GULU CITY, January 8, 2026 — Gulu district councillors on Tuesday handed over Pece War Memorial Stadium to the National Council of Sports [NCS] for redevelopment.
Also handed over to NCS are plot 84-92 on Jomo Kenyatta road and plot 13-19 on Acholi road, all adjacent to the stadium and belonging to Gulu district local government.
The redevelopment work will be undertaken by the Engineering Brigade of the Uganda People’s Defense Forces [UPDF], according to Ambrose Tashobya, the Chairperson NCS.
Tashobya while addressing the councilors said that NCS has already secured funds for the redevelopment work.
“We are going to redevelop Pece War Memorial Stadium into the same standards as the stadiums where the AFCON games will be played. The adjacent plots of land will be redeveloped into accompanying amenities such as parking space,” he said.
Tashobya however declined to divulge the amount of money to be spent on the redevelopment works saying it would jeopardise the bidding process when asked by this reporter shortly after the meeting with the Gulu district council.
He however said that the redevelopment of Pece War Memorial Stadium would come with other benefits such as the upgrade of the Gulu Airport.
On the other hand, the council had earlier requested that NCS construct a multipurpose 20,000 sitter stadium at Awach Town Council in exchange for Pece, a percentage of gate collections from the stadium and employment opportunities for the local population among others.
Besides guaranteeing employment opportunities for the local people, Tashobya said NCS did not have funds for compensation and wanted the stadium handed over to them without any encumbrances.
“The Attorney General has been clear that there is no budget for compensation. We only have resources to construct and not to compensate. NCS is government. We are all government but different arms. So we expect that Gulu as a district transfers the land to NCS without any encumbrances and we don’t have a lot of time,” he explained.
Dr. Patrick Ogwel, the General Secretary NCS told the councillors that they are under pressure by CAF to ensure that work is completed in the next five months and the stadium commissioned.
Phoebe Ayo, the Gulu district speaker said the council welcomes the development but asked the NCS to reconsider their stand on compensation as there are people who will be inconvenienced by the handover of the stadium and the adjacent plots of land.
“We are not against this development because we are direct beneficiaries of this stadium. But the district is currently struggling financially. Even allowances for councilors have been chopped by half because of revenue shortfalls. Let’s not close our eyes if people are going to be inconvenienced. There should be some kind of compensation for the affected people,” Ayo said.
Ballington P’ Ongwech, the district councillor for Bungatira Subcounty said, “It’s clear that the district will not be able to benefit directly from the stadium but we ask that the ministry of local government, our mother ministry consider us since we are struggling financially.”
The councilors who had been earning Shs 500,000 per sitting are now earning about Shs 250,000, according to the district speaker, Ayo.
Ayo said that the pay cuts started on December 11, 2025 following recommendations from the Auditor General.
In the current financial year 2025/2026, the district has projected to collect Shs 963.4 million but as of November, only Shs 52 .1 million [about 5 percent] had been collected, according to the finance department.
The Local Government Act CAP 138 states that the emoluments of the district council shall be 20 percent of the locally raised revenue of the previous financial year.
Located in Laroo-Pece division, Pece war memorial stadium was constructed by the British colonialists in the 1950s in memory of Ugandan World War II veterans.
It is the biggest stadium in Acholi Subregion and has been earning Gulu district local revenue for events hosted there.
Uganda has joined other East African Community Partner States Kenya and Tanzania in co-hosting the African Cup of Nations [AFCON] 2027 and is committing to renovate some of the sports facilities across the country. When redevelopment is completed, the Pece War Memorial Stadium stands to host training sessions for some teams that will play at Akii Bua Stadium that is being rebuilt in Lira City to host some of the AFCON 2027 matches.
https://thecooperator.news/akii-bua-stadium-construction-starts-in-lira-city/
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