Arua district leaders irked by delays to share assets with city

Arua , Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Leaders of the Arua district and City have expressed concern over delays to share assets of the Arua district with the City.

On July 1st last year, Terego district became autonomous from Arua and was given a share of the assets like office furniture and equipment, motor vehicles among others and at the same time Arua City became operational and left Vurra County as the only residual Arua district. 

However, contention ensued over where officials of Arua district would move after a Resident City Commissioner-RCC was sent to Arua displacing the RDC from the office. The RDC Arua Festus Ayikobua is currently operating without an office since the structures under the Arua district are being claimed by the City while the residual Arua district still has no headquarters to move to. 

According to the guidelines issued by the Local Government Minister Raphael Magyezi on the operations of cities, all tangible and intangible assets of districts, former municipal councils, division councils, annexed town councils, and sub-counties falling within the territorial boundaries of the city are supposed to be the property of the city.

These include assets like vacant land, markets, administrative buildings, stadium, bus parks, recreation centers, community halls, forest reserves and landing sites.

On the other hand, the Minister said the cities shall take over all liabilities incurred by the district, municipal, and division councils.

Some of the leaders have asked the Ministry of Local Government to intervene in the matter. 

Sam Nyakua the LCV Chairperson for Arua says they are being messed up with the issue of distribution of assets especially immovable ones with Arua city. According to Nyakua since Arua has remained in Vurra, all the buildings registered in its name should be shared so that they can value them and sell them to the City to raise money for constructing new district headquarters in Vurra.  

Boniface Alioni, the Vice LCV Chairperson Arua wonders why the Ministry of Local Government is dragging its feet on the matter. According to Alioni, many people and communities in the Arua district are already getting impatient and are divided over the issue. 

However, Donath Eswelu the Chief Administrative Officer Arua district says that they are waiting for advice from the Solicitor General. He adds that the issue of contention is on immovable property like buildings.   

With the creation and operationalization of Arua City, over 20 acres of land which housed Arua district headquarters and departments are set to change ownership to the City as Arua district prepares to shift headquarters to either Arivu or Vurra once the council decides.

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