The Relevance of Prismatic Sala Model to Village Administration in Otuke District: A Critical Look at Kamdini as a Presidential “Neighbourhood” Village

Abstract

The paper aims at analyzing the relevance of Prismatic Sala Model to village administration. Village administration in Uganda was formalized by Article 181 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda (1995), and CAP 243 of the Local Government Act (1997). Conceptually, in Kamdini village, traditional elements of village administration covered the field of agriculture, health and environment. Heterogeneity was categorized under constructs such as political diversity, religious affiliations, literacy levels, and employment status while village administration was looked at the elements of mobilization and conflict resolution. The Prismatic Sala Model was highly considered to guide the development of this paper. Despite having over 70,626 villages in Uganda, there are currently limited empirical researches that provide comprehensive analyses of in-house challenges of village administration, thus this paper was premised with a view of analyzing the relevance of Prismatic Sala Model to village administration with two specific objectives set: to identify the traditional elements posing threats to Kamdini village administration, and to analyze the effects of heterogeneity on the administration of Kamdini village. The paper adopted a mixed research approach and descriptive design. It targeted the entire population of Kamdini village but purposively sampled the 20 elders, 09 Local Council One executive members and 01 Parish Chief to provide interview and avail the necessary secondary data. Data was analyzed using computer generated software, notably SPSS and STATA to generate both descriptive and inferential statistics. In the first study objective, the finding reveals that Kamdini village is still majorly a traditional community, and that tradition negatively affects the village administration in the study area. In the second study objective, the finding from correlation analysis reveals that heterogeneity positively affects village administration where political diversity (r=.811; p-value = 0.05) was found to be positive, very strong and statistically significant at the 0.05 alpha level; that religious affiliation (r=.449; p-value = 0.05) was positive, moderate and statistically significant at the 0.05 alpha level; that literacy level (r=.614; p-value = 0.05) was positive, strong and statistically significant at the 0.05 alpha level; and that employment status (r=.179; p-value = 0.05) was positive, very weak and statistically significant at the 0.05 alpha level. The paper concludes that traditional practices negatively affect the administration of a village; and that having heterogenic village is more conducive in enhancing better village administration. The study recommends that a spirited campaign be made to transform villages from the elements of prismatic societies to a modernized society. Keywords: Traditions, Heterogeneity, Village Administration, Mobilization