President Museveni on Monday afternoon hit the ground running with his campaign trail in Kigezi subregion.
The NRM presidential candidate who addressed a rally at Saaza Grounds in Kisoro, applauded the area for always voting him overwhelmingly, promising to reward them with more infrastructure.
“We have tarmacked the Kabale-Kisoro Road which previously ended in Kabale. Construction of the Kisoro-Mgahinga Road is ongoing. We are going to work on the Kisoro – Nkuringo – Rubuguri – Muko Road, then the road from Ruguri – Katojo to Muko, Katuna-Muko-Kamuganguzi road and the Hamulwa-Kerere-Kanungu and Butogota-Hamayanja-Ifasha-Ikumba road. These roads will be tarmacked,” Museveni said, amid ululation from the crowd that attended the rally.
The five tourism roads that are to be tarmacked will ease transport in Kisoro area, according to President Museveni.
Museveni got 98,694 votes translating into 90.5% while FDC got 0.64%.
Speaking on Monday, Museveni underscored the contribution of the NRM government to Uganda’s development.
“People are running around asking you to support them but what have they done? Uganda has problems including shortage of goods. When NRM came to power in 1986, people were getting beer from Burundi. There was no sugar, beer, soap or cement. Right now, all these are here and all this has been done by NRM,” Museveni told the gathering.
He added, “There are still some weaknesses created by our people but most of the work has been done by NRM.”
Electricity
On electricity, the president noted that all sub-counties, save for Nyarubuye have got electricity.
While many have in the past complained on not being connected to the national grid, government’s plan was to extend electricity to district headquarters, before extending it to sub county headquarters.
“Right now, all districts have electricity apart from Buvuma. Then from the district, we took it to sub county headquarters. You might say you don’t have electricity at your villages but what is crucial is having it first at sub county headquarters,” he said.
Health
Museveni said out of the 24 sub-counties in Kisoro, there is one general hospital, three health centre IVs and 18 health centre IIIs, with five sub counties not having any health centre.
He however said the plan is to upgrade Bunagana health centre II in Bunagana Town Council , Gitovu HCII in Mupaka Town Council, Gapfurizo health centre II in Rukundo Town Council and Kalehe health centre II in Rukundo Town Council to health centre IIIs.
“We are also going to construct a new health centre III in Cyanika town council.”
He said a lot has also been achieved in the education sector with several primary and secondary schools constructed, reaffirming government’s policy for a government primary and secondary school at parish and sub county levels respectively.
Wealth creation
Museveni told the gathering that despite the achievements in terms of development, it is high time they focused on creating wealth for themselves.
“You need to differentiate between development and wealth. You have got tarmac roads from Bunagana- Cyanika to Kabale but do you sleep on the road because it has tarmac. It is high time you knew that wealth can come before development.”
He urged them to use funds like the Parish Development Model and Emyooga to get out of poverty and become wealthy.
Kisoro district’s 71 parishes have received shs17.8 billion for PDM going out to 18,307 beneficiary households.
On the other hand, Kisoro Municipality with seven parishes has received shs2.1 billion disbursed to 2,151 PDM beneficiaries.
For Emyooga, Kisoro has 78 saccos with 10,705 members with shs3.8 billion disbursed.
“Support NRM as you have done in the past so we can continue with this work but also consolidate the gains,” he urged Kisoro.