Big Cities, Big Politics

Kampala, Uganda pales in comparison to Mexico City,Mexico or Chicago,
IL. But that does not mean that this city is any less significant.
All three matter because, they each have had to deal with the
complexities of a governance-and that by mayors.

Let me therefore offer some suggestions based on some lessons from these
two major cities.

Learn from your mistakes.

In 1871 October 8-10 a great fire killed at least 250 persons and left
90,000 other homeless. It also left in its path 10 Sq. miles of
destruction. The chief consequence was to reorient the retail business
district away from the Chicago River towards a new axis along state
street (Microsoft Encyclopedia).

Something has to change in Kampala.
Either new fire proof material has to be found for construction in the
park yard area, or a new location has to be identified.
What is clear though, is that the area is a gold mine for business
(given the pace at which reconstruction and refinancing takes place). In
addition to this, an overhaul of Micro-finance systems needs to take
place as well as a review of Insurance policies for high risk areas and
persons.

Use and Protect your waterways

Uganda is already doing a lot of sensitization work on the issue of
wetland and their conservation. We have identified flood prone areas and
work is underway to create more channels as well as prevent construction
and development in wetlands. The creation of an Environment Management
Authority and its intensive awareness campaigns will all go a long way
towards the achievement of these major goals.

Identify productive (power rich) groups and utilize them

In Chicago, large groups had emerged in previous centuries which had the
power to command large votes. These later came to be known as Political
Machines. They are said to have disappeared in the seventies. You could
argue that Smiles used certain aspects of these power centers to rise in
prominence even if his rise was attributed to his use of grass root
movements and direct canvasing of local communities.
But these also exist in Kampala.
There are Taxi Operators Associations, Traders Associations, Boda Boda
Operators Associations, Market Vendors Associations and others which
control key business centers and which therefore can be harnessed for
political leverage.
It is no wonder that Big Hat has made full use of these groups and even
manages to handle delicate issues by talking to point persons in these
groups.

Take the management of disaster very seriously

An Earthquake that took place in 1985 and the governments slow response
to aid the citizens led to the emergence of a new movement which formed
the basis of many civic and political groups which would later form the
core of government opposition.
There is a possibility that the Democratic Party took full advantage of
government response to Hurricane Katrina (In Louisiana) to take
political office in 2008. Even if Republican Sentiment was generally
high (aided by the sense of nationalism that had permeated U.S life post
911, significant votes were lost in battle line states in the South.

The same fears were therefore evident in New Jersey as Chris Cristie's
response send shock waves in the hearts of citizens both because of its
honesty and rejection of conventional red tape. It is no wonder that at
this point word of his candidacy began to spread like wild fire.

While Smiles was punished for seeming to side with the enemy, there was
a possibility of a new American sense in politics-this time devoid of
Republican and Democrat. This was also the time when the tea party and
the occupy movement were flexing their political muscle (or remnants of
it).

Selection and Appointment

Mexico City and the Federated District (Mexico City and several suburban
cities) were both formalized in the 1917 constitution. This gave the
head of the Federal District the dual role of mayor and governor. Until
1990 it was the task of the President to appoint the head of the Federal
department.

Reforms in the 80s and 90s caused a change that meant that
representatives were now directly elected and not appointed and
therefore accountable to the voters.

You can see how the election of an executive director and the role of
the mayor could both be points of future conflict placing the elected
official at odds with the selected official. Resulting in two opposing
accountability centers. The voters for the former and the executive for
the latter.