Gulu to conduct public awareness on city status

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Gulu municipal authorities are set to embark on mass sensitization of residents and public institutions to create awareness and embrace the anticipated city status.

The awareness creation will include among others importance of community participation in urban planning, available investment opportunities, city structural plan, attitude change as well as human rights and democratic governance.

The Municipality has benefited from the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructural Development (USMID) and constructed a Main Market and 30 different roads of 17 kms which has paved way for rapid infrastructure development.

Over 1,000 solar-powered street lights have been installed within the municipality.

According to Francis Barabanawe, the Town Clerk Gulu, the huge infrastructure overhaul Gulu is undergoing requires sensitization of the masses to embrace the developments for a sustainable city.

Denis Ojwee, a resident welcomes the move and implored Gulu authorities to borrow a leaf from neighbouring Kigali city in Rwandan to sensitize the masses to prioritize hygiene and sanitation.

Betty Aol Ocan, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Parliament, also Gulu district Woman MP is confident that the people of Gulu are ready the city given the high level of awareness created already by the leaders.

But Jomeo Richard, a governance and human rights scholar expressed reservations about such public awareness because the initial processes and preparations of Gulu to become a city have not been participatory.

In May, cabinet approved the creation of Gulu and nine other municipalities that includes Arua, Mbale, Fort Portal, and Mbarara to become regional cities beginning July 1, 2020. Others namely Hoima (Oil), Lira and Jinja (industrial) will be operationalized in July 2021.

The Vision 2040 recommendation to create the new cities is to decongest Kampala, Uganda’s only city to increase revenue and scale up employment opportunities for the citizens.

*****

URN