The government has committed to supplying local governments with additional garbage trucks and waste management gear as the country kicked off a nationwide cleaning campaign aimed at tackling long-standing sanitation problems.
Vice President Jessica Alupo launched the National Cleaning Days in the Kisenyi area of Kampala on behalf of President Yoweri Museveni, marking the formal start of an initiative officials say has been in the works for roughly a year.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja said the program originated with Museveni and received Cabinet approval on Monday, August 11, 2025, after months of planning. She described the effort as part of a broader push to improve hygiene standards across the country and cut down on illnesses linked to poor sanitation.
“If well implemented, the initiative will strengthen our ability to boost household incomes because fewer people will fall sick from hygiene-related illnesses and will be able to concentrate on their work,” Nabbanja said, framing the campaign as much an economic measure as a public health one.
The rollout comes after Kampala Lord Mayor Ronald Balimwezo raised concerns ahead of the launch, warning that the city’s limited number of garbage trucks and disposal sites could hamper efforts to carry out the exercise effectively. His comments pointed to a capacity gap that has long complicated waste management in the capital, where growing volumes of trash have outpaced available collection resources.
In response, government officials pledged to equip local governments with more trucks, gloves and other tools needed for waste collection, though no timeline was given for when the additional equipment would be delivered or how it would be distributed among districts.
The cleaning initiative has already drawn some pushback, with the Adventist Church objecting to aspects of the program it says conflict with Sabbath observance, according to earlier reporting. It remains unclear how officials plan to address such concerns as the exercise moves forward nationally.
For now, authorities are betting that the combination of new equipment and coordinated cleaning days can begin closing the gap between the scale of Uganda’s waste problem and the resources currently available to manage it.
