The Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja, has announced the upcoming operationalization of five new cities—Entebbe, Moroto, Nakasongola, Kabale, and Wakiso—set for 1st July 2025. This move, which will take place before the 2026 general elections, will see the number of Members of Parliament (MPs) increase from the current 553.
Nabbanja made the revelation during the Prime Minister’s Question Time on Thursday 8th August 2024, in response to a query from Michael Kakembo, the MP for Entebbe Municipality. The operationalization of these cities is part of the government’s ongoing urbanization efforts aimed at enhancing governance, development, and service delivery across the country.
“This amendment affected the next phase of 5 cities. The Ministry of Local Government is currently carrying out the technical studies and consultations with stakeholders in the 5 cities to prepare them for oeprationalisation on 1st July 2025, subject to the guidance of Cabinet,” said Nabbanja.
“This is duplication of work and wastage of resources, recently government said they didn’t even have enough money to operationalize new cities.” Toko said adding that
“We have more than enough MPs already, we have 553 which is almost the same number of Mps as India(Lok Sabha) and yet India has a population of 1.4 Billion people. So even if it were for representation, Uganda’s MPs are still too many as is, we don’t even have space to sit all these MPs.”
“We need to look at what makes a city a city not just naming any district a city. Look at the colonial municipalities like Entebbe, Jinja and others, they were well planned. They had staff quarters, schools, buses for transport, public parks, and golf courses for leisure. There was a plan before the classification as municipalities.”
“This whole thing is about politics, They(NRM) want to grant these areas city status and then come back in 2026 and say we gave you a city now you must vote for us. There are also these self seeking MPs who are being threatened in their current constituencies and now want new parliamentary sits with less opposition.” he said.“You do not even need a city to deliver services to the people. These services are hospitals, roads and schools. Do you need a city to build a hospital?”
Uganda’s Parliament has witnessed a significant increase in the number of MPs over the years, driven by the creation of new districts and constituencies to accommodate the growing population and administrative demands.
In 1996, Uganda had 276 MPs. This number steadily increased as new districts were created and more seats for special interest groups, such as women, youth, and people with disabilities, were added. By 2011, the number of MPs had risen to 375, and this growth continued over the years.
The creation of more districts, coupled with the government’s strategy to increase political representation, led to the expansion of Parliament, with the number of MPs reaching 426 in 2016. The 2021 general elections saw a further increase, bringing the total to 529 MPs, and by March 2024, the number had risen to 553.
The upcoming operationalization of the five new cities will continue this trend.
However, the growing number of MPs has also sparked debates about the cost implications and the efficiency of such a large legislative body.
