In 1974, North Bunyoro and South were created. The were later merged into Hoima district in 1980.
In 2010, Hoima was elevated from a town council to Municipality and then to a City in 2020.
Hoima City, which is located 203 kilometres from Kampala, east of Lake Albert, hosts the main Karuzika (palace) of Bunyoro King Solomon Gafabusa Iguru.
The City, which comprises two divisions-east and west, has an area of 228 square kilometres with a road network of 606 kilometres.
The oil-rich Bunyoro’s capital has been experiencing a steady increase in population growth, mainly driven by migration growing at 10.7%, second to Wakiso town with a growth rate of 11.9%.
Many people have flocked the area to tap into the growing oil and gas sector. The situation was compounded with displacement of more people as the government moves to establish infrastructure, such as the critical oil roads, central processing facilities, East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline and an oil refinery to enable oil production.
Some of the displaced people have moved into the city and this has created housing challenges.
Although the 2017-2040 physical development plan outlines a set of land use guiding plans, the City planning department seems to be sleeping on the job.
Some accuse the physical planning implementers of alleged comptonisation as inspection is not done or the supervisory is weak.
There are no grievance address systems in case one builds in a non-gazetted area. Squalid and unplanned settlements are ubiquitous in the suburbs of Kiganda, Lusaka-Lower, Lusaka-Upper, Kiryatete slum, Kinubi, Kanenankumba and upscale Kijungu Cell, among others.
Some of the settlements are occupied by students, single mothers, jobless youth, Boda Boda riders, hawkers and vendors, who cannot afford renting high-end units, whose prices have increased recently because of demand.
The City physical plan report also notes high shortage of residential accommodation and a high number of households living in a single room without adequate facilities.
The high prices of accommodation have made many to construct their own houses without approved building plans to avoid high rent prices and living in squalid settlements.
The City as part of the solution to address the building plan challenges, two years ago mooted plans to ensure that the physical planning department gets a vehicle and staffing to do timely enforcement and supervision.
Hoima City stands at 37% staffing level, implying that out of 10 people, only about three positions are filled.
This is due to the ban on recruitment by the central government. Although recently, the recruitment was done, the exercise was riddled with corruption with some service commission members still facing charges relating to abuse of office and forgery in courts of law.
The city named the approved plot of a residential area to be 50 by 100 feet. The City has warned that it will demolish houses which are not approved as per city standards.
But a Councilor on condition of anonymity told The Albertine Journal that it is hard to build in a city without a building plan and thus blamed the vice on corruption in the physical planning department, which the source said should be curbed.
The source said people have not been sensitised to understand that having an approved building plan is for their own benefit and comes in handy, especially if the government wants to take over the land for a project and needs to compensate the owner.
Some pundits urge for cooperation between authorities and residents in order to have a well-planned city.
Joab Kaahwa, a retired civil servant in Hoima City said the city is turning into a chaotic one slowly by slowly due to either incompetence or corruption.
Efforts to get a comment from the city authorities were futile by press time Wednesday.
In rich suburbs, there are beautiful houses, with no access roads and in some they are four-foot wide paths where only one vehicle can pass at a time, not green spaces and where other social amenities could be situated.
The City planners don’t envisage an organised development which is futuristic-with plans or spaces for green spaces, public transport-underground amenities like train systems.
Observers argues that this is the time to ensure roads and other social services that are currently being opened up are spacious enough to handle future challenges of a growing city.
