In a move to ensure uniformity in government buildings, the Local Government Ministry has announced plans to have standard building procedures for all headquarters of Districts, Cities, Municipalities, Town Councils, and Sub-Counties
The development was announced by Paul Okot Okello, the Commissioner for District Administration at the Ministry of Local Government, while presiding over the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a 9.3 billion shillings office block for Mbale District Local Government on Tuesday, December 9, 2025.
“We will soon come up with standard building procedures to curtail the practice of some local governments coming up with very ambitious building projects for their offices that are usually not completed on time” said Okello who represented the minister of Local Government Minister, Raphael Magyezi.
According to Okello, some local governments have taken years to complete their headquarters, while others have been completed in record time.
He explained that during the colonial times, facilities like schools, hospitals, and administrative units had uniform building procedures, and this needs to be revitalised so as to have uniform costs of construction.
Okello underscored the need to create new administrative units and the construction of offices, saying that they help the government in implementing the decentralization policy, where services and opportunities are taken closer to the people.
The National Housing and Construction Corporation was awarded the contract for the construction of the Offices. The new District Offices will be situated in the newly created Mbale Town Council.
The current Mbale District offices in Maluku ward are to be taken over by the Mbale City Council authorities.
Sylvester Wanzusi Wasieba, the Board Chairperson at National Housing and Construction Corporation, gave assurance that the new Mbale District offices will be constructed as per the specifications.
Wasieba called for support from all stakeholders to ensure there is value for money at the end of the construction project.
(Eng) Mbale Resident District Commissioner, Stanley Bayole, warned against theft of construction materials at the site, saying that police will be on hand to arrest the culprits.
Luka Mayeku, a resident of Ruma village in Bunanimi parish in Mbale District, welcomed the construction of the district offices, saying that it will come with benefits like improvement in the quality of services in the various government programmes and employment opportunities.
SOURCE: URN
