Kabarole Top Environment Degraders Named*

*By Steven Ainganiza  29/05/2013 *

*Fort Portal*

Kabarole Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Community Based
Organizations (CBOs) Association (KANCA) has finally named the top
government officials and wealth people who have degraded the environment.

The victims are reported to have encroached the banks of River Mpanga,
swamps and forests in Kabarole district by establishing animal farms,
commercial buildings and crop gardens among other economic activities.

The named officials are Mrs Jean Kaliba the Resident District Commissioner
(RDC) Hoima who destroyed wetlands in Bunyangabu,Dr Abigaba Salvatory  the
District veterinary Officer (DVO) Kabarole destroyed wetlands in Karago
town council, Eli Nyakana a business man in Bukuku sub county, Richard
Nyakana former secretary for production and Natural Resources Kabarole is
purported to have destroyed wetlands in in Busoro sub county , Musuga
Charles Kamurasi of Tooro Kingdom destroyed wetlands in Karambi sub county,
George Begumisa an entrepreneur destroyed wetlands in Rubingo parish
Karambi and the owner of Allan’s Resort Maguru South Division Fort Portal.

The report was released by Peter Byakuyamba the research and Advocacy
officer KANCA during a community based monitoring model on improving
accountability and service delivery in the environment sector held at
Kagote SDA hall West division Fort Portal municipality on Wednesday.

Byakuyamba disclosed that these top government and wealth officials have
destroyed the environment through establishing farms in the swamps and
wetlands, planted eucalyptus trees in wetlands and built commercial houses
in different parts of the district when the NEMA and district environment
officials are looking.

As a result, Byakuyamba says the climate has changed and instead of
experiencing two heavy rainy seasons, they are experiencing drought.

Florence Kadoma, the secretary for production and Natural resources
Kabarole explains that they wrote NEMA asking them to take immediate action
and halt the activities but no action has been made yet.

Perezi Mwebesa the Deputy CAO wonders why top district officials are
engaged in land degradation and added that the officials will be taken to
the office of the IGG for investigations.

Elijah Biryabalema deputy RDC however observed the practice is rampant
because the wealth people are conniving with the district technocrats and
NEMA officials.

He notes that if NEMA and Kabarole district do not intervene and take
action against such encroachers we are heading to experiencing drought,
floods among other disasters due to global warming.

Biryabarema tasked the district leaders to empower the office of the
environment and cautioned the officials to do their work professionally to
save the environment from massive destruction.

Fort Portal Hospital Staff To Resume Strike On 4th June Over Delayed Payments*

*By Steven Ainganiza     28/05/2013  *

*Fort Portal*

Tension is high at Fort Portal regional referral hospital as the hospital
staff have resolved to resume their strike on 4th June, 2013 should the
government fails to pay their sallies and increase their payment.

On Thursday 16th May, the hospital workers went on a sit down strike
protesting government failure to pay their salaries for the past two months
and increasing their pay leaving hundreds of the patients stranded.

But on Monday last week Health workers called off their strike after
meeting the hospital administrators and promised them that their salaries
shall be paid by 27th May.

However waiting for their salaries on the accounts in vain, the hospital
administration led by the hospital Director Dr.Charles Olaro, Hon.Alex
Ruhunda MP Fort Portal and chairperson of the hospital Management Board Mr.
Edison Kiraso held an emergence meeting with the health workers.

After long deliberations, the staff upheld their earlier resolution of
Monday 20th May with minor amendments. They said the count down for the
dates for industrial action now begins on 27th May, 2013 and ends on
3rdJune if their April and May salaries are not paid.

A press release dated 27th May 2013 signed by Dr.John Mali chairman of
Uganda Medical Workers’ Union Fort portal branch and Dr.Jotham Bamuhinga
the secretary indicates that the industrial action starts on 4th June since
3rd June is martyrs day and public holiday.

It also states that, much as they also advocate for the pay raise, their
present cause was only limited to non-payments of their meager salaries.
The statement added that before 4th June, the rest of the days workers will
report and work normally.

According to the release, the medics resolved that a skeletal staff
comprising the hospital administrators, the Union leaders, senior members
of the hospital within the salary scale of U1 and U2 shall remain at the
facility only to handle the emergencies.

It was also resolved that the hospital Director Dr.Charles Olaro informs
the concerned relevant authorities in the district and the permanent
secretary in the ministry of health the position of the workers.

The local leaders like the RDC, District Police Commander, District health
Officer, LC5 chairperson among others be informed by the UMWU.

Alex Ruhunda the MP Fort Portal advised the workers to calm as the
government looks at increasing their pay.

He said that striking was not the only solution but rather focus at lasting
solutions like forming a SACCO where they can save and borrow money when
there are salary delays.

On Monday 20th May, the administrator held a meeting with the striking
workers and convinced them to call off the strike after giving each worker
shs50, 000 to go and solve the daily needs as they wait for their salaries.

The workers went on strike protesting the delayed salaries and missing on
the payroll.

Among other demands, the striking workers wanted to be offered a special
unit at the facility where they will be admitted and treated in a special
manner as government workers.

They accused the ministry of public service for the mistreatment for not
listening to their grievances despite several complaints.

They also demanded the government to give them special motivation by giving
them lunch, transport, accommodation among others and increasing their
salaries depending on the workload or duties performed.

Fort Portal referral hospital serves patients from the districts of
Kabarole the horst, Kasese, Ntoroko,Bundibugyo,Kamwenge, Kyenjojo,Kyegegwa
and sometimes Kibaale.

According to Dr.Olaro, the hospital receives over 1000 patients a day.

FORT PORTAL BENEFITS UNDER UGANDA SUPPORT TO MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT -USMID DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Fort Portal Municipal Council  is to benefit from the 150,000,000U$ that the government of Uganda got from the World Bank to work on infrastructure under the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure development-USMID in the 14 Municipalities. Fort Portal was allocated 10,000,000U$ which is equivalent to about 26,500,000,000UGX. While featuring on the Voice Of Tooro  fm in Fort Portal,  the town clerk F/Portal Municipality Lwanga Edward said under the 5 year project, they will work on Mugunu lorry/Bus park among others as well as Kaboyo, Rukidi III and Nyakaana roads and Kabundaire abattoir (Rufura) located in Kabundaire West division. The town clerk says the development program will get underway in the next Financial year 2013/14 which begins in July 2013. Two officials from the Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban development Miriam Kiconco and Rosemary Mukite said the government got funding from the World Bank to improve on infrastructure in the major towns in the Country as one way of catering for the increasing population growth due to Rural-Urban migration but hastened to add they will in future extend such development to other townships like the the town council and town boards.
 The program has a component of the citizens to act as watch dog under the municipal development Forum which is headed by Engineer David Baguma Mwesige as President.Engineer Mwesige who was also on the radio talk show together with the deputy mayor Margaret Kihika Abwooli, urged the people to get involved in the development plan by coming up with more ideas in order to be part and parcel of the development program. The host/moderator of the program Abbooki Bamanyisa aka Ambassador asked the town clerk about the lack of streetlights in Fort Portal which has been a security threat following an incident in which a gun man shot and injured a Man in his Mobile Money kiosk at around 8pm one year ago. Both the deputy mayor and the Town Clerk admitted that the town lacks street lights but stressed that First things first and that the road network takes first priority. The host asked the town clerk if part of the money could be used to resume construction of  Fort Portal Municipal Council chambers(hqtr)? The chambers or building has stalled after completing the foundation with 600,000,000UGX resources from disposal of the Municipal Council Social hall and the dilapidated former town clerk residential house in Boma#             

KIBIITO TOWN COUNCIL RESIDENTS DEMAND IMPROVED INFRASTRUCTURE

Residents of Kibiito town council Kabarole district have today 8/4/2013 dug trenches along Kasaali-katugunda road in the West ward of the town council which is impassable especially during rainy season.Angry residents comprising mainly Motorcycle(boda boda) taxi operators mounted check points along the road and dug several trenches and planted banana stems and tree branches as a form of protest. The angry residents accuse their leaders of the two year old town council saying the politicians made empty promises while looking for votes. Several district leaders including the LCV Vice Chairman were briefly held up at a burial ceremony of  one of the area senior resident Charles Abwoli and were booed by the residents when they tried to address them on the poor road infrastructure. The town Council LCIII Chairman who is better known as the MAYOR was Mr Gaudezio Tigwezire tried to explain the poor road infrastructure and told the mourners that the district Chairperson Richard Rwabuhinga was organizing a crisis meeting to discuss the poor road network not only in Kibiito but the district at large.Two boda boda cyclist who were found digging the trenches along the roads were beaten thoroughly by security officials and one of them was in critical condition and was driven to Fort Portal main police station.  
 When Rwenzori Journalist Forum-RJF talked to some residents, there were mixed reactions with some saying the Town Council has not made their life any easier as earlier promised while others say that it is still early days.Anti-riot Police engaged angry residents in running battles in and around Kibiito trading center bringing business to a stand still and halting traffic along Kasese- Fort-Portal road.Some school pupils and students were terrified by the sound of the gun shots and some of the young pupils were seen crying as they took cover and ran for dear life.
Meanwhile, some residents of Bunyangabu say they are not happy with the government's recent decision to impose a moratorium on the creation of new districts including Bunyangabu which was among the 25 districts that were due to be added on to the 112 districts in Uganda and come into operation in the next 2013/14 Financial Year. RJF while interacting with people who clamor for "their own" districts has found out that there is urgent need to educate the masses and raise their awareness on demanding for better equipped schools and health centres , good roads and other social amenities instead of the false sense of pride that is polarizing the country along ethic and other differences under the guise of bringing the services closer to the people yet public expenditure is taking the bigger part of the money remitted to such administrative units.             

District Creation Morotorium/Suspension

lo and behold, I bring you good tidings; that President Yoweri Museven has directed the minister of local government(Adolf Mwesige) to table a motion in parliament withdrawing the earlier proposed 25 new districts!!!????? Which would have brought to a whooping 137 the number of districts in Uganda and yet the minister's own constituency was/is among the 25 would be districts!!!???? And Mr Museveni realizes and admits that Infrastructure and service delivery is more important than turning every county into a district!!! At last, the voice of reason is being heard over sentiment and false pride. 

Fort Portal, the area MP Alex Ruhunda said it was a tug of  war to convince President Yoweri Museveni to impose a moratorium on the creation of new districts after assessing the performance and impact of the districts  which were created over the last decade. The MPs used an anology of a married couple producing more children yet the few or many they already have are suffering from Mal-nutrition and can't have the basic needs.

The cost of soaring public administration has always been too high and actually, an I think that even half of the 112 districts so far created after the NRM government came to power in 1986, ought to be merged and the resources channeled into  real service delivery by buying and equipping third world secondary schools with Laboratory equipment and other gadgets, diagnostic equipment  medicine and recruitment and retention of health workers who are well paid in hospitals. It is actually the bureaucracy that has been benefiting from the district extra-vaganza all along and one wonders why it took so long to see this! The President  is said to have made the observation while meeting district officials from Kanungu who had gone to lobby for the splitting of their very district to get a creation of Kihiihi which was to be cut off from the mother district of kanungu which was itself cut off from Rukungiri district shortly after Joseph kibwetere and his accomplices burnt to death an estimated 1000 belivers waiting for the virgin Mary to witness the end of the world in 2000(sorry I digress) . 

That Kasese was or is to give birth to 2 more districts of Rwenzori and Busongora which would have consumed about 120 Billion UGX to kick start and their demarcations almost certainly  drawn along ethnic lines, yet this money would be better spent on Health, education, roads and general infrastructural development for kasese and Rwenzori region as a whole and provide real services to the people and forge unity in diversity instead of polarizing the country along ethnic lines. How about using the that revenue for providing a cup of Milk for each of our Universal Primary/Secondary Education  pupils or buying sanitary pads for the girl child since it has been proved to be one of the reasons of high girl child absentism and school drop out!!??

Often times, I visit Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital-FPRRH and I find a note on the X-RAY unit; OUT OF ORDER No FILMS or some other vital component missing, and yet this is a referral hospital serving 7 districts of kasese, Kamwenge, Bundibugyo, Ntoroko, Kyenjojo, Kamwenge and Kabarole. How about procuring such diagnostic equipment for our health units?

One of my all time classic song which was done by Anne Murray titles a Little Good News has lyrics that I like; that how I would love to open a newspaper or tune to tv or radio and the news is that there was no fighting hostility between Israel and her neighbors and that there was no bomb blast in Waziristan, Syria or Afghanistan. A little good news indeed. God is great indeed....Allahu akbaru...Laudeto Yesus Kristus

Radio show fixes a road badly done as a result of corruption in Kasese District

A radio talkshow called “The Mirror” on Guide FM in Kasese district has helped fix Bwera – Mitimusanju Road in Kasese District. The road was impassable even after repair due to shoddy work. According to the moderator of the live talkshow Kahungu Thembo, the contractor had connived with the district engineer to approve a shoddy work in September, 2012. The live radio talkshow is broadcast every Friday of the week from 05 – 06pm.

“The issue of Bwera – Mitimusanju Road was always raised on the talkshow [The Mirror] through phone calls and SMS and we decided to take a radio debate there which forced the district leadership to sack the district engineer [James Atuhaire] and the road was re-done by the contractors at their own costs.” Said Kahungu Thembo of Guide FM.

This follows ToroDev training on broadcasting for accountability in November 2012 to help rural FM radio journalists improve participation on their accountability radio programs through the use of appropriate ICT tools like SMS and call-ins and other online tools like facebook and twitter to share and access information. The training also encouraged radio journalists to make follow-ups on service delivery issues raised by the local citizens and conduct more research to enable them hold factual and issue based discussions to improve accountability.

While assessing the impact of ToroDev interventions on broadcasting for accountability on 14^th March, 2013 at Guide FM in Kasese District Kahungu highlighted that as a result of the capacity building workshops conducted by ToroDev, Guide FM has improved broadcasting for accountability through more support to radio journalists conduct research and embraced the use of appropriate ICT tools to increased participation of the local communities in the radio discussions among others.

“It’s now a policy for radio journalists to always have scripts before going for any program. Guide FM is also conducting on-job training especially for interns and new staff. Management has also allocated UGX120,000 a month for journalists to conduct research and UGX30,000 for airtime coordination. The manager has also given a directive to every radio program to have a facebook page” Said Kahungu Thembo of Guide FM.

Kahungu however highlighted that although the radio has allocated some funds for conducting research and coordination to enable fruitful issue based discussions, the funds are not yet enough. The radio staff also faces intimidation from local politicians and civil servants for reporting issues of shoddy work and corruption. 

During the impact assessment visit, ToroDev staff also distributed copies of the Uganda Constitution, Local Government Act and the Access to Information Act to empower local FM radio journalists with the legal framework to help them in their discussions and information access especially from the local governments.

Rwenzori journalists trained in mentorship to improve public accountability broadcasting

Thirty one radio journalists from the Rwenzori Region based FM radio stations have been trained in mentorship so as to improve broadcasting for public accountability. The three days residential training held between 26^th to 28^th November, 2012 attracted journalists from Better FM, Voice of Toro (VOB), Gold FM, Life FM and Hits FM in Fort Portal, Guide FM and Messiah FM in Kasese, Voice of Bundibugyo (VOB) and Bundibugyo FM in Bundibugyo district and Kyenjojo Development Radio (KDR) and Kyenjojo FM in Kyenjojo district.

John Matovu of PANOS training radio journalists in mentorship

The training which was organized by Toro Development Network (ToroDev) in partnership with Rwenzori Journalist Forum (RJF) was facilitated by Lucy Ekadu from Uganda Journalist Union, Henry Tumwine from Uganda Pentecostal University and John Matovu from PANOS Estern Africa.

The mentorship training was intended to identify challenges and good practices among radio staff through sharing experiences on public accountability broadcasting for learning purposes, to improve mentorship skills of radio journalists and to strengthen journalist forums for improved advocacy on public accountability and service delivery broadcasting.

The participants who included news editors, program directors and public accountability program moderators were encouraged to use the skills to mentor their junior staff so as to improve public accountability broadcasting.

ToroDev in partnership with RJF will encourage mentors to submit monthly reports sharing their experiences regarding activities, challenges, success stories on public accountability broadcasting. Their experiences will be shared on http://rwenzorijournalistforum.blogspot.com/  to enable improved advocacy and learning. In addition, RJF and ToroDev will also conduct media conferences, field tours and exchange visits all aimed at sharing knowledge and empowering radio journalists on public accountability broadcasting.

The mentorship program will help improve participation of rural people in government planning and budgetary processes, monitoring service delivery, demanding accountability because the radio journalists have been empowered with skills to mainstream the voices of multiple stakeholders including the civil society, rural youth and women in governance processes.

ToroDev focused on empowering radio journalists in public accountability broadcasting because FM radio fits well with the lifestyle of many rural people in the Rwenzori Region, Western Uganda since it can easily broadcast in many local languages, people can listen to it while walking or working. Radio is also a popular media channel accessed by over 90 percent of the rural people.

The mentorship training follows another training earlier this year on public accountability broadcasting http://torodev.blogspot.com/2012/05/rwenzori-region-journalists-form-forum.html