Jinja RCC Richard Gulume Balyainho put it bluntly at Tuesday’s meeting: the city will not be rebuilt or guided by hoarse slogans from dusty campaign trails and market corners but by agreements forged in the Council Chambers.
He was echoing—without quoting—the German-American political thinker Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), who argued that “power springs up between people when they act together and disappears as soon as they disperse.”
Gulume’s point lands the same way: Jinja’s MPs-elect, Mayor-elect, division mayors-elect and councilors-elect will only move services if they keep acting together inside the room, not outside it.
The MPs-elect Hon Dr Timothy Lusala Batuwa (South West), Hon Paul Mwiru (South East) and Hussein Muyonjo aka ‘Swengere’ plus Sarah Lwansasula (Jinja City Woman) were conspicuously absent from the otherwise well-attended meeting, a gap that has left some wondering whether their cooperation will hold once they are sworn in.
The convener Gulume, called the gathering the first of its kind in years and framed it a reset: campaign slogans belong to the trail not the chamber. The common denominator, he said, is service.
The RCC warned the mostly first-time leaders yet to be sworn in towards the last week of May against over-expectation, reminding them that leadership is a calling, not a market and that focus should stay on the wananchi not rewards.
He challenged them to drive poverty out of their own pockets first—run a shop, a garden, something that pays—so their preaching on wealth creation isn’t parody.
It’s counter-productive, he said, for miserable-looking leaders to lecture on markets when they themselves look like case studies
Gulume added that a core duty for the new leaders is to monitor government programmes, the Parish Development Model (PDM), Emyooga, and similar schemes—so city residents actually see a way out of poverty, not just posters.
PDM is Uganda’s latest grassroots push where government cash and extension is routed through the parish, organized in savings/enterprise groups, aiming to move households from subsistence into the money economy via coffee, poultry, craft or trade, among others. It is counted on as the flagship poverty-leap programme the RCC wants councilors to promote and monitor.
Emyooga runs alongside PDM-presidential initiative for specialized groups like artisans, welders, boda-boda, women’s enterprises among others.
He pressed each member to keep the Local Government Act at hand as ‘your political/leadership bible or Quran’ to stay on the lawful side of whatever decisions they make.
The Local Governments Act (Cap 243) is Uganda’s decentralization statute. Key amendments include the 2017 Act-adding speakers/deputy speakers for lower councils, tightening removal procedures and 2020 instruments updating schedules.
The law spells out councils’ political/legislative powers, duties of chairpersons, budgets, bylaws/ordinances and fiscal splits of local revenue.
Gulume’s advice tracks its core-follow the Act’s procedures, keep politics subordinates to service and use bylaws or ordinances, not slogans as your guide.
Some of the veteran councilors like Mzee John Muwema, Sozi Juma, Maria Kasasa, and Mama Joy Balyeku, among others have welcomed the move calling it a good gesture that will help the new leaders to steer the council to the right path.
