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Luweero uses local revenue to construct headquarters
An office block used by Luweero District officials as the district headquarters in Luweero Town Council. PHOTO | DAN WANDERA
What you need to know:
- About Luweero. Luweero became a district in 1974. The district was the epicentre of the five-year guerrilla war that ushered Mr Museveni’s government to power in 1986.
In 1991, while on tour of the projects in Luweero District, President Museveni vowed to construct a modern office block to house the district administration headquarters.
This followed complaints raised by the district leaders that the building that originally housed the district offices (the former East Mengo buildings) was taken over by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) .
However, the pledge has never been fulfilled to date.
Leaders said their efforts to follow-up the pledge have been futile and resolved to mobilise local revenue to construct the district offices.
In 2019, the district council led by outgoing district chairperson Ronald Ndawula tabled a motion to have Shs300 million from each financial year beginning 2019/2020 allocated for construction of the offices.
“We realised that the government had a lot of commitments and possibly the compensation programme for Luweero District offices was not a priority,” Mr Ndawula said in an interview on June 30.
He added: “We cannot blame President Museveni as an individual, but possibly the people he delegated to work on the problem, who failed to realise that Luweero is among the many priority areas since this was a compensation for lost buildings and not a mere pledge by the President.”
He said since the district started mobilising local revenue, they have made visible progress and the ground floor is nearing completion.
The office block, expected to cost about Shs4 billion when complete, is being constructed in phases because of the low tax base that has been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2016, government through the Office of the Prime Minister demanded for the proposed district office complex structural plan and proper documentation on the presidential pledge made by President Museveni.
But Mr Ndawula, said they made countless trips to the different offices without any response.
Mr Patrick Kissekwa Ssonko, the former Makulubita Sub-county councillor and bush war veteran, believes that it is not too late for the government to fast track the fulfilment of pledges made to the people of Luweero.
“I believe that something went wrong somewhere because nobody can dispute the fact that Luweero is the cradle land of the NRM government. It is not true that President Museveni has forgotten Luweero as a section of the public perceives it,” Mr Ssonko said.
He added: “It is the duty of the NRM party leaders and district leaders to continue engaging the government on many of the unfulfilled pledges.”
However, Mr Erasto Kibirango, the new Luweero District chairperson, said: “It is time for the concerned government officials to explain what happened to the many pledges made, but were never fulfilled in an area the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) government christened as cradle land ‘Mecca’.”
He added: “We are using the local revenue that would have been used to cater for other essential services.”
Mr Rogers Mulindwa, the spokesperson of the NRM secretariat, said construction of Luweero District headquarters remains among the unfulfilled pledges that the government should fast track.
“Government is aware of some of the pledges that are yet to be fulfilled in Luweero District. When I met President Museveni some time back, I presented some of the salient issues that the NRM government has to fulfill in Luweero including the district headquarters,” he said.
