EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Mubende Municipality is a town strategically located in the Albertine Region, along Kampala Fort Portal Highway approximately 150km away from Kampala, and adjoins Kakumiro- Kibaale and Hoima towns.  The proposed oil pipeline is likely to pass via the District and thus an economic tap for the Municipality. The town will greatly benefit from the Developments within the region like road Infrastructure, power and Institutional Capacity Development all aimed at exploration and extraction of oil.

Municipal strategic Direction

As aligned to the National Development agenda, Mubende Municipality aims at a better and more transformed town to live in with its people self-sufficient, with wide opportunities for prosperity, Our Vision for this five-year Development plan is “Mubende community transformed from a Peasant to a Modern and Prosperous one by the year 2040”. The Mission is “To serve the community through the coordinated delivery of services focusing on national priorities and significant local needs for sustainable development”. In view of this, the theme is, “Sustainable Industrialization for inclusive growth, employment and sustainable wealth creation”. The goal for the Plan is “To increase the household income and improve the life of the People within Mubende Municipality

Plan Implementation and coordination

The council is the body responsible for oversight role. It discusses and approves the annual work plans, budgets and formulate policies to direct the municipal Development. The primary role of the council will be to approve work plans and formulate policies to guide the implementation of this plan. The executive committee will oversee the daily implementation of the Plan, carryout Political Monitoring and supervision of the plan implementation. Also popularize the Plan Vision, Mission, and strategies and liaise with outside world both within Mubende and outside to ensure the plan is implemented effectively. The office of the Town Clerk and the technical team are the driving engines to ensure the proper implementation of this plan. The development partners, press and other stakeholders are responsible for both oversight role and implementation of the plan especially by closing the gaps that emerge out of political and technical operations.

1.1 Background Information

1.1.1 Historical Development Context

Mubende Municipality is located in Mubende District, Mid-Western Uganda in the Present Buganda Kingdom. The history of Mubende Municipality dates far back from the Bunyoro- Kitara Empire. This was the first capital of the Cwezi Kingdom around 1450-1500 A.D with its base on Nakayima Hill.  The colonial Administrators settled in the area around 1901 – 1903 and also established an administrative center with their residencies at the same hill due to its strategic location.

 Later the Asian Traders came in and settled below Nakayima Hill and started small and medium businesses which included ginneries and coffee factories.  This made the small shopping Centre eventually to flourish resulting into a trading Centre in 1922.   Mubende attained a Town Council status in 1976 and has then expanded several times to then occupy approximately 300 sq kms.  Later, on 1^st July, 2015 it was gazetted a Municipality status and annexed some parishes of the neighboring Sub – Counties of Kitenga, Kiyuni and Bagezza.  This led to increase in both size and population to the extent of three times the original size and population.

One cannot talk about Mubende Municipality and leave out the critical issue of the “lost counties” between Buganda and Bunyoro Kingdoms. This very much links to the prevailing status of the Municipality and other developments in the neighbouring areas of Buwekula, Bugangayizi and Buyaga counties. The constant wars between Buganda and Bunyoro Kingdoms made worse the situation, as the development of the Municipality was not a priority.  This is well portrayed by the presence of almost only new commercial buildings with just a few old buildings, which are just administrative offices. Consequently, the growth of Social and Economic infrastructure was greatly under developed.

The subsequent Post – Colonial Governments also did not bother about putting in place Social and Economic infrastructure not until 1977 when Town Council started using hydroelectric power moving from thermo power.  Town Council by then remained backward with temporary structures, which were later, pulled down in early 1993. The removal of the temporary structures from the town stimulated development as evidenced by the storied and permanent buildings mainly in the Central Business area. This new development has attracted many new settlers from both within and the neighbouring Districts and many new investments in the Town have emerged which raises hope for a better Municipality

1.1.2 Legal and Policy Planning context

Since 2007, Uganda adopted the Comprehensive National Development Planning Framework (CNDPF). This resulted into a number of changes in the planning system both at National and Local Government levels.  The CNDPF itself presented a shift in the development planning mechanism from a needs-based to a proactive vision-based planning. Among the new developments are; the inauguration of Uganda Vision 2040, and the National Development Plan with a shift from the PEAP approach.  The planning outlook put emphasis on new elements like; Local Economic Development (LED) as one of the pillars of decentralization, emphasis on Public Private Partnerships in planning and the need to provide for adequate participation of non-state actors in the planning and bud­geting processes.  The planning horizon shifted from the three year rolling development planning to the five-year strategic planning. The PEAP was replaced with the National Development Plan (NDP). Also, the result based Management practices have been concretized through a series of planning shifts from output based planning to now Programme based planning.

1.1.3. Recent Developments

Uganda has so far implemented two of the six Development plans as stipulated in the Vision 2040 and the third horizon of the plan stretches from 2020/21 to 2024/25. As a Local Government implementing the development strategies in the National Development Plan,  Mubende Municipality has aligning its MDPIII  as its  second Development Plan after being elevated from a town council status to the Municipal council to the NDPIII but putting into consideration the developments inherited from the town council, and thus the municipal strategic stretch for the next five years is influenced by National, and Local strategies to foster Uganda to development aspiration of a middle income status by the year  2040.

The central point location of the Municipality in the Albertine region places the entity to a strategic development path. As Uganda identifies Hoima as the oil city, Mbarara as the regional City and Fort Portal as the Tourist city in the National Vision 2040, and these cities are set to be operational in the planning horizon of NDPIII, Mubende Municipality is the Junctional town that links those National development outlooks, thus strategically set as a commercial hub within the region.  These have already attracted infrastructure Development especially road network like Mubende-Kibale road is proposed to pass via Town, and the Lusalira-NkongeRoad, Mubende- Fort Portal Highway, and the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) whose base is in Mubende; will boost the business of the town and thus looking at the opportunity as a Centre of commerce, trade and industry.   Our planning is thus hinged on tapping both the local resources and the national strategic investments in order to boost the local economy.

The Municipality is undergoing rapid developments through increased urbanization and rural - Urban migration. It has grown into a big business centre for mainly agricultural produce especially maize, Beans, Bananas, and Coffee that is later transported to Kampala, Southern Sudan, Rwanda and Busia and later to Kenya as the final destination.  The main agricultural produce dealt in are beans and maize. The development of this Agro-produce trade is attributed to the rich fertile soils, relatively cheap labour, security, presence of two rainy seasons and possible roads. The increased production of agro – produce has attracted investors to start up agro processing SMEs to transform the same into semi-finished and finished products. However, over 90% of the produce are exported from the District in raw form. This robs the District and the municipality in particular of the potential development out of the product value chain.

1.2. MUNICIPALPROFILE

1.2.1. Municipality key Geographical Information

Mubende Municipality is a hilly place with ragged terrain. The place is commonly known for the 99 hills upon which the historic palace of the Chwezi dynasty was established in around 1300AD.  The town Centre is located at the foothills of these magnificent hills, this affects the settlements with drainage and off-runs of heavy storm water. The altitude of the area ranges between 1066 to 1548 meters above sea level with varied land scape features.

The Municipality’s climate is classified as tropical with two rainy seasons between March-June and August-December. Generally, one can rightly say that the area receives rainfall throughout the year with two peak seasons.  The area has average annual temperatures of 24.3* C with rains of 1377 mm.

The dominant soils of the Municipality are ferralitic soils with a dominant color being red and are mainly sandy loams. A ferralitic soils usually represent the last stage in tropical weathering. These soils usually have low reserves of weatherable mineral and largely depend on bases held in clay and organic complexes for their fertility. Generally, productivity of ferralitic soils depend on favorable rain fall distribution. However, a limited area is covered by clay loams.

The area covered by open water is 0.1 % while wetlands and swamps cover 8% of the total area of the Municipality. At least 24.8 % of the seasonal swamps have been converted for various purposes which include farming, establishment of settlements, business establishments, and industries among others.

The following vegetation are found in municipality. 1. Moist altitude ever green forest, 2. Forest / savanna mosaic, 3. Moist acacia savanna, 4. Dry combretum savanna, 5. Dry acacia savanna, 6. Grass savanna and 7. Swamp vegetation.

1.2.2. Mubende Municipality administrative structure

 Municipality is located in the Central Region of Uganda, approximately 160 kms North-West of Kampala on Kampala Fort-Portal Highway.  Municipality is found in MubendeDistrict in the mid-west central region of Uganda. The Municipality Boarder’s with Kiyuni Sub – County in the North West, Kibalinga in the West, Kitenga in the South – East and Madudu Sub – County in the South and North East. The Municipality covers an area of approximately 300 sq km from 4sq km in 1995 which is a sign of rapid boundary expansion.  The Municipality is made up of eighteen (18) wards, seventy-five (75) Villages (LC I s) and the Special Area which is housing Military Casualty Unit. (Survivors Unit).

The Municipal Council is an urban Local Government at the Level of LC IV, with powers to plan, budget and report on those obligations as enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995 and the Local Government Act CAP 243 1997(amended). Also the Council is a self-accounting entity. It’s planning and budgeting is an inclusive approach that covers all entities within the municipal area of jurisdiction save for centrally managed entities like police, army Judiciary regional referral Hospital and NTC

Table 5: Summary of Administrative Units

Source: Municipal Statistical abstract 2018/19

1.2.3. Mubende Municipality Demographic Characteristics

Since 1991, as a town council with its boundaries limited to a small area, the population of the town has been small.  The population of the town has been determined by both natural factors and artificial factors. At different times, neighbouring villages have been added into the town thus expanding is size and population. During the census of 1991, the town had a population of 9,301 people, and in 2002, the population had shoot to 15,996 people. However, during the current census of 2014, a total of by 2002 and 95,416 people.  The District is one of those with the highest population growth rate. Although the national growth rate reduced from 3.2% to 3.0%, the District growth rate stands at 4% far above the national average. Municipality share the same growth rate like the district at 4%. As a population growth factor, the District lays among those whose population growth rate is increasing despite the declining national average from 3.2% to 3%, the district inter-censual increased from 3.7% to 4%.

 Table 6: Showing Population Distribution by Division and sex

Source: Municipal Statistical Abstract 2019/20

According to NPHC 2014 (UBOS 2014) constituency report, the municipal sex ratio is 98.9% below the district ratio of 102.7%. This indicate that more women in the municipality than in the entire District. The Municipal population is mainly youthful in composition where the youth (18-30 Years) constitute 27.9% and those of Primary school going age make 18.8% and those that are still young (0-17 years) make a percentage of 51.8% as per NPHC 2014 (UBOS 2014) Constituency Report.  The report also indicates that 78% of the youth were engaged in gainful employment. However, 7.6% of those youth were neither working nor in school. This poses a risk of crimes and lawlessness coupled with poverty and dependence from such people. The   young and youthful population, needs measure to keep it in schools and productive. Still important is that, the elderly persons 65 years and above constitute only 1.8% and given the fact that 48.2% of the population is 18years and above, this leaves the area with productive population of 46.4% which indicates a high dependence burden and thus low productivity.

The quality of the population could be measured by literacy rates and the International Human Development Index. However out of the population 18years and above, 17.1% are illiterate and out of these, females constitute the biggest proportion of 19.5%

1.2.4. Natural Resource Endowment

 Municipality is richly endowed by nature ranging from its unique hospitality of the different tribes of the area which include the Baganda, Banyoro, Bakiga, Banyankole and Basoga among others. In addition, the town is located in a valley surrounded by some of the 99 hills. The Municipal Business Centre is located just below Boma Hill where Nakayima Tourist site is located. This makes it a home for all tourists both local and foreigners who come to worship and ask for blessings at the magnificent shrine. The soils are alluvial in nature that supports agriculture.  

The Municipal climate do support agriculture and business. The town is strategically located at the central point of the Albertine region. The area has natural gazzeted forests, rivers and springs which support production. There is a natural water reservoir known as Kateebe with natural water that supply the town and also magnificent Kiziba hills which is a source of Many rivers like River Nkusi running to west into L. albert, R. Kattabalanga that Joins R. Katonga into L. Victoria, and R. Muzizi, R. Kiye, R. Nakajula among others. The locals believe that this hill is the source of R. Katonga and the Nile River.

Human settlement has greatly affected the natural forests, especially through encroachment, and equally the river buffer zones. Agriculture is greatly competing with the forest resources and the most affected natural forests are the Kyampisi and Kyanasiki Forest reserves. River Kattabalanga is also greatly affected by human activities through poor agricultural practices

1.2.5. Social-Economic Infrastructure

The Municipality deals mainly in trade and agro – processing. Traders mainly deal in coffee, maize, beans, cassava to mention but a few. Small scale informal businesses are also carried out in the town which includes metal fabrication, tailoring, carpentry and hair dressing among others. Agriculture forms the economic base of the Municipality by providing both food and income. According to (NPHC 2014), 73.5% of the Households are engaged in either crop farming or rearing of animals, where 69.2% engage in Crop farming and 59% produce maize as a crop in their households. This indeed makes the area food secure and a food basket for the region. Some are exported to Rwanda, Kenya, Southern Soudan, DRC, Burundi and Tanzania. Of recent, major agro-based facilities have been established in the Municipality to support post-harvest handling services, especially of Maize and beans. These include the aponye stores (warehousing facility), Sanyu Investments and many other small traders. The area is also booming in the manufacturing of drinks like Muhuza drink, Mukama Nayamba Health Drink and so many others.

Micro Enterprises are also carried out in the municipality which include poultry keeping, zero grazing, tree nursery beds, pottery and casting of pavers, culverts, slabs and bricks. These boost the economic activity of the town.

The town is served by a road network of 350 km consisting of 2.5kms (tarmac), 347.5kms (murram). The town is served by eight governments owned Health Centre II’s, one Health CentreIII, one Regional Referral Hospital and a good number of private clinics, pharmacies and other health units. In a bid to improve on the sanitation and to boost urban agriculture, the municipality constructed a compost site to process garbage into manure so as to have some other materials recycled. The town has piped water network managed by National Water and Sewerage Corporation, boreholes, protected springs and rain water harvesting. There are 24 government aided Primary Schools, 3 Government Secondary Schools, 104 Private Primary Schools and 9 Private Secondary Schools. There are two Tertiary Institutions, one national teachers’ college and two university branches operating within the municipality.  The percentage of people living below the poverty line still stands at 8% below the national average of 19.7% (Uganda Poverty Report 2014).

The major source of power for the Municipality is hydroelectricity distributed by UMEME and of recent, through rural electrification, many major town centres have been connected to the grid.   There has been attempts by individual people to install solar power on their own buildings but this is on a very low percentage / coverage but increasingly covering the per-urban area where UMEME has not yet reach