By Aggrey Baba
The second National Cleaning Day has exposed a sharp drop in public participation, with several areas around Kampala and Wakiso recording low turn-up despite the Government’s directive requiring the people to dedicate the last Saturday of every month to cleaning their areas.
The exercise, introduced by Government in July, 2026 as part of efforts to improve sanitation and promote a cleaner Uganda, attracted a visibly bigger response during its inaugural edition, with the people, local leaders, security officers and other stakeholders joining the cleaning activities in many parts of the country.
However, a spot assessment by Mulengera News on Saturday, August 29, 2026 found that the enthusiasm had greatly declined, with many people choosing to remain in their homes while only a handful turned up to participate.
The low compliance has also raised fresh questions about how garbage collected during the exercises is handled, after heaps of waste left along roadsides during the first cleaning day remained uncollected for weeks in some areas.
In fact, in some places, residents participating in Saturday’s exercise found garbage from the previous cleaning day still lying along roadsides, highlighting the difficulties authorities continue to face in coordinating waste collection after the public has done its part.
Mulengera News reporters moved around several areas to assess the second cleaning exercise and found significant differences in participation.
In Kasubi, our reporter Eriab Ssengubi, who visited the area, reported a low turn-up at the market, saying most people remained in their homes while only a few came out to participate in the exercise.
A similar situation was reported in Busabala, where Mulengera News reporter Ruth Mirembe observed that the mobilization that characterized last month’s exercise was largely missing.
According to Mirembe, during the inaugural cleaning day, LC leaders moved through the villages early in the morning using megaphones to remind residents to leave their homes and join the exercise.
This time, however, there was no similar mobilization, leaving many residents in their homes and contributing to the low turn-up.
The situation was not different in Bulaga along Mityana Road in Wakiso district, where Aggrey Baba found poor participation despite the exercise proceeding under the supervision of police officers.
Security officers who spoke to Mulengera News said the cleaning was eventually carried out, but acknowledged that compliance among residents was very poor.
One of the officers said many people simply remained inside their homes, with some only coming out after being prompted.
The officer in charge of traffic, however, reported better compliance among motorists, saying vehicle drivers generally respected the directive and cooperated whenever they were stopped.
He singled out some boda boda riders for stubbornly continuing to operate during the designated cleaning hours. However, he said most of those who were stopped eventually complied with the directive and joined the cleaning exercise, helping authorities to ensure that the activity went ahead.
The security officers also raised concerns about the role of area leaders, with one officer blaming the poor participation partly on the failure of area leaders to take the exercise seriously.
According to the officer, none of the local leaders was present during the exercise in the area, a situation he said could undermine mobilization and also contribute to the persistent problem of garbage being left along roadsides.
The waste-disposal challenge was particularly visible at Bulaga Daily Market, where traders and residents collected garbage and dumped it in the middle of the road.
Security officers at the scene attempted to persuade the market community to put the waste in sacks or other containers so that garbage trucks could easily collect it and transport it to the KCCA landfill in Buyala along the same road.
The request, however, was rejected by some of the market vendors, who maintained that they had disposed of the garbage in the same manner during last month’s exercise and that it was eventually collected.
Speaking to Mulengera News, Bulaga Daily Market chairperson Godfrey Rukandema defended the action, saying the market community had simply repeated what it did during the first cleaning exercise.
Mr. Rukandema questioned why traders should now be asked to spend money on sacks when Government had declared the last Saturday of every month a national cleaning day. He argued that if Government expects citizens to participate in the exercise, it should also ensure that the waste generated is properly collected and disposed of.
By the time Mulengera News left the area, the security team had contacted the PISO and the LC1 chairperson Mr. Lawrence Ssengendo to intervene and find a solution to the standoff and ensure that the garbage was properly handled.
The experience at Bulaga highlights one of the biggest challenges facing the monthly cleaning programme, that getting citizens to clean is only one part of the equation, while ensuring that the collected waste is promptly transported away remains equally important.
Where garbage remains on roadsides for days or weeks after a cleaning exercise, residents may gradually lose the motivation to participate in subsequent exercises.
A more positive picture emerged in Kulambiro, Kampala, where the exercise was conducted under the supervision and mobilization of the Rotary Club.
Although the turn-up was also lower than it was last month, Rotary Club members and the residents who participated ensured that the exercise went on smoothly.
Rotary Club of Kulambiro president Edie Rush Ntumwa said the club had already been conducting monthly general cleaning activities before Government introduced the national programme, making it easier for the community to embrace the initiative.
He said the partnership between Government agencies and community organizations could therefore provide an effective model for improving participation across the country.
“Now when the ministry of health partnered with Rotary Club here in Kulambiro, the participation has been a bit better compared to other places, because for us we’ve been doing this even before the government policy, and we remained on the ground mobilizing,” Ntumwa said.
He called for intensified public sensitization to ensure that more Ugandans understand the importance of the exercise and comply with it.
Ntumwa also urged Government to work closely with different stakeholders, including community organizations, religious groups, local leaders and other civil society actors, to ensure that the monthly exercise is sustained.
The Kulambiro experience comes against the background of the “Yawula Kasasiro” campaign, jointly spearheaded by the Ministry of Health and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to promote proper waste management and cleaner communities.
The campaign was launched earlier in Kulambiro in partnership with the Rotary Club, providing an example of how Government institutions can work with existing community structures to strengthen sanitation initiatives.
While the second National Cleaning Day demonstrated that some communities remain committed to the programme, the generally poor turn-up in several areas points to the need for stronger mobilization, enforcement and coordination.
The first exercise showed that Ugandans can respond positively when adequately mobilized. But the failure to promptly remove garbage collected during that exercise appears to have created another problem, with waste left on roadsides becoming an eyesore and, in some areas, remaining until the second cleaning day.
For the monthly programme to achieve its intended sanitation goals, the people may need to be encouraged to participate more consistently, while local leaders will have to play a more visible role in mobilization and enforcement.
At the same time, authorities will need to ensure that the garbage collected by communities does not simply move from homes and markets to roadsides, but is promptly picked up and taken to designated disposal sites.
The second cleaning day has therefore offered Government an early warning that public participation can’t be sustained by a directive alone, but it will require continuous sensitization, visible leadership at local level and a reliable waste-collection system that gives citizens confidence that their efforts will not end with garbage being left on the roadside. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
