In a bid to promote tourism in Busoga sub-region, the government will upgrade Kimaka airstrip in Jinja district to an airport, President Yoweri Museveni the NRM flag bearer has said.
Speaking at Mpumudde Estate Primary School in Jinja municipality on Tuesday, he said the upgrade would boost Kimaka’s capacity to handle more aircrafts, making it easy for travellers including tourists from all over the globe to visit the area.
“We shall upgrade Kimaka to an airport, purposely to promote tourism in this region,” Museveni said at the rally as he concluded his campaign trail in Busoga.
Also lined up for upgrade is Mpumudde Health Centre IV which Museveni noted will be turned into a hospital once Jinja becomes a city as per the government Programme?
“We cannot have one hospital in a city,” the NRM candidate said explaining apart from Mulago, Kampala city has other hospitals such as the one at Naguru.
Accompanied by First Lady Janet Museveni, speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga and NRM Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba, Museveni also said a number of markets in Jinja will be rebuilt to better standards.
These include Napier market in Jinja municipality east, Ambercourt market in Jinja municipality west and Bugembe market in Butembe constituency.
“The new markets may not be as big as the Jinja central market but will definitely be bigger than the existing structures and will accommodate more vendors in better working conditions,” he told cheering supporters.
Jinja central market originally built in 1932 was recently reconstructed under Phase I of the Markets and Agricultural Improvement Programme (MATIP-1) by the Government through the African Development Bank (ADB) loan.
The three storey structure with modern facilities has 4,000 stalls and cost over sh30b.
During the Mpumudde rally, Moses Kyemba who was running as an independent candidate for the Jinja municipality west MP seat after losing in the NRM primaries, withdrawn and pledged to campaign for the party flag bearer Moses Balyeku.
He encouraged other NRM leaning independent candidates to emulate him so as to strengthen the party.
Balyeku commended Museveni for his promise to refurbish the Hotel and Tourism Training Institute in Jinja, but asked the president to help reconstruct at least 20km of roads in the municipality.
But Museveni said government plans to give all municipalities their own road equipment (to be secured from Japan) so that they can rehabilitate roads without relying on the district road units.
Jinja voters made a mistake
Museveni cautioned residents against voting into power people in the opposition political parties, saying these find difficulties discussing development programmes with him.
He said whereas opposition leaders in lower leadership positions may not affect major development projects like construction of markets, bridges and roads, certain programmes require leaders that can easily approach the president.
“You people of Jinja hanged yourselves by electing Paul Mwiru of FDC (Jinja municipality East MP). I have never seen him. He cannot come to me,” he said.
Similarly, he explained that Muhammed Baswale Kezaala, the national chairman of the Democratic Party (DP) was a wrong choice for the Jinja mayorship.
“I was in DP but when I realised they lacked a programme for the future of this country, I left. Get good leaders who will work well with the NRM to develop this region,” he counselled.
The president cautioned that elections must be treated as a serious matter to avoid a scenario like that of 1966 when he said people regretted after the government made errors only four years into power.
“Voting is not a joke. If you elect bad leaders at these lower levels of governance you will miss certain things. But if you elect a bad president that will be a disaster,” he said.
The rallies were attended among others by Lands minister Daudi Migereko, state minister for water Ronald Kibuule and NRM flag bearers for the various posts.
