Behind the façade of bringing services closer to people. The proclaimed and hidden intentions of the government of Uganda to create many new local government districts

Abstract

Creation of local government districts has become an enterprise in Uganda, with many stakeholders having diverse opinions about the government’s motives. This article examines the questions:What are the proclaimed and hidden or implicit intentions of the government? What evidence is available to provide reasonable interpretation of government action according to a particular rationale? By triangulating primary and secondary data and using a deductive approach, the study concludes that the initial intention of the government to create new districts to bring services and government closer to the peoplewas consistent with the country’s constitution and decentralisation policy.However, since 1997, and especially since 2006, other rationales have come to the fore, though not communicated as such in public policy statements. While we do not exclude ethnic rationale, the article finds more evidence that points to political patronage and a variant of gerrymandering (namely, that of splitting up districts while not redrawing boundaries).