The Challenges Facing Urbanisation Processes in Kampala

This paper analyses the dynamics responsible for changing Kampala city and the implications of these dynamics for an alternative urban policy framework. The paper is motivated by the paucity of information on the social–economic and political dynamics that contribute to Kampala’s urbanisation and the resultant lack of an appropriate policy framework to guide the development trajectory in the Ugandan capital. It argues that the conditions that have allowed the situation to exist have serious policy implications, which require the need for an integrated policy framework that can be used to effectively prevent Kampala’s unplanned urbanisation while promoting planned urbanisation. This paper, therefore, focuses on the informal dynamics explaining Kampala’s urbanisation from 1990 to 2013 and their policy implications. The sample consisted of 24 purposively selected key informants and 720 city residents selected using multistage sampling. Data was collected using interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires. Qualitative data was analysed using narrative and thematic techniques, complemented by the descriptive method. Factor analysis was used to analyse quantitative data. The findings explain Kampala’s unplanned urbanisation during the period 1990–2013 including unofficial administrative dynamics; unofficial political influence; political unrest caused by internal and regional civil wars; the city’s attractiveness to jobseekers, jobmakers and migrants from war-ravaged areas; and rural–urban migration and underdevelopment.