By Mulengera Reporters
Ms. Susan Kushaba, the Kampala Central MP aspirant (independent) and former Owino Market Chairperson, has said conditions on the ground in several Kampala parishes point to deepening urban poverty, weak service delivery and growing pressure on low-income (poor) residents, despite Kampala hosting some of Uganda’s wealthiest businesses and property owners.
Speaking to Mulengera News on Monday, December 29, 2025, after weeks of field visits, Kushaba said her findings are based on a campaign tour she began on November 10, 2025, in Kamwokya, during which she has so far covered 20 parishes across Kampala Central. She said the contrast between wealth and deprivation stood out sharply in most of the areas she visited.
According to the NRM and PLU foot soldier, in Kagugube zone in Bukesa parish, residents are still relying on untreated spring water despite being located in the city center. Kushaba said the area lacks tap water, proper sanitation facilities, organized garbage dumping sites and decent housing.
According to her, many families live in temporary and dilapidated structures because they are repeatedly displaced as landowners and developers push them off land they occupy, a situation, which according to her, reflects a broader pattern in Kampala Central, where low-income residents live in informal settlements under constant threat of eviction, even as high-value developments expand around them.
On government programmes, Kushaba said many of the people she interacted with had not benefited from the Parish Development Model (PDM). She alleged that the programme had largely failed to reach its intended beneficiaries, claiming that officials responsible for its implementation favoured relatives and associates.
In Kisenyi II, an area where the Minister for Kampala, Minsa Kabanda comes from, Kushaba said she found locals living in extreme congestion, with families renting space in lodges at a daily cost of about Shs3,000. She said some rooms accommodate more than 20 people, including men, women and children, sleeping together on decker beds because it is the only housing they can afford.
Kushaba also raised concerns about developments around the Nakivubo channel and valley, particularly in the Bajaba industrial area. She said traders there expressed anxiety following recent visits by businessman Hamis Kigunda after the takeover and redevelopment of the Nakivubo channel, where construction of new rental spaces is nearing completion.
According to Kushaba, Nakivubo traders told her they had been informed that rental space in the new facilities would cost about UGX 5 million per month, with payment required upfront for a full year, amounting to UGX 50 million. She said the traders argued that the cost was far beyond their means.
Kushaba added that vendors operating around the Nakivubo channel claimed they had been given up to the first week of January 2026 to vacate the area if they could not raise the UGX 50 million. Alternatively, she said, they were being offered space on rooftops at a monthly cost of at least UGX 500,000, an option many said was still unaffordable.
Kushaba also made allegations against Minister Minsa Kabanda, claiming she was involved in the sale of Nakivubo resettlement land, further alleging that the land previously occupied by Nakivubo Primary School, a government institution, now hosts a bar.
In addition, Kushaba alleged that some government officials have displaced residents and sold public land for private gain. She specifically claimed that Kabanda owns land in Kamwokya near KCCA Primary School, which she said was allegedly acquired through an intermediary, and that there were attempts to take over the school’s playground.
These claims were presented by Kushaba as allegations based on information she said she received during her field engagements.
She said her campaign would focus on pushing for accountability in urban development, access to basic services such as water and sanitation, protection of public land, and policies that prioritize the poor who form the majority of Kampala Central’s population. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
