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Uganda Local Administration
In the early protectorate period, the district
commissioner
(DC), the representative of the governor, was the most
important
government official in each district. Before the kingdoms
were
abolished in 1967, each one had a local government made up
of
chiefs, who reported to the king, and a central government
official who was an adviser to the king. The 1919 Native
Authority Ordinance gave the DC responsibility for a
hierarchy of
appointed chiefs at village, parish, subcounty, and county
levels. Councils, originally consisting of these chiefs,
were
created during the 1930s at each level. After 1949 local
administration in Uganda was shared by central and
district
government officials. The Local Government Ordinance of
1949
established the district as a local government area and as
the
basis for a separate district administration. During the
1950s,
elections to district councils were introduced, and the
councils
were given responsibility for district administration.
Nevertheless, the central government retained the power to
control most district council decisions. Chiefs were
salaried
local government officials but responsible to the central
government through the DC for the proper administration of
their
areas.
At independence Uganda consisted of ten districts, four
kingdoms, and one special district (Karamoja). The 1967
constitution abolished the kingdoms and made them
districts as
well. Because the kingdom of Buganda was separated into
four
districts, the country was thus divided into eighteen
districts.
In 1974 President Amin further increased the number of
districts
to thirty-eight and grouped them into ten provinces. In
1979
after Amin was overthrown, the number of districts was
reduced to
thirty-three. Moreover, each district was named for its
capital
in an effort to reduce the significance of ethnicity in
politics.
In February 1989, however, the addition of Kalangala (the
Sese
Islands) brought the number of districts back up to
thirty-four,
and the number of counties increased to 150
(see
fig. 1).
There
were also sixty-five urban authorities, including Kampala
City
Council, fourteen municipalities, twenty-seven town
councils, and
twenty-three town boards.
The 1962 constitution had required that nine-tenths of
district council members be directly elected. In keeping
with its
overall emphasis on strengthening central control, the
1967
constitution gave the parliament the right to establish
district
councils and their offices, to decide whether some or all
of
their members would be elected or nominated, and to
empower a
national minister to suspend a district council or to
undertake
any of its duties. The 1967 Local Administrations Act and
the
1964 Urban Authorities Act created a uniform set of
regulations
that gave the central government direct control over local
administration in each district. District councils were
limited
to specified areas of responsibility--particularly primary
education, road construction, land allocation, community
development, law and order, and local tax collection. When
district councils were revived in 1981, their members were
again
nominated by the central government. Chiefs and local
officials
continued to be appointed on the basis of the 1967 act
until
1986.
The NRM government significantly altered local
administration
by introducing elected resistance councils (RCs) in
villages,
parishes, subcounties, and districts throughout the
nation. The
original RCs had been created during the early 1980s to
support
the NRA during its guerrilla war. But after 1986, the
introduction of these new assemblies sharply curtailed the
powers
of chiefs and provided an indirect channel for popular
influence
at the district level and above. Creation of the RCs was
in
response to the first point of the Ten-Point Program,
which
insisted on democracy at all levels of government. In no
other
respect during its first four years did the NRM government
achieve as much progress in implementing the political
program it
had adopted before taking power.
By September 1987, the NRC had established both
district
administrations and a hierarchy of RCs
(see
fig. 8). All
adults
automatically became members of their village resistance
council,
known as an RC-I, and came together to elect a nine-person
resistance committee, which administered the affairs of
the
village. An RC was given the right to remove any of its
elected
resistance committee officers who broke the law or lost
the
confidence of two-thirds of the council. The nine
officials on
the resistance committee elected by the RC-I joined with
all
other village resistance committees to form the parish
resistance
council, the RC-II, and elected the nine officials who
formed the
parish resistance committee. The members of this committee
assembled with the other parish committee members in the
subcounty to form the subcounty resistance council
(RC-III) and
elected the nine officials who formed the subcounty
resistance
committee. County resistance councils (RC-IVs) were
established
in the statute but functioned only intermittently as
governing
bodies, principally for election purposes. The district
resistance council (RC-V) contained two representatives
elected
from each RC-III and one representative for women elected
from
each RC-IV and from each municipal RC. At all RC levels,
heads of
government departments serving that council, including
chiefs,
were made ex officio members of their respective RCs but
without
the right to vote. In 1989 the NRC determined that each
RC-III
would choose one representative for the NRC, and each
district
resistance council (RC-V) would choose a woman as its
representative on the NRC. Thus, direct RC elections and
popular
recall existed at the village level only. The term of each
RC was
two years, and the RC could be suspended by the minister
of local
government for disrupting public security, participating
in
sectarian politics, engaging in smuggling, obstructing
national
plans, or diverting commodities to its members' private
use.
However, the NRC was given the power to overrule the
minister.
The NRC also replaced the DC with a new official, the
district administrator (DA), appointed by the president as
the
political head of the district. In addition to providing
political direction to the district, the DAs were
responsible for
overseeing the implementation of central government
policy,
chairing the security and development committees, and
organizing
RCs. Providing political direction included organizing
courses in
political education for officials and ordinary citizens. A
second
new post, that of district executive secretary (DES), was
filled
by former DCs. The DES was required to supervise all
government
departments in the district, integrate district and
central
administration, supervise the implementation of district
resistance council policies, and serve as the accounting
officer
for the district.
The formal change from the officially neutral DC to the
explicitly political DA suggests the importance that the
NRM
government placed on political education in order to gain
support
for basic political and economic reforms. The addition of
a new
bureaucratic level of assistant district administrators,
with
responsibilities for administration at the county and
subcounty
levels, and reporting through the DA to the president,
further
entrenched the central government at the expense of the
RCs. The
creation of this position further reduced the direct
popular
control that was contemplated in the Ten-Point Program and
that
had been enthusiastically supported by NRM officials.
In 1990 the exact duties of the RCs and their relation
to the
chiefs had not been fully determined. The purpose of RCs
during
the guerrilla war had been far easier to establish before
the NRM
took power. In addition, continuing civil war and the
sheer
effort of electing RCs in every village, parish,
subcounty, and
district drew attention away from the business of the RCs.
RCs
were new to Uganda, and it took people time to understand
how to
make use of them. In 1987 the NRC had given the RCs the
power "to
identify local problems and find solutions." During times
of
shortages of basic commodities, such as sugar in June
1986, the
RCs were effectively used as distribution centers. But
because RC
officials below the district level received no
compensation, they
were reluctant to give too much time to managing local
affairs.
In addition, the position of the chiefs remained
ambiguous.
Chiefs still reported to the Ministry of Local Government.
Many
chiefs were uncertain how much power they had under the
new
system, or even whom to obey when the Ministry of Local
Government and the RC disagreed over the proper course of
action
a chief should follow.
Data as of December 1990
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