By Kyetume Kasanga
In Bunyoro region President Yoweri Museveni polled 74.26 percent, compared to his 58.38 national tally, in the 2021 presidential elections. This year he returned a landslide 81.35 percent, compared to his 71.65 national score.
As a presidential candidate, last December he was on a whirlwind campaign trail in the region. With NRM achievements up his sleeve, his re-election message resonated well.
Museveni addressed eight rallies across the eight districts in one week, reeling off-the-cuff impressive socio-economic transformation statistics pertaining to the region. These included monumental successes in roads, education, water and sanitation, health and rural electrification sectors.
Several projects stood out as significant milestones. They included development of the oil and gas fields, attainment of city status for Hoima Municipality and construction of the Shs1.2trillion Kabalega International Airport.
Others were the Shs484bn Hoima City Stadium, Shs6.8bn Hoima Regional Blood Bank and the Hoima Regional Referral Hospital. The 300-bed facility was designed to serve over 3.5m people, with a modern well-equipped 20-bed intensive care unit and a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner.
About 800km of trunk and oil roads are now paved. Majority of the 137 subcounties in the region have at least one government school implementing Universal Secondary and Post ‘O’ Level Education and Training.
Most of the 552 parishes covering 3,474 villages have at least one school implementing Universal Primary Education, and one health centre as per government policy. With 412 registered SACCOs, over Shs210bn is currently revolving in the region courtesy of Parish Development Model and Emyoga programmes.
In the queue are the collegiate Bunyoro University with proposed campuses varied in Kikuube, Hoima and Masindi districts, the oil refinery and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, among others, at various stages of execution.
“Refurbishment and expansion of Masindi Hospital by the UPDF Engineering Brigade is ongoing,” said the Masindi District NRM party Chairperson, Kabakumba Masiko during Museveni’s campaign rally at Masindi Golf Course.
Government released Shs1.5bn for the first phase and another Shs10bn has been earmarked for the second phase of the expansion. The inventory of NRM achievements in the region is long, commendably.
However, endemic corruption in local government procurements and staff recruitments, escalating land disputes and human-wildlife conflicts often resulting into death, continue to rear their ugly head.
Others are limited job opportunities for the youth, exorbitant-interest financial services, inadequate access to health care, high poverty rates and unfulfilled presidential pledges.
Livelihoods are threatened by shabby urban and rural access roads, repulsive rural water and sanitation facilities, disgusting municipal drainage and sewerage systems, and deficient electrification, gross deforestation and destructive soil erosion that connive to exacerbate the impact of climate change.
Still lurking are concerns about distant day schools, lack of a modern market in Masindi Municipality, absence of a referral highway hospital in Kiryandongo district, and management of oil and gas resources to maximise benefits for local communities.
This is not to mention mismanagement of fisheries resources, harassment and insecurity on L. Albert, affecting fishing and trade in Buliisa, Hoima and Kikuube districts, among other woes.
According to James Mudede, LC3 chairman for Bwijanga subcounty in Masindi district: “Many young girls have turned to working in bars or gone for early marriages. Teenage pregnancies are high. Other teens are engaged in sugarcane cutting and sand mining.”
“People in Kiryandongo were illegally evicted and mistreated, and the investors have no plans to resettle or compensate them,” said Joseph Walikura, a resident of Kimogora village, Mutunda subcounty in Kiryandongo district.
President Museveni prioritises peace and household wealth creation because development (public infrastructure) alone cannot improve family lives in Bunyoro. Sustainable resource management and protection of local communities’ land rights are also on his menu.
“Sustained peace has enabled long-term planning, investment and expansion of social services, including in historically marginalised regions such as Bunyoro,” Museveni noted during his campaign rally in Buliisa Town Council.
“I will tell Lt Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba to make sure that you chase those Balaalo (herdsmen),” he pledged, emphasising the need for oil revenues to support infrastructure development and not consumptive expenditure.
He urges smallholder farmers to embrace the four-acre model for coffee, fruits, zero-grazing, food crops, poultry, piggery and fish farming. Large-scale farmers should get into commercial agriculture such as livestock farming, cotton, maize, sugarcane and tea production.
Museveni’s elixir is to establish another industrial park in southern Bunyoro for broader production to supplement Kabalega Industrial Park which is for oil-related activities.
“We need about 10 square miles for the industrial park,” he told thousands of enthusiastic NRM supporters during mammoth rallies at Kibaale Town Council and Hoima Oil City Boma grounds.
He announced: “We are going to build the industrial park purely for agro-processing, separate from the one handling petroleum products. Food industries cannot be mixed with petroleum industries. So, Bunyoro will have both.”
A second skilling hub to that in Masindi district will be set up as part of measures to bring vocational training closer to the people of greater Kibaale and surrounding areas, expand industrialisation and empower the youth.
Museveni wants implementation of the Sugar (Amendment) Act, 2023 fast-tracked for optimal pricing, transparent weighing systems, balanced contracts and equal access to sugar mills. The measure should resolve long-standing industry conflicts and buffer out-growers against any miller predatory practices.
Museveni backs voices for creation of another constituency in Buliisa district. He says it reflects the increasing population and denotes the importance of fair political representation. Buliisa was carved out of Masindi district in 2006 and currently has one constituency.
“It is in order for Buliisa to get another constituency because I immunised you, and now there are more people in the district,” Museveni said during the campaign rally in Buliisa Town Council.
He also plans a ferry to improve water transport on L. Albert and facilitate cross-border trade between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He tasked the Masindi-based UPDF Artillery Division Commander, Maj. Gen. Daniel Kakono to spearhead revitalisation of the fisheries sector and sustainable management of riparian resources on the lake.
Museveni ordered for immediate return to the owners of all boats, engines, motorcycles and other recommended fishing paraphernalia that the then UPDF Fisheries Protection Unit confiscated. The Unit has since been disbanded and a new outfit, the 155 Marine Battalion, taken its place.
“There are elders and clans in Pakwach and Buliisa who know that when you catch a young fish, you put it back (into the lake),” Museveni said, calling for responsible fishing. “They understood long ago that if you eat the young fish, tomorrow there will be nothing. Even me, a cattle keeper, I don’t eat calves; it is taboo.”
Museveni wants to elevate Kigorobya, Kikuube and Kakumiro Health Centre IVs in Hoima, Kikuube and Kakumiro districts, respectively, to District General Hospitals, strengthen Hoima Regional Referral Hospital and upgrade several HCIIs and IIIs across the region. The measures should improve health service delivery and reduce patient referrals.
He is also granting government secondary schools ‘A’-Level status to improve access to higher education. Step-down electricity transformers shall also be provided to supplement the current power reach, especially in Kiryandongo district.
He promises to further expand the road network, provide additional money to a new PDM fund for ghettos and a separate financial facility for the fisheries sector. This should revitalise the industry and create jobs for the local communities.
Museveni’s campaign trail ended with a political boost as the opposition National Unity Platform Chairperson for Kagadi district, Brian Asingwire defected to the NRM. Asingwire also withdrew from the area Parliamentary race despite having secured the NUP ticket after serving his party for six years. The writer is an NRM mobiliser, farmer, businessman and contestant in the 2025 LC5 Chairperson NRM primaries in Masindi District. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
