Assessing the Factors Influencing the Growth of Slums in Urban Local Governments of Uganda: A case Study of Soroti Municipality

Abstract

This study was an investigation into the factors that contribute to the growth of slums in Uganda, with Soroti municipality as a Case study. The objectives of the study included: to establish the effect of urban poverty on the growth of slums in Soroti municipality; to find out the contribution of the system of land tenure on the growth of slums in Soroti municipality; to find out the contribution of urban planning framework to the growth of slums in Soroti municipality. The study employed a cross sectional survey design and used both qualitative and quantitative techniques in data collection. The study population was 1302, from which a sample of 310 was selected. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson coefficients, and regression analysis. Qualitative data was summarized and quoted or paraphrased in some cases. The findings revealed that, Land tenure had a correlation of .452** towards the growth of slums. Urban planning framework had a correlation of .573**, towards the growth of slums in Soroti municipality. The Coefficient of poverty was 0.328, implying that its effect on Slum growth was 32.8%. Basing on those findings, the researcher came up with a number of recommendations among which were that; Government should provide more funding to SACCOS and deliberately introduce the housing component in their framework to enable the urban poor save for housing development, this should be coupled with establishment of housing finance institutions with affordable interest rates. Government should initiate land banking programmes to provide land for social housing for the urban poor. There should be a deliberate policy to build capacity of local authorities on urban planning and management coupled with an urgent programme for restructuring of urban local Governments to provide enough personnel for urban planning and development control. There should also be massive sensitization programmes throughout the country to create awareness among the communities on urban planning and development control processes and allocation of conditional funds purposely for urban planning activities in the country.