Residents of Kigorobya Sub County Hoima district are unhappy that government has failed to grant them district status.
This week, government announced a proposal to create 20 new districts to add onto the 112 existing ones.
During the 2011 election campaigns, President Yoweri Museveni told Kigorobya town council residents that the area would be elevated to a district. Although it was not on his campaign program, the president fixed 30 minutes to address the residents and eventually. This triggered excitement as people danced and chanted in praise of the president.
However the excitement could have stopped at that as the promised district does not appear on the list of new districts approved by cabinet.
The list has two new districts proposed in Bunyoro, with Kakumiro and Kagadi being curved out of Kibaale district.
The president had also promised Buhaguzi County in Hoima a district status but it is not on the latest list. But Buhaguzi MP Julius Bigirwa Junjura claims that he has assurances from the local government minister, Adolf Mwesige, that the district was also approved by cabinet.
In Kigorobya, however, residents seem to have lost hope.
70 year old Sedrak Mwijakubi, an elder says he was surprised not to see their area on the list of the newly created districts. Claiming that the president’s word is always final, Mwijakubi blames area members of parliament for failing to follow up on the matter.
Mwijakubi says he cannot explain the residents’ anger ever since the list of the new districts was published in papers with Kigorobya missing.
James Mugenyi Mulindambura, the Kigorobya district councilor, says whether the district starts or not, government should know that local residents still hold their demand and they are not happy at all. He challenges area MPs to follow up the issue.
//Cue in: “We at the district……….
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James Kiiza Rwebembera, the Bugahya county MP in whose constituency Kigorobya is found, urges residents to be calm saying the president does not lie. Kiiza explains that the district will be operational anytime although not this financial year.
Kigorobya lies in the remote Lake Albert shoreline where the road infrastructure is poor and general service delivery is so much wanting.
The other new districts proposed by cabinet include Butebo to curved from Pallisa district, Bugweri from Iganga, Kakuuto and Kyotera from Rakai, Kapelebyong from Amuria, Kasanda from Mubende and Kazo from Kiruhura.
The others are Kilak and Omoro from Gulu, Kitagwenda from Kamwenge, Kyadondo from Wakiso, Nabilatuk from Nakapiripirit, Namisindwa from Manafwa, Pakwach from Nebbi, Rubanda and Rukiga from Kabale and Rwampara from Mbarara.
