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Kampala Capital City Authority Lord Mayor, Erias Lukwago delivering his state of city address at city hall in Kampala on Thursday. (Photo by Milton Niinga)
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By Milton Niinga
The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA)’s capacity to provide social services to urban dwellers has greatly declined in the 2025/2026 financial year due to persistent budget cuts and underfunding, according to Erias Lukwago, the City Lord Mayor.
Delivering the State of Kampala Capital City Affairs address for 2024/2025 at City Hall in Kampala, Lukwago, while highlighting the five-year scorecard and policy agenda for 2025/2026, stated that the institution's overall performance has declined sharply.
“Despite the government releasing just over sh3 trillion for the budget, this has only represented 28.1% of the projected sh10.3 trillion that was required to implement the city’s transformation agenda,” he said.
Lukwago noted that, over the past five years, funding has stood at just 35.5% of the required total — a trend that continues to damage the image of Uganda’s capital both in East Africa and across the continent.
“When President Yoweri Museveni frustrates KCCA with little funding, government henchmen start to circulate propaganda that Lukwago has failed to deliver his mandate — as if I was elected to use my own money to develop a national city,” he added.
KCCA councillors who attended the state of city address listening attentively to KCCA lord mayor Erias Lukwago. (Photo by Milton Niinga)
While there has been notable progress in road infrastructure development due to significant investments, Lukwago said that critical sectors such as health, education, physical planning, and socio-economic development remain in a dire state.
“The city, which generates over 65% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is home to more than 156,000 registered business enterprises — accounting for 46% of all formal employment in the country — should be prioritized,” he stressed.
Lukwago acknowledged that KCCA collected non-tax revenue amounting to sh104 billion, nearly meeting the sh105 billion target for 2024/2025 — a 12.45% growth in revenue collection. However, he maintained that the city continues to suffer due to underfunding.
“Over the past five years, there has been an increasing demand for devolution — empowering the divisions as self-accounting urban councils — but this has never been implemented,” he noted.
This, he said, is one of the reasons why garbage collection in the city’s divisions remains a major challenge.
“The situation was further aggravated by the unfortunate Kiteezi waste slide catastrophe in August, when the city lacked a functional landfill. We were tossed between Entebbe and Mukono until we finally acquired the Buyala dumpsite in the third quarter of this financial year,” Lukwago explained.
Maternal deaths still a challenge
Maternal mortality in Kampala remains high, with 212 deaths per 100,000 deliveries recorded in health facilities — up from 185 in 2020.
“The advent of COVID-19 led to the closure of several private schools, resulting in increased enrolment in government-owned schools upon reopening,” Lukwago said.
This, he added, contributed to an increase in the pupil-teacher ratio from 59:1 in FY 2021/22 to between 61:1 and 124:1 in FY 2023/24.
Likewise, the pupil-to-classroom ratio increased from 60:1 in FY 2020/21 to 75:1 in FY 2023/24. Lukwago pointed out that although the government is implementing projects such as UGiFT across the country, the city remains vulnerable due to the lack of such funding.
While delivering his 165-page address, Lukwago called on the central government to “walk the talk” and allocate the necessary resources to support the social transformation agenda of the city.
The Lord Mayor, as the political head of the city, is mandated by the KCCA Act to address the Authority Council at least once a year on the state of city affairs.
