The Evolution of Local Government in Uganda: A Legal and Historical Study, 1900-1962.

Abstract

This thesis is study of transformation of Native Authorities into local bodies in British Protectorate. The setting is the Pearl of Africa, popularly known as Uganda. The study is concerned with British Indirect Local Rule and Administration from 1900-1962. Its prime interest is to detail Britain's colonial record and its legacy. It sets out legal framework within which indigenous political institutions were recognised and employed by Protecting Power as mouth organs and agencies through which British Officers carried out their administrative, judicial and legislative powers; examines transformation of some of indigenous procedures and ideas about justice, taxation and local administration generally, and highlights success or otherwise, as case may be, of these reform efforts. To this end, attention is focussed on evolution of local units - District Councils, Chiefly system of justice, local system, and central-local relations. The idea is, firstly, to present lucid portrait of each of these institutions, and secondly, to appraise Protectorate's Devolution policy and its ramifications vis-a-vis development of efficient and democratic system of local government before and after Independence. It is fund that move towards democratic decentralisation was always, Government policy not withstanding, viewed with suspicion and occasionally impeded and blocked by officers whose main concern was a massing of revenue and administrative efficiency. It is, indeed, arguable that post-war emphasis on Devolution of Power was, to some extent, incompatible with general tenets of Imperialism and Colonial overrule. It is interesting to note, however, that, since 1962,. Nationalists-led Administrations have, without exception, tended to view local autonomy in much same way, and virtually, through similar spectacles as their British counterparts before them. They, too, have adopted paternalistic attitude towards autonomous local institutions, and, as corollary they have, so far, underdeveloped them. Yet, absence of viable system of local has been, in eyes of some discerning observers, main stumbling block to many statecraft oriented programmes. It is argued that local is strongest link between centre and periphery and, that failure to involve it in processes of economic and political development is flagrant waste of nation's scarce resources. The belier that this is case is rapidly gaining ground and, there are many positive signs, in attitude of some circles, that era of negative approach to local is at an end. It is believed that key to future policy is to be found in development of free and independent local institutions.