“The Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja revealed that the operaytionalization of; Entebbe, Moroto, Nakasongola, Kabale, Wakiso cities will take place on 1st July 2025, before the 2026 general elections, a move that will see the number of MPs in Parliament increase further, from the current 553 MPs as at March 2024. Nabbanja made the revelation while responding to a question raised by Michael Kakembo (Entebbe Municipality) during the Prime Minister’s Question Time, during the Tuesday 8th August 2024 plenary sitting” (Parliament Watch, 09.08.2024).
If you felt the likes of 553 MPs are too much. There is plans to extend that even further. The gerrymandering of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) aren’t over. This is done in a manner to ensure more people in the 12th Parliament.
Just a friendly reminder that the 9th Parliament (2011-2016) had 375 MPs, the 10th Parliament (2016-2021) had 426 MPs and now it has in the 11th Parliament (2021-2026) has 553 MPs, which clearly isn’t enough. Just within a decade from the 9th Parliament to the 11th Parliament the additional seats is the massive amount of 178 MPs. That’s what that been created and in such a short time. This is the creation of districts and sub-countries, the splitting and creating new local governments. Just so they get a representative for every village and every former sub-county in the Republic.
If you didn’t feel the Parliament wasn’t bloated enough, as it has specialized MPs and such. It has all sorts of representation and which is why it has so many. The Parliament will add even more, as certain districts and such will change with the creation of cities. Which again means there will be more MPs and not just one, but plenty more. A city will have more and we can see this one coming. They will have more than one additional MP and this is a mess, which is created to ensure a bigger majority for the National Resistance Movement (NRM). Create new cities or districts to counter all polling data and secure new MPs for the ruling regime.
We know the Republic already has Youth MPs, Workers MPs or the UPDF MPs for that matter. It is just plenty of additional ones, which creates a majority for reason. They aren’t there for the “special interests” but for a security for the President.
Now we are seeing yet another plan to ensure majority. A way of creating even more division or more local government entities. Just so the Republic can have more Representatives in the Natioanl Assembly. The Parliament can just have more members. We can wonder if the goal is to get 560-570 MPs by 2026. Because, the creation of cities will cause split of districts and will create new sub-counties. Which we know will add plenty of MPs. That will even make sure with the wards and the division mayors within the cities itself.
In addition to the creation of the cities. There are new funding needed for the creation of it and have the entities ready for it. Meaning the local government needs bigger budget and the cities needs more funding in the beginning. Because they need to build and follow the protocol or stipulations of what a city is supposed to have. Meaning all other government services needs to be up to speed and have the additional manpower to run as a city. That’s most likely not in order or the state doesn’t have sufficient funds for it. Which we have seen in the past and the lacking resources to actually gerrymander like it does.
We will just see this sort of thing happening again. Especially when the state knows and cannot have a bigger burden. This is adding more expenses without having more domestic revenue. The state lacks domestic revenue, but still adds more public expenses. That’s really showing the bad side of this governance. Another round of misuse of funds and siphoning it too. The NRM knows all of it, but they are the ones that has created this system. Peace.
MinBane 