The ruling NRM party secretariat has announced a countrywide monitoring exercise for government programs.
The exercise will run across the 353 constituencies of Uganda with the first phase running between tomorrow, May 20 to 26 starting with Greater Kampala Metropolitan areas of Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono as greater Busoga in the east.
“We are conducting a countrywide constituency mobilization program to enable us reach out to leaders right from the villages. We are meeting all leaders from village to district level but at their respective constituencies,” NRM director for mobilisation, Rosemary Nansubuga Sseninde said on Friday.
She explained that to properly carry out the program, the country has been categorized into 31 zones to which the party leaders have been dispatched.
“With this program, we want to create a platform for community discussions on service delivery, political, social and economic concerns and accountability. We shall also create a platform for discussion and resolution of internal party contradictions to promote productive co-existence and build cohesion among members.”
And then?
The program is something the ruling NRM party leaders have for many years been talking about.
In some areas, they have assessed the performance of government programs and implementation of the NRM manifesto but it has all ended in words without any tangible results.
Asked whether there will be something different this time round, the NRM director for mobilization, said they this time round want to change the approach.
“We are ready to respond to questions by the members of the public. We are also going to help our people understand these programs and what is expected of them. It is not only to go, talk to the people and at that. We have clear agenda to continuously do reports , interact with various stakeholders to see how to solve these issues raised by the public. I want to assure you it is not about speaking to people and end at that,”Sseninde said.
“Our purpose is not to just speak for the sake of standing before the camera. Our going out is to add to effort to identify challenges and put to task our own government on why things don’t happen as they should be.”
Sseninde said this time round they will compile reports and forward them to the relevant stakeholders including ministries for action to be taken.
“It is an activity we shall continuously do, identify challenges, provide solutions and go back to find out if challenges have been addressed or not.”
The NRM director for mobilisation said the exercise was informed by a recent study by the party on its waning support countrywide.
“The research whose report we made indicated that land wrangles especially in Buganda, internal fights within the party, poor implementation of government programs and poverty among others have cost us support countrywide. With therefore seek to see how we can regain our position,” Sseninde said.
According to Sam Eyenga, a senior manager in charge of mobilization at the NRM secretariat, as part of the exercise, the NRM secretariat they will meet Members of parliament from the respective constituencies, NRM flag bearers, NRM district executive committees, district and city councilors, LC5 chairpersons, mayors and opinion leaders in every constituency.
He noted that in constituencies where the MPs and other leaders are opposition leaning, the delegation will be meeting flag bearers.