Charles Nyakwebara. Courtesy photo
1. Governance and management
a) I would initiate reforms in government structure and introduce regional governments. My government would introduce seven regional governments in addition to the central government in Kampala.
The central regional government would be headquartered at Wakiso, mid-western in Kyenjojo, south-western in Rukungiri, northern in Pader, West Nile in Arua, north-east in Kotido and eastern in Mbale. The distribution of these governments would consider among others centrality and distribution of development to new areas. I would also put a moratorium on creation of districts.
b) I would also reduce expenditure on public administration and reduce Cabinet to only one minister per sector and remove State ministers and RDCs.
I would restructure representation in Parliament. Each regional government would have a parliament with two representatives per district (male and female). I would also do away with special interest groups in Parliament.
Each region would elect two (male and female) regional representatives to the central parliament, thus my government would have 224 MPs at the regional parliament (that is two MPs for each of the 112 districts) and 14 MPs in the central Parliament.
c) I would introduce an affirmative fund for weak districts to help them cope with infrastructure and service provision.
d) I would also introduce tough laws for corrupt officials/ leaders. Culprits would be arraigned in courts of law regardless of political or economic status. I would make it a policy to freeze all bank accounts and businesses of suspected corrupt officials until they are cleared by court.
e) I would restore the two five-year term limits for president and introduce the same for parliamentarians. I would also make it extremely hard to change this constitutional provision in future, with approval by all parliamentarians in case this is to be altered.
f) I would propose all urban land be vested in the regional government to ease planning for orderly and coordinated development. This will be done after enumerating and compensating all affected property owners.
g) I would end externalisation of military service and encourage and support the armed forces to engage in productive professional activities in line with their qualifications. I would keep a sizeable deployment in Somalia to stabilise the nation and to avoid retaliation.
2. Health, Education, Sports
a) I would revamp the education sector by:
i) Reviewing teachers’ salaries with the lowest paid primary school teacher earning a monthly pay of Shs500,000 after taxes.
ii) Introduce education standards unit to monitor the performance of the sector, including instituting disciplinary actions against poor performers.
iii) Streamline bursary system at all levels to benefit the deserving poor citizens
iv) Introduce the concept of community libraries and museums in all regional governments
b) Establish science and technology incubation centres in all government universities and encourage private universities to start the same. We would benchmark this on international practices like the Torch Centre in China.
c) I would invest in research and development, particularly in areas of Science and Technology. Appoint a technical team to identify all local efforts in the realms of science and technology (aircrafts and cars made in Katwe) for support and linkage to university research.
d) Introduce regional sports competitions based on the regional government structures. This would help in identification and nurturing of talent. In the same spirit, I would immediately embark on reconstruction and development of the following regional sports stadia:
• Kakindu in Hoima
• Buhinga in Fort Portal
• Akii-Bua in Lira
• Pece in Gulu
• Mbale Municipal Stadium
• Kakyeka in Mbarara
• Bugembe in Jinja
• Three high altitude sports facilities in Kapchorwa, Moroto and Kabale
• Build two new modern sports stadia in Arua and Wakiso
e) Institute a health review commission to look into the specific concerns and requirements for improving health service provision in Uganda. My government would introduce liberal, efficient and affordable health insurance scheme for all gainfully employed citizens.
3. Power, oil and gas
a) Introduce reforms in the power sector. Remove taxes on all power-related equipment and encourage Ugandans to adopt to the use of renewable energy sources like biogas and solar. My government would construct a solar panel factory in Nakasongola to support this initiative.
b) Put in place a framework for early production of oil in the Albertine region. Use all oil revenue to construct hard infrastructure like roads and railways.
4. Investment /production, marketing and transport
a) Reduce VAT to 15 per cent
b) Immediately ban importation of products that are or can be locally produced like toothpicks, rice, canned foods, apples, etc. and support investment in import substitution industries.
c) Introduce a tractor hire scheme at sub-county level. A farmer would access free tractor service for the first five hectares and pay for any additional hectares.
d) Reintroduce the produce marketing boards to help handle, store and market farmers produce. I would support the agricultural sector by opening an agricultural bank (Cooperative bank) to avail agricultural credit to farmers and help them save.
e) Start renovating regional aerodromes and immediately commission a feasibility study on the viability of domestic air transport in Uganda.
f) I would introduce and affirmative action for local investors. Local investors would be availed a range of incentives such as tax holidays and free extension of services like power, water and ICT cables to their establishments. Ensure that all foreign investment projects have at least one Ugandan director.
g) Strict adherence to the policy on employment of foreigners. Prohibit foreigners from accessing employment in petty businesses and investing in small scale agro-processing. These would be ring-fenced for Ugandans.
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