created districts. Bahati confirmed to the Parliament on Tuesday that the new districts that include Kikuube, Bugweri, Kasanda, Nabilatuk, Kwania and Kapelebyong will not hold elections this financial year because the government didn’t budget for them. He said it was an oversight on the government’s side not to budget for the elections of the new district. “The government did not budget for the elections in the new districts, it was an oversight on our part, that’s my brief statement I have for this house,” Bahati said. All the districts were created in 2015 and operationalized in 2018 but no elections have taken place. They are still dependent on their mother districts. Bahati further revealed that the government was engaged in internal consultations to see whether the elections can be held in the next financial year. Bahati’s statement angered a number of MPs especially those who have opposed the creation of new districts. The MPs wondered why the government continues to create new administrative units that later turn to be a burden. Arua Municipality MP Kasiano Wadri warned the government to stop misleading the Parliament when legislating for new administrative units. “If you don’t have money why should you burden us in creating those administrative units? Why hurry? You would have waited until funds are available because these people now miss their political leadership,” said Wadri. He also warned the government to be careful because the government may lose a lot in these Ugandans petitions court. He argued the Government not to relax on organizing elections for these districts because they have rights to have own political leadership which is being frustrated by delaying elections. Recently, while opening an NRM retreat in Kyankwanzi, President Museveni said that he is not finding solutions of service delivery as he expected in creating new districts. The President threatened that he would merge some of the new districts with their mother districts. “Some of these districts are asked by individuals who want to become either women MPs or district chairpersons but have not served the purpose. They benefit less to my people and I’m thinking of merging them and send money to organized groups,” said Museveni. Uganda has at least 134 districts, majority of them depending on grants from the central government since they cannot support themselves with local revenue. In 2017 Kasese district chairperson Sibendiire Geoffrey Bigogo wrote to the Ministry of Local Government disputing a resolution by the district council to split Kasese district. Bigogo’s argument was that instead of creating new districts to ease service delivery, the government should increase funding for the existing ones.
