Central Government

There are three arms of Government machinery, namely:

• The Executive
• The Legislature
• The Judiciary

The President, deputized by the Vice President plus the Cabinet of 21 members, heads the Executive arm of Government.  It is responsible for day-to-day management of Government affairs.

The Legislature is the body, which has the power to make laws of the land, and the current Parliament has 295 members who were elected in June 2001. Of these 214 members were elected through adult suffrage and secret ballot, the other 81 members represent special interest groups (56 District Women, 10 Army, 5 Youth, 5 Workers and 5 the disabled) whose election was by Electoral Colleges and secret ballot. The present Parliament (the seventh) is largely independent of the executive and has been very active. The next elections for both Presidential and the Members of the Parliament shall be held in 2006 and the elections are based on universal adult suffrage.

The Judiciary is responsible for administration of justice in the country.  It is headed by the Chief Justice and composed of Uganda Supreme Court of Appeal, High Court and Lower Courts.

Local Government

The Central Government has devolved some powers to the districts under the decentralization programme.  The districts are administrative units, which mobilize resources and plan how to utilize its own resources.  The Central Government’s capital grant supplements the funds raised locally.  Currently, the country has 56 districts.

Each district is headed by Local Council V (LCV) Chairman, assisted by an Executive Committee of nine members selected among the District councilors.  All the civil servants working in the district are accountable to Chief Administrative Officer (formerly called District Executive Secretary).