By Mulengera Reporters
The year was 2011 when Eng Irene Nafuna Muloni first became the Woman MP for Bulambuli district. And because she had already rendered distinguished public service for over 20 years (including serving as Executive Director for Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Ltd), the President easily noticed and made her the Minister of Energy & Mineral Development in her in first term as MP. She is the pioneer woman MP for Bulambuli which was curved from Sironko district.
Serving as Energy Minister from 2011 all the way to 2020, Eng Muloni (who Museveni kept Minister even after ceasing to be Bulambuli MP in 2016) did all she could and tremendously impacted the relevant service delivery programs for people not just in her Bulambuli but much of Bugisu.
She won several awards and was always celebrated in national media end of year reviews for her hard work, people-centered leadership, authentic love for people and commitment to impactful public service.
Her tenure as Woman MP for Bulambuli, for now two terms, has created lasting impact for the natives of that Bugisu district. The first thing she did upon ascending office was to open a constituency coordination office, which actually was opened by the President who was always very fond of her-and remains so up to this day. Even when she ceased to be MP, Museveni made her senior presidential advisor.
On the day he opened the constituency office, Museveni was accompanied by First Lady Janet Kataha. Leveraging her position as Minister, Muloni prioritized provision of electricity which many people in Bulambuli accessed for the first time. This was chiefly through the rural electrification program. Only a few Bulambuli areas remain unconnected to power supply and gratefully, the surveying exercise was already done.
At Muloni’s instigation, the GoU constructed Muyembe-Mbigi hydro power dam in Bulambuli with the objective of amplifying revenue generation for the district, job creation for area residents and promotion of business, investment and tourism activities.
In the education field, Muloni is credited for getting four disadvantaged students from Bulambuli onto the State House scholarship scheme. And these have since graduated in science courses (3 of them) and law from University. She went ahead to support their recruitment into government employment. These are from the Sub Counties of Bulegeni TC, Bumasobo, Bukhalu and Muyembe.
Relatedly, her efforts have seen 260 sons and daughters of Bulambuli access bursary opportunities to study at different academic institutions in Kampala and other parts of Uganda. These have since graduated with degrees, diplomas and certificate qualifications.
Muloni has also lobbied government decision-makers in Kampala resulting into construction of an 8 classroom block at Baluganya SS, a 16 classroom block at Buginyanya Comprehensive SS, a 4 classroom block at Bulaago SS and at Tunyi Girls School. She has also often used personal money to amplify fundraising efforts to boost infrastructure establishment at several other schools in Bulambuli.
She has also supported elevation of the following schools to A’level-St. Joseph’s Buyaga SS, Nabongo SS, Tunyi Girls SS and Bunginyanya Comprehensive SS etc.
In the entire district, she has boosted ECD learning by donating 1,800 school bags to kindergarten children in different parts of Bulambuli. Her package has also included scholastic materials like sets, rulers, pencils, rubbers, colors etc. Many schools have also been able to access UNEB past papers and thereby boosting candidates’ confidence as they prepare for national examinations.
Muloni has also been a generous supporter of the National Teachers Union branch of Bulambuli. She has also actively always been involved in celebration of teachers’ day for Bulambuli, which has endeared her to teachers who are key opinion shapers in any community.
Muloni has also sponsored sons and daughters of Bulambuli to travel to India to gain exposure and learn best entrepreneurship practices. Those who have benefited from such empowerment so far include Siraje Wamayi of Bulambuli TC, Nambuya Petwa of Buwanyanga Sub County, Vincent Muloni of Bumugibole Sub County and Darlia Nengoma of Buginyanga Sub County.
Yet that isn’t all. The same Muloni also supported acquisition of the bio gas system at Nabongo SS to enable full time lighting to facilitate learning. Others like Tunyi Girls SS, St. Joseph Buyaga and Nabongo SS today have solar systems all courtesy of Irene Muloni.
Through Sub County-based tournaments, Irene Muloni has also supported sports activities in Bulambuli. She has donated balls and jerseys for the different teams based at Sub County level.
Under agriculture, Muloni has sunk up to over Shs90m to purchase solar-powered pump generators to support irrigation and this has chiefly benefited youthful farmers. She has also deliberately worked with youth council leaders to popularize farming among the youths of Bulambuli.
The irrigation she has supported has enabled farming activities to go on even during the dry season. In the year 2023 alone, Eng Muloni donated 4,000 kroiler chicken birds to parish level-based women groups in Bulambuli.
Besides the NRM mobilizers tractor she lobbied and delivered from State House, Muloni also one time led 200 farmers from Bulambuli and Sironko to Gen Museveni’s Rwakitura farm where they learnt a lot of modern farming practices on especially how to manage household enterprises without having to have a lot of land.
Groups like Bulambuli Development Foundation, African Village Support and TABU Group received three brand new tractors from the GoU, all of which were lobbied by Muloni. She has also donated thousands of hoes to farming households in Bulambuli where at least each village has four recipient households.
She has also supported the work of Buginyanya Zonal Agriculture Research Institute in Bulambuli especially through the $250,000 grant which she lobbied to go into the Irish potato research project to enhance food security at the household level. With support from Cabinet colleagues, Muloni along with others worked hard to get the President approve and nod to the payment of Shs13bn to Bugisu Cooperative Union, a move that was beneficial to farmers across Bugisu sub region.
Since 2011, Muloni has personally distributed up to 780,000 coffee seedlings to more than 2,200 Bulambuli households scattered in 16 Sub Counties within the coffee growing areas. That is all besides the onion, beans and maize seedlings which she always distributes to homesteads for planting throughout Bulambuli each time the planting season comes up.
Muloni has also boosted household incomes of people in Bulambuli by funding the establishment of Buyaga Piggery Breeding Unit, which is managed by Mr. Fred Wotswama. She parted with Shs35m to construct the piggery house which she stocked with the parent stock of pigs to support piggery farming in Bulambuli.
She also facilitated Wotswana, the project manager, with a brand new motorcycle to ease his mobility. The Piggery Breeding Unit has up to this day served as the model learning center for the district besides enabling the multiplication of improved piggery breeds.
She got the President to donate maize milling machines worth Shs100m to Bulambuli women groups to facilitate value addition activities onto the agricultural produce. She constructed five produce houses for these women groups at a cost of Shs180m. These houses hosted the donated maize mills the President donated.
She also served as the conduit through whom the 20 motorcycles promised by the President were delivered to Bulambuli for the benefit of the most active and effective NRM mobilisers in the district to amplify party mobilization activities. Muloni has also been very supportive of the Bulambuli youths who are involved in the taxi business. Her support has always been channeled through Bulambuli Taxi Drivers Association.
She got the President to donate 10 diary heifers to help boost the economic thriving of NRM cadres who stood and lost their respective flag bearer races for MP and local council positions in 2021. These are mainly primary losers who acted responsibly by not running as independents. Muloni has also prioritized the welfare of female youths and young mothers in Bulambuli by donating to them roughly 20 sewing machines to enable them engage in tailoring business. Muloni also teamed up with other leaders to spearhead the establishment of the union branch office for the PWDs hailing from both Bulambuli and mother Sironko district.
When it comes to health services, Muloni has supported the same in Bulambuli by ensuring that Bulambuli gets government ambulances for its health center 4s. This has helped to facilitate effective management of health emergencies and referral cases that get referred to Mbale RRH.
The first ambulance she lobbied came to Bulambuli in her first term (2011-2016) as woman MP and another in her second term (2021-2026). These were only 50 new modern ambulances for the whole country and, leveraging her position as a member of the Health Committee of Parliament, Muloni ensured that one of them went to Bulambuli. Every MP wanted one for their respective district and yet mere 50 ambulances weren’t enough for the more than 140 local government units. Muloni has also donated solar systems to support lighting at several health centers.
She has also used the MP Seat to successfully lobby for construction of new health centers and upgrading of some of them existing ones. Her efforts resulted into elevation of Muyembe to district general hospital. Others that benefited include health centers like Buluganya, Buginyanya, Bumugibole, Bukibolongoto, Kamu, Bwikhonge and Bunangaka etc.
In 2023, she brought the entire health committee of Parliament to assess the state of health services in Bulambuli. This helped to publicize the extent of the problem and thereby demonstrating cause for urgent remedial interventions. She has also distributed maternity beds to facilitate expectant mothers. She also lobbied and got Luzira-based pharmaceuticals manufacturer Quality Chemicals to donate anti-malaria medicines worth Shs172m which sustained health centers in both Bulambuli and Sironko.
Muloni has also spearheaded health camps during which hundreds of Bulambuli residents accessed expert medics who helped to screen them in case of any underlying conditions at no cost.
When it comes to job creation, Muloni has helped many Bulambuli youths to access gainful employment including 200 of them who worked on the Karuma power project construction, 8 working in State House, 5 in Finance Trust Bank, 30 on the Isimba hydro power project construction, 3 at the Energy Ministry and 5 in former UMEME just to mention a few.
Yet that isn’t all. Through her, 1600 bicycles were distributed to LC leaders in Bulambuli besides the tractors and vehicles she lobbied to come to the Town Councils of Bulambuli and Bulegeni. These eased collection and disposal of garbage in these TCs. Through her, Bulambuli also got to be among the very first districts to receive a road construction unit comprising of a grader, tipper among others to facilitate road construction and maintenance.
Bulambuli roads have been worked on to improve mobility courtesy of her lobbying skills. The impacted roads include Simu Corner-Buginyanya and others passing through Masila, Bulago, Buyaga, Buluganya, Bumasobo and Tunyi as was committed in the NRM manifesto of 2021. She also caused the construction of Muyembe Bukhalu bridge.
Besides conspicuously participating in relief efforts to aid landslides victims and victims of Karamajong cattle rustling, Eng Muloni has also supported environmental conservation in Bulambuli by distributing up to 180,000 tree seedlings to farmers. She has also been very supportive of her people desiring to participate in the Imbalu/male circumcision festivities at Mutoto Cultural Site to which she one time invited the President who donated Shs100m.
When still Minister, Muloni lobbied her Water Ministry counterpart resulting into a water project of Shs6bn coming to Bulambuli. This has since mitigated water access problems for the people. Officed in Bulegeni Town Council, this water project has had water needs of people living and operating in Bulegeni, Bulambuli, Buyaga, Kamu, Kibanda, Samazi and Nabongo townships positively responded to.
Courtesy of Muloni, Buyaga & Bungwanyi Primary Schools plus the Mosque got motorized boreholes. For a long time, upper Bulambuli residents endured poor telecom network and could hardly communicate using their phones. This was only mitigated when Muloni lobbied and telecom masts were erected to boost network reception.
In the interest of bringing services nearer to the people, Bulambuli had more administrative units and constituencies created courtesy of Muloni’s lobbying capabilities in Kampala. These include Namisuni, Lusha, Bamugibole, Muyembe, Bumasobo and others. Some of these units’ creation had the effect of de-escalating inter-community conflicts in Bulambuli.
Muloni has also been a very consultative legislator who always calls meetings to get community members’ views on contentious national issues inside the NRM and also regarding the legislative agenda of the Legislature.
Religious institutions in Bulambuli have also greatly benefited from Eng Irene Muloni and this can be illustrated as follows: she has always been a phone call away from the clergy leadership at Bungwanyi Mosque, Buginyanya CoU, Kamunda CoU, Tunyi Catholic Church (whose 65th anniversary celebrations she got the President to attend through the VP who delivered his Shs10m), Kapkweni Catholic Church, Masira CoU, Butta Apostolic Church, Marama Catholic Church, Gibuzale CoU, Kidega Catholic Church, Buluganya CoU and Bulegeni PAG. The congregants at Buyaga have also been impacted by her generosity.
Like all the other elected leaders ought to do, Muloni has always stood with her people in moments of joy and grief and her solidarity is always felt during burial ceremonies, weddings and graduation parties etc. She is also always on the ground giving leadership and guidance to the other district leaders during celebrations to mark national days for her beloved district Bulambuli such as the Independence day, the NRM anniversary, Labor day and International Women’s day just to mention a few.
The same Muloni, who remains the most conspicuous politician from Bulambuli, also got the President to attend a fundraising event for the construction of the district headquarters, a cause to which the always magnanimous big man from Rwakitura contributed Shs200m.
As she seeks reelection in 2026, Muloni is now focused on following up on some of the President’s pledges to Bulambuli including those relating to the effective and complete resettlement of displaced persons from Bulambuli district and the rest of Bugisu sub region. Her motto and promise remains working towards making sure that ‘life keeps getting better’ for her Bulambuli people. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
