“AS MPS we are committed to do work but fundraising in churches have made us poor” MP Kasese municipality

In a meeting organized by RWECO with the Member of Parliament for Kasese Municipality Hon James Mbahimba on how RWECO can influence the Uganda Wildlife Act amendment and present the monitoring findings to the relevant committees of the 9^th Parliament was held at RWECO Board Room, Kasese Municipality.

Hon. James Mbahimba (2nd left) and RWECO staff from RIC-NET, KALI, GOODHOPE and RWECO-CU

Hon. James Mbahimba apologized for not participating in RWECO activities as he was either not informed or misinformed. He thanked RWECO and its members Good Hope, KALI and RICNET for their efforts in ensuring effective delivery and urged them to sensitize the communities to understand the role of the MPS and help them to fulfill their roles other than as the spend most of time fundraising and gave an example that Kasese municipality alone has 219 churches, 42 secondary schools, more than 50 bars, bodabodas and women group. If each church hold a fundraising and he has to contribute how much money will this amount to. To show that these groups are intended to milk politicians each politician is called alone not excluding the opponent.  When asked about non participation in some activities he emphasized sometimes the organizers do not follow protocol for example an event where the chairperson LC3 is the chief guest and the MP is just a guest.

Hon James Mbahimba (in black suit) emphasizing on the roles of Members of Parliament

He emphasized that members of parliament are not delegates but representatives so people need to trust them because they represent their interests.

Hon James Mbahimba emphasized that a Member of Parliament has 3 major roles to play and these are

1.       Appropriation and these include budgeting and allocation of money.

2.       Make laws/ACTs and review

3.       Representation in other words no one should know the constituency more than the Member of Parliament.

The major concern Member of Parliament is how to get money in Kasese municipality and his focus is increasing Agriculture production through rehabilitation of Mubuku irrigation scheme which is done and increased employment opportunities through the revival of Kilembe mines which commenced on 1^st October and will be 3500 people on 25 years contract which is a renewable contract. He confirmed that information is power that is why he struggled to ensure that the people of Kasese municipality have access to UBC and NTV television network.

When asked what he has done for kasese since he joined the parliament, he told the meeting that he has advocated for the firefighting equipment for kasese municipality, advocated for 70  million for the Adventist church to procure a band and a radio system, 70 million to Moslems to start a school for basic education,  50 million for mosque  construction, 25 million for the youth revolving fund, 3billion and 600 for construction of 9 classroom blocks, a laboratory and a library at Kasese Secondary School. In terms of roads the Member of Parliament stressed that Kasese district is remaining with two major roads to tarmac which the road connecting to Ibanda and the road connecting to Katwe Kabatooro Town council. The question is if all these resources exist in the community then why is there poor service delivery? Why don’t we mainstream our management to ensure effective service delivery?

Hon. James Mbahimba (in black suit) was clear on what he had done during his time in Parliament

 He emphasized that Kasese district has 30 schools compared to Napak district in northern which has three secondary schools.Kisinga sub county has 3 secondary schools alone which cannot be compared to NAPAK district. The tax payers contribute 82% to the government budget and the rest is donor money and the employees in public service are 700,000 and on average if every employee earns Ugx. 500,000 per month a total Ugx3.5 trillion would be spent on salary alone.  How will the balance cater for the remaining population? He decried the challenge of   poor accountability because when money is swindled the same item will continue to be budgeted for.  He exclaimed that Kasese gets Ugx. 2billion shillings for NAADS per year but there are no visible results to show value for money yet Kasese District with support from the B.T.C constructed a mini-irrigation scheme in Muhokya sub-county at Ugx. 180 millions which has made a change in people's lives as they now have crops all year yet over 70% of the NAADS expenditure goes to administration and only 30% is for the inputs.

Hon James Mbahimba

 As part of the action plan, Hon. James Mbahimba agreed to mobilize fellow MPs to participate in the live debates organized by RWECO members in Kasese as well as support RWECO in its petition to parliament on the natural resource policy. The meeting was also attended by RWECO members from KALI, RICNET and Good hope.

Written by

Sheila and Gilbert
RWECO