Fort Portal to wait until 2030 for City status

Part of Fort Portal town as seen from Rwengoma. Photo by Felix Basiime

BY FELIX BASIIME

& RUTH KATUSABE

Published in Daily Monitor in November 2013

KABAROLE: What was seen earlier as something achievable within 5 years has been pushed to 2030, that is the project: Fort Portal city.

According to the 2013 Five year Development Plan, the new Vision now states as, “To have an Orderly and Liveable Tourist city by year 2030”

The quest for a city status has been delayed by several factors but the biggest of all is the bickering of local leaders of Fort Portal municipality.

Both the mayor Mr Asaba Ruyonga and area MP Alex Ruhunda in 2011 launched a joint campaign with a big quest to transform this town into a city status.

During the campaigns, both Ruhunda and town mayor had a slogan "Nikisoboka Fort Portal kufooka city" meaning that it is possible for Fort Portal to turn into a city. These leaders promised the electorates that this quest was possible in five years but things have changed since and affected the original plan.

Hardly had a year past after the municipal leaders were sworn in, than bickering ensued with councilors fighting both the mayor and his Deputy Margaret Kihika over allowances and other petty issues.

“I abandoned that plan (City status) because my critics have mainly used the media in Fort Portal to tarnish me as a thief, I no longer go out to monitor projects for fear of being stoned by members of the public as I used to do and now development is at a slow pace” Asaba said.

He added, “Do you see the bickering in the 9^th Parliament, we can’t have any tangible developments in the country this term when there is bickering among the leaders, the same with Fort Portal, for development to take place, leaders must unite and jointly do projects, roads and other infrastructure is for all of us”

He added, “Am sure at this pace, Kasese will surpass Fort Portal very soon in terms of developments”

Some of the criteria for a city status

According to the Local government Act, a municipality to turn into a city must have a population of at least 500,000.

To attain this figure, the leadership of the town cannot announce over radios inviting people to migrate to town, but there must be facilities, institutions, developments and the enabling environment that automatically attract people to work, invest and stay there.

These are like hospitals, schools, hotels, universities, banks enough space for both residential and business premises.

Area for expansion is another criterion. Currently Fort Portal has West, East and South Divisions covering about 27.82 sq kms. It needs to expand beyond this by annexing some neighboring sub counties and to do this, the urban authority has to lobby these sub counties, it is not an automatic process, the law says that sub counties requested must sit and decide to join the city or may turn down the request.

However, according to the Acting Deputy Town Clerk, Mr Michael Karwani, expansion is not their strategy at the moment but they are focusing on improving the infrastructure first which will attract people to work and stay in town.

One of these is the modern market under construction at Mpanga market at the Fort Portal-Kampala road junction.

Other things that qualify for a city status include the services that the private sector offers to support the growing city and its population.

“Of course for any place to become a city, you must have a modern market which is being constructed at Mpanga, you must have a regional referral hospital, Buhinga has improved now, there are good hotels, 5 star hotels are coming up, the town is being beautified and a modern sports stadium will soon be constructed by the Chinese at Buhinga” Karwani said.

He adds, “Fort Portal-Bundibugyo and Ibanda-Fort Portal roads are being worked on and Fort Portal being the cleanest town in Uganda, with its high tourism potential and oil development, there is no doubt that it will be a business hub in the region”

What is in place now

Fort Portal town was founded in 1893 as a garrison for Sir Gerald Portal for a colonial administrative centre. However, over time it grew in size and population, becoming a Municipal Council in 1975.

Fort Portal Municipality lies at the foot of Rwenzori Mountains, 5050 feet above sea level; it is dotted with more than ten small hills from where one gets a lovely view of Rwenzori Mountains. The municipality is projected to be having a total population of 99,653 persons.

Of the 27.82 sq kms, only 4 sq kms is covered by the central business district and the remaining pieces of land are used for residential purposes and agriculture related activities.

It is 316 km from Kampala via Mubende. Accessibility by road is easy as it lies on the Kampala-Kasese highway that is one of the major link routes to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is also the major liable link to the District of Bundibugyo that lies on the border with the DRC. Additionally, it’s linked to the urban centers and the rural areas in its surrounding hinterland by a number of first class roads. This thus makes it an important center of trade and tourism.

It is a regional town for Kabarole, Kamwenge, Kasese, Bundibugyo, Kyegegwa, Kyenjojo and Ntoroko districts. It is the hub of Tooro in terms of business administrative and private sector transactions.

Most roads in town are tarmacked and well drained but of late pot holes are seen on Rukidi III Street. The town has a road network of 146.3km consisting of 47.35km (tarmac), 98.95km (murram). Out of the 47.35km tarmac roads, 10.2 km are trunk section and 37.15 km are Town street roads.

“The oil industry will make Hoima and Fort Portal towns into cities; I hope that Kamwenge and Kagadi roads are worked on quickly, that is my conviction” said MP Ruhunda.

The oil prospects along L. Albert shores and the extraction of Pozolana boulders make Fort Portal a busy and economically strong commercial center in the region.

CNOOC that will operate the Ntoroko oil block will set its base in Fort Portal town.

The hinterland of Fort Portal too is attractive, and has pulled several tourists to the town the reason why the hotel industry has steadily grown here.

The attractive features include Kibale, Semliki Valley, Queen Elizabeth Mount Rwenzori National parks, the Rwagimba and Sempaya hot springs, Amabere Ga Nyina Mwiru near Nyakasura School and several crater lakes.

Good Hotels include: Mountains of the Moon Hotel (2000) Ltd, Rujuna Hilltop Guesthouse, Palace Motel, Rwenzori Travelers Inn,  Tooro Resort, Ataco Country resort, Kluge’s farm hotel and camp site, Sunrise International Apartments, Raja Excelsior, Lesuiex Centre, Riviera, Hotel Cornerstone, Lake Kyaninga Lodge, Hilton and several camp sites.

Fort Portal Municipal Council authorities have prioritized physical planning exercise in the next five years. This planning will provide for road location, schools and health facilities, open spaces, play grounds, commercial centres and residential neighborhoods.

The council intends to hire a consultant to design a strategic plan for the next 15 years to show the road map of a city status.

“We want to hire an expert in physical planning to help our technical team in planning for a city” says Ruhunda.

On top of hydro-electric power supply by Umeme from Jinja, other potential alternative sources of energy in Fort-Portal Municipality include:-Katokoma mini-water falls, Biogas, Solar and Wind

World Bank Grant

The urban authority has lobbed a Shs 2 billion grant every year from the World Bank for city development and out of this they will build modern roads and a Bus park.

“We are going to build modern markets and we encourage Fort Portal people to embrace this venture” said Karwani.

He said the Municipal council is going to lobby the district leadership to give them land at Kyembogo so that they can build an Industrial park.

“With this, we will have expanded Fort Portal in order to be a city by 2030” said Karwani.

He added, “Our town beatification with green belts and it cleanliness have attracted more people to tour around making our hotels busy and we get hotel tax from the visitors”

Karwani said that they want to contact the ministry of Tourism to construct Heritage Park for tourism attraction.

The construction of Fort Portal-Bundibugyo road has attracted more people to acquire land which will boost business.

The vast tea industry in the hinterland has attracted tourists to the town as some of the investors and workers sleep in town hence bringing income.

Some development challenges

Since the coming into force of the 1995 Constitution, an establishment of land law was provided to the effect that land belongs to the people. In essence, this rendered formerly controlling authorities mere agents of planning.

According to the 5 year development plan, the urban authority becomes practically difficult to effectively plan for what they do not control. In this respect, Fort Portal Municipal Council faces it as a challenge to enforce acceptable development standards; consequently, development is in progress amidst unauthorized developments, particularly illegal structures.

Fort Portal receives rainfall almost throughout the year. Such a climatic condition has adverse effects on the road network and drainage development. It has increasingly become expensive to maintain the road network whose rate of deterioration does not match the available resources to finance the damages. The problem is further aggravated by the increase in road traffic through continuous tear and wear.

Heavy trucks to DRC mainly pass through Fort Portal including the over 50 trucks that daily ferry pozzolana to from Fort Portal to Hima cement factory in Kasese district.

       What others say

 

Mr Patrick Bamanyisa

I think it was a campaign slogan (City status) like any other. Starting with Obama's "Yes We Can" yes we can what??!!!, even Jacob Zuma of South Africa promised south Africans 500,000 jobs during his election campaign and.......the list can go on and on!!!!! Briefly, all politicians are liars.

Ms Nyakato Rusoke
It (City status) was just a campaign gimmick, nothing has been done, we don’t have a single public toilet in town, and most buildings in town especially on Laggard Street and Kiboga road are not connected to the sewer line. There are no street lights because Fort Portal municipal council failed to pay Umeme bills and the people of Fort Portal will not benefit from the quarrels of the mayor and his councilors, for us we want work not fights.