Prime
Girl waits for Museveni scholarship promise made in 2015
Gift Lillian Adooli shows a picture of her with President Museveni. PHOTO/ SIMON PETER EMWAMU
What you need to know:
- Adooli said Mr Museveni carried her on his lap.
A 15-year-old girl is still waiting for President Museveni to grant her a study scholarship, which he reportedly promised during his campaign tour of Ngora District on December 7, 2015.
Gift Lillian Adooli, now a Senior One student at Mukura Memorial Secondary School, told Daily Monitor last Friday that when she was in Primary Three at Kaler Primary School, Ngora District, she recited a poem at an event attended by the President, catching his attention.
“I was putting on my blue school uniform; his bodyguards took me where he was seated at BKC Demonstration Primary School grounds. He told me he loved the poem I recited. It is then that he promised to educate me in any school of my choice,” the girl explained.
Adooli said Mr Museveni carried her on his lap.
“I went back home very happy because he promised to educate me until university, but the scholarship has never come,” she said.
Adooli said she would now be in Senior Two going to Senior Three.
Motivation
“If it wasn’t for my humble parents, I shouldn’t be demanding because they would pay, but when I look at my brothers who have had to drop out of school because of fees, it gives me the courage to remind the President,” she said.
Mr John Michael Apunyo, the girl’s father, said he tried to contact the office of the RDC, the Ministry of Teso Affairs and Members of Parliament over the matter in vain.
He said they even secured an admission for the girl at Joykim in Kumi in 2015 but waited for the money from the President in vain.
Mr Stephen Erau Erabu, the councillor for Mukura and teacher at Mukura Memorial Secondary School, said the President made the promise in the presence of former State minister for Teso Affairs Kenneth Omona.
When contacted, Mr Kenneth Ongalo Obote, the State minister for Teso Affairs, said his office was following up on the President’s pledges, and called for patience from the school girl and her family.
