President Museveni on Thursday combed Budaka district as he wooed locals to vote for the NRM in the forthcoming 2026 general election.
Speaking during a rally at Saza grounds in Budaka, Museveni said having ushered in peace, the NRM government started on a development agenda.
He mentioned roads, electricity, telephone, safe water and railway as the economic development infrastructure that government has put in place.
“Alot has been done in Budaka. We did this road very early in our government from Iganga to Mbale and later repaired it again. We have added one from Tirinyi- Pallisa-Kumi but we have also done from Pallisa through Kamonkoli to Mbale . We shall also do the one from Nabumali via Butaleja to Busoga,” Museveni said.
Clean water
The president said he was impressed that out of the 323 rural villages in Budaka, 93%( 299) have access to clean safe water, with only 24 villages without.
“In the new term, the remaining 24 villages will also get clean water,” he said.
Museveni said in Budaka, 17 springs are protected 40 deep boreholes, and 60 water sources rehabilitated as well as completion of construction of Budaka Town Council piped water system serving 21,262 people and Kamonkoli Piped Water System serving 14,400 people.
He said works are currently on going on construction of 7 deep boreholes and six spring protection projects while 19 boreholes are being rehabilitated.
“We plan to construction of Naboa, Iki-Iki, and Kachomo Town Council piped water systems,” he said.
Healthcare
Museveni said much has been done in terms of health care, in that out of the 20 sub-counties in Budaka, one has a health centre IV and 14 have health centre IIIs, leaving only six sub counties without any health facility.
“The plan is to upgrade Butove health centre II in Tadameri Sub-County to a health centre III and construct new health centre IIIs in Kakoli, Kamonkoli, Iki-iki, Kachomo and Kabuna Sub-Counties. One of the health centre IVs will be upgraded into a district hospital,” Museveni told the population that clapped whenever he mentioned these forthcoming projects.
In terms of education, he said Budaka has 76 parishes, with 48 hosting at least one government primary school and with some parishes having more than one school
The district has 59 government primary schools
In terms of secondary education, Museveni said the district has 10 government secondary schools, in the 20 sub counties, with 10 of these hosting at least one school while 10 sub-counties are still lacking.
He added that Budaka District is benefiting with the construction of five Seed Secondary Schools and that with their completion, the sub counties without government secondary schools will reduced to only five.
“Our policy is to have a government primary school in every parish and a government secondary school in every sub county.”
Museveni also reminded the gathering of the need to create wealth, noting that having development without wealth makes no sense.
“ To chase poverty from your home, you must get involved in wealth creation. We want to chase poverty from the home and that’s why ever since we came to government, we have been talking of wealth creation .We have been telling you about the four acres model from 1996,”Museveni said.
He urged locals to make use of Parish Development Model and Emyooga funds to get out of poverty.
Government has so far disbursed shs23.4 billion to 76 parishes in Budaka and out of this, shs23.3 has benefited 23,361 households out of the 52,360 that make up the district.
In terms of Emyooga, the district has 36 saccos with 17,059 members which have received shs1.8 billion.