The leaders of Amolatar have asked President Museveni to address the pressing issue of the challenges faced by the fishing communities in the area.
Speaking ahead of Museveni's first campaign rally in Lango at Amolatar Secondary School playgrounds, the Amolatar LC5 chairman, Geoffrey Ocen said despite being in between two lakes, they have not benefitted from them.
“Our people are in the middle of two lakes, Lake Kwania and Lake Kyoga, But we are not benefiting from the lakes. Even fish for food our people cannot get. We seek to request his excellency the president if he can use his mandate to allow our people to go and fish for food,”Ocen told the Nile Post in an interview on Wednesday.
“ We cannot rely only on fish for export or fish for big hotels in Kampala. Our people should also fish for food and for local markets within here.”
The issue of fishing communities in Amolatar has been pressing for a long time with locals accusing the Fisheries Protection Unit of driving them off the lake, yet many of them derive livelihood from the waterbodies through fishing.
Ahead of the president’s campaign rally in the area, the Amolatar LC5 chairman says the NRM candidate ought to address this pertinent issue.
Other challenges
Ocen also pointed to the issue of poor road network and health facilities that he said Museveni ought to address in his campaign speech.
“In the current NRM manifesto ending in June next year, government committed and in NDP3 that they are going to tarmac the road from Namasale, Ociro up to Dokolo but this has not yet been fulfilled and it is still in a dilapidated state. I am here come to seek commitment from the president on how he will go and fulfil the manifesto and how he will commit to the people of Amolatar as he seeks another mandate,” Ocero said.
“We want to know what will happen to the Namasale, Ociro Dokolo road and what will be the timeline for the people to have hope that the coming years will not be like the past years.”