At the Mbale municipality Lukhobo grounds in Maluku, Museveni and his wife were received by the party national vice-chairman for eastern region, Mike Mukula, deputy secretary general Richard Todwong and deputy national treasurer Dr. Kenneth Omona as well as ministers and MPs from the region.
Museveni held four rallies at Lutseshe, Manjiya County, Bubulo East crowning the day and at the municipality. He outlined the achievements of the NRM government in the areas of health, education, roads construction, power extension to various parts of the country, clean water provision, as well as the general revival of the economy.
At all the rallies, Museveni reminded the people that his government inherited a collapsed economy with all the necessities such as sugar, soap and cooking oil smuggled from Kenya. “Now all parts of Bugisu have electricity. This electricity is because we have money. We have money because we are collecting taxes and the taxes are from services.”
He told the cheering crowds that the Tororo-Mbale-Soroti road had been reconstructed. The Mbale-Kapchorwa road, he said was under repair, while the Mbale-Bubulo-Bumbo-Lwakhakha is due to be tarmacked, including the road which goes to Manjiya. He said in March next year, tarmacking of the Muyembe-Nakapiripirit road will start, to connect to Nakapiripirit-Moroto road, which he said was almost complete.
All these achievements, he said, were because of the prioritisation strategy by the Government. In 1986, he said the Government was collecting only sh5b annually, but now collects sh13,000b.
Museveni said despite these collections, the money is still not enough to do everything at ago. “That is why we select things to do today and things to do tomorrow. That way, there is nothing we cannot do,” Museveni said, “All these achievements are not out of magic. So, when the liars come here to say the Government has not done this, tell them we know; even God did not create the universe in one day. At least God would say let there be and there was, I cannot do that,” Museveni said.
He said under Operation Wealth Creation and the NAADs Fund, the Government will put sh1 trillion; sh234b in youth fund, sh234b in women fund and sh180b in the microfinance project for mainly village groups.These funds, Museveni said, should, however, not be tagged the provision of security.
“The people are poor, but someone is asking for security for the loan; this is a mistake. These are very poor managers, who are not well supervised, but I have given the order that this money should be accessed basing on character and trust. At the municipality rally, Museveni said: “There are things my son, Nandala Mafabi keeps telling you…, I directed that Bugisu Co-operative Union be given sh9b, sh4.5b has already been released to the board, and I assure you that the sh4.5b will also be released.”
The NRM flag-bearer received hundreds of defectors, including district and regional co-ordinators of the Amama Mbabazi’s Go Foward group and another group of over a 100 people defecting from the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
There was also drama at the rally in Bulucheke, when a group of Bagisu traditional leaders, led by Babukusu, Josephe Washi, breached the protocol, storming the podium to shake hands with the President.
They carried posters demanding the recognition of Babukusu kingdom. This is a rival faction of Job Mushikoli’s Entzu Ye Bumasaba. Museveni said the two groups should agree. Before the NRM presidential f ag-bearer started his addresses, he invited the First Lady to greet the people. With her thumbs up, Janet chanted: “NRM Oyee”, attracting a deafening response of “Oyee”, before she asked the crowd to vote for mzee (Museveni).
Residents speak out
Mutwalibu Wakube, 45, a bodaboda rider and an LC1 chairman of Buwanabisi ward in Bududa trading centre decried the state of Bududa Hospital, which he said lacks drugs and sufficient staff. “I have seen pregnant women dying because there are no doctors to work on them. They tell you to transfer a patient to Mbale and when it rains, the road is impassable. We have lost many people here,” he said.
The village chairperson is also concerned about corruption in the Police. He says as the chairman has taken a number of defilement cases to the Police, but they demand for money to arrest the suspects which the locals cannot afford. Not only that, but they also ask for money to examine the victims. “I took a defilement case to Namukumba Police post last year and they asked for sh150,000 to arrest a suspect, but we did not have the money and the case died there,” Wakube said. He said even the seedlings brought by NAADS are distributed among the co-coordinators themselves.
