Members of Parliament have blocked the proposed remuneration of the Local Council (LC1) chairpersons claiming these chairpersons at the moment hold office illegally.

Parliament of Uganda

The MPs say that for close to ten years, Uganda has never held elections for the lowest Local Council after the elections were successfully challenged by Major Rubaramira Ruranga’s court petition in the Constitutional Court asking for an injunction to block the elections.

The Member of Parliament for Ntenjeru South, Tom Kazibwe has told Parliament that the current Local Councils were elected to occupy office for five years but because the government failed to organize elections these LC1 officials have held office for about ten years.

Kazibwe says the current LC1 Chairpersons are now holding office illegally since their term of office was meant to be five years and it is unacceptable that government should remunerate people that hold office illegally.

In Uganda’s budget for the financial year 2010/2011 the government promised that it would remunerate LC I chairmen to appreciate the important role LC1 chairperson play in governance in Uganda.

Other Mps have expressed concern that payment of LC chairperson while excluding the other 8 members of the Local Council would create conflicts and demoralize the other people who serve on the LC1 Council, Uganda’s lowest local government at the village level under the decentralization policy.

By Zacharia Tiberindwa, Ultimate Media