Masaka leaders agree on site for new city hall

Masaka City Council has finally resolved to erect its new headquarters on a piece of land on Plot 2-10, Kigamba Road, adjacent to Masaka Regional Referral Hospital’s main gate.

This means they have abandoned the disputed piece of land at Kitabiro Hill, ending a three-year-old disagreement among city leaders on the appropriate site to erect the city hall.

Some leaders were proposing to erect the city hall at Kitabiro Hill, which currently houses the district headquarters, while others wanted it constructed on Kigamba Road.

Ms Florence Namayanja, the Masaka City mayor, said they are now going to clear the site and commence the construction works.

“The decision by council to review its earlier decision of constructing our headquarters at Kitabiro Hill was as a result of the delays by the Ministry of Local Government to issue proper guidelines on the sharing of properties between new regional cities and districts. This affected our council plans of construction of the new city hall,” she said during an interview yesterday.

Ms Namayanja said officials from the Ministry of Local Government visited the two sites (Kitabiro and Kigamba Road) and they advised the city authorities to use the latter.

“We also think that the time is now for the district leaders to consider taking their offices outside the city boundaries,” she added.

The mayor revealed that they have put aside Shs30 million to aid in the preparation of the site (site clearance) ahead of the long-awaited construction works.

Councillors led by Ms Zahara Nalubyayi, who represents Kimaanya Ward, said having all city departments under one roof will help improve coordination and service delivery.

“The piece of land where city council is going to put its headquarters is big enough to host all offices and a youth resource centre- all in one place,” she said.

Mr Vincent Ssentongo, the councillor representing People with Disabilities, said the latest decision by council is going to help them utilise Shs1.2b, which has been idle on their bank accounts for over five years.

The Masaka City Council speaker, Mr Achilles Mawanda, said the city budget of Shs40.9 billion for 2024/25 has allocation for the preliminary works for the city hall .

“The funds we have can help us put up a decent building which can host city council offices,” he said.

Masaka City Council and the district leaders have since 2020 been bickering over the ownership of Kitabiro land after the Ministry of Local Government issued the first guidelines that cited that most properties within the city boundaries should be taken by cities where they are located –a decision that Masaka District leadership strongly opposed.

Currently, the city offices are housed in government structures on Edward Avenue in Masaka City. Other offices occupy a building which formerly belonged to Bank of Baroda on Elgin Street.

Background

Masaka, which was previously a municipality, had a well-designed council hall in the 1970s, but the structure was bombed during the liberation war that ended President Idi Amin’s regime.

In 2011, a half –acre piece of land that housed the bombed town hall was allocated to the defunct Crane Bank to construct its branch. The municipal council then passed a resolution to sell the mayor’s gardens at Shs1.5b to raise money for the new city hall.