Local Council One is the lowest administrative unit of government, responsible for the village.
In case of a problem, political, social or economical at a local level it is relayed up through the various levels until it reaches certain the suitable official in government with sufficient authority or power to resolve it, while centrally planned directives are relayed downward until they are implemented at the local level.
Uganda last had LC1 elections over 15 years ago and the Electoral Body has since resumed plans to organise these polls mid this year.
Twaweza, an independent Non Governmental Organisation (NG0) which operates in three East African Countries; Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania has yet again conducted a survey which indicates that majority of the Uganda’s citizens distrust the President more than LC1 chairperson.
Twaweza works on enabling children to learn, citizens to exercise agency and governments to be more open and responsive.
Survey
The research was premised on public access to information and freedom of expression as cornerstones of good governance and democracy.
“When citizens have easy access to information held by the government, this can act as a powerful check on corruption and other wrongdoing,” reads the report in parts; adding that “and if citizens can easily access information from local schools, clinics and other frontline service providers, it becomes much more straightforward for them to benefit from whatever government initiatives are in place to assist them.”
The findings of the survey explore citizens’ experiences and opinions on access to information. How widely do citizens typically seek information?
For this brief, data were collected from 1,980 respondents in the second round of calls to the Sauti za Wananchi panel, conducted between 24 and 30 November, 2017.
Findings
Citiziens are somewhat sceptical of information given by different politicians. In most case majority of citizens say they neither trust nor distrust information provided by different politicians.
The reports shows that the most trusted source of information within government are LC1 Chairperson, trusted by just under half at 45%, followed by LC5l at 34% and the President (34%).