By Amiri Wabusimba
For years, Uganda has promoted an ambitious storyline: cities and municipalities rising through climate-smart design, modern public markets, green corridors, and inclusive spaces meant to drive economic dignity.
Mubende was once held up as proof that this future was within reach. But today, the town has become something else entirely a global case study in how good infrastructure collapses when institutions fail to protect it.
The first crack in the narrative appeared in a place that should have symbolised urban renewal: the Mayor’s Garden. The garden was built under the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID) programme, a project into which the Ministry of Lands confirms more than UGX 63 billion was poured.
Its launch arrived with choreographed optimism: speeches, promises of sustainability, and the photo-perfect moment that development agencies love. Instead of flourishing into the green, climate-adaptive refuge it was envisioned to be with shaded paths, protected tree cover, and ecological buffers it has steadily deteriorated.
The causes are neither mysterious nor accidental. Unregulated private musical Commercial events, a complete absence of post-construction management.
As discontent over the garden deepened, authorities abruptly ordered buses and tax operators to abandon the highway corridor and relocate to a new market leaving over 600 roadside vendors and food-mart operators jobless.
The timing was unmistakable: the NRM presidential campaign is expected in Mubende on 15 December.
The vendors many long-time supporters of the ruling party did not see this as routine urban management.They saw it as an existential threat.
Their businesses depend on the very specific dynamics of the highway: tourists headed toward Fort Portal and Kasese, long-distance travellers, and bus passengers who rarely venture into the town centre. The new market, tucked far from the traffic flow, cannot replicate this economic ecosystem.
The damage became so alarming that the District Chairperson issued a formal advisory letter warning the Municipal Authority to involve all development-partners and stakeholders on funded projects that cannot be casually converted into a commercial venue.
The letter reportedly cited risks of violating environmental laws, undermining Section 27 of the Local Government Act, which requires orderly, fair, and consultative decision-making with affected communities and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) underscoring the importance of creating livelihoods through resilient, participatory, and inclusive urban planning.
But if the Mayor’s Garden was the warning sign, the next decision by municipal authorities would ignite something far more volatile.
What began as a relocation order has morphed into the most politically sensitive problem the region has faced in years.
Within trading circles, whispers of protests some even suggesting obstructing the presidential convoy have multiplied.
While such actions are illegal and dangerous, the fact that they are being contemplated at all is evidence of a governance system losing legitimacy. Political scientists have a name for this pattern: pre-electoral administrative destabilization when sudden decisions taken without consultation in a politically charged period trigger confrontation, mistrust, and heightened risk of unrest.
Mubende’s unravelling is not an isolated story, across the continent, cities that debuted impressive donor-funded projects parks in Nairobi, revitalization schemes in Freetown, urban green zones in Dakar have watched them decay when political interference replaced management, and public accountability eroded.
International development experts have long warned: Infrastructure succeeds or fails not at the ribbon-cutting, but in the years that follow where governance, transparency, and community inclusion decide whether investment becomes transformation or waste.
In Mubende, both crises the collapsing Mayor’s Garden and the forced displacement of highway vendors stem from the same structural failure: a governance model where building is prioritised, but protection is not; where decisions affecting citizens are made without them; where transparency is optional and consultation is treated as inconveniencing political timelines.
The District Chairperson’s advisory letter and the law firm’s legal notice should have triggered immediate audits, public hearings, and a pause on enforcement during an already tense political season.
Instead, municipal leaders remained defensive, widening the rift between citizens and authority.
Restoring stability in Mubende is still possible but only through decisive, credible action grounded in law and public trust.
A thorough, independent inquiry into the misuse of the Mayor’s Garden.
A legal review and immediate suspension of the buses and Tax relocation directive.
Open, documented consultations with traders, not afterthought meetings.
A protection framework that treats green spaces as public assets not rentable halls disguised as parks. And above all, accountability for officials whose decisions have triggered avoidable turmoil.
Uganda cannot build climate-conscious, citizen-centred cities if flagship projects collapse before their first anniversary or if economic interventions push communities into desperation. Mubende’s story is a warning and a lesson for developing countries worldwide.
If ignored, it will join the global archive of why many nations struggle to sustain public assets, manage urban growth, or safeguard citizen livelihoods under political pressure.
True development is never measured by the glamour of opening ceremonies; it is measured by the governance that survives after the cameras leave.
Wabusimba Amiri is a communication specialist, diplomatic Scholar, Journalist, political analyst and Human Right activist. Tel: +56775103895 email: Wabusimbaa@gmail.com
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