The Minister of Lands, housing and urban development, Judith Nabakooba has urged the people of Kassanda District to fight poverty by taking part in projects that bring money to alleviate poverty in the long run.
Nabakooba who was speaking at the 37th Anniversary celebrations of the NRM victory in Kassanda District on February 15 thanked the People of Kasanda for the support they have for government and the NRM party in particular.
She said they have demonstrated good leadership and faith in government by continuously voting for capable and determined leaders and government will continue to do whatever it takes to work with them in realizing the national targets
in wealth creation.
“As you may be aware, currently our Excellency the President is pushing for improving livelihoods through the critical pillars. His Excellency is calling upon us to focus on the critical areas of development and wealth, Mass Education, stamping out corruption and sectarianism especially in government offices and environment,” she said.
Nabakooba urged the leaders and locals in the district to reflect upon these issues in efforts to improve their livelihoods.
In her tour of the district, the minister also laid a wreath at a monument at Bukuya SS put up in the 80s in memory of the liberators and their sacrifice, visited Kijuna Health Centre 3 and Bukuya Health Centre 4 which is under construction by UPDF Engineering brigade.
While at the health facility, she also launched the measles vaccination for Kassanda District which had failed to kick off because of the Ebola lockdown. The vaccination exercise that is going to last for five days targets children aged 0 to five years of age.
Nabakooba who was made aware that the Parish Development Model (PDM) money was still at parish accounts advised locals to seek information on how target households can access it, urging them to monitor the Shs2.8bn government allocated to the district for PDM.
In her docket as lands minister, she reminded people about their efforts to guard against illegal land evictions. She said this is a campaign that they have been working on for some time now.
According to Nabakooba, in government’s efforts to create wealth and end poverty, all people must have access to land, feel protected and safe to utilize it, otherwise their efforts will not be realized.
She called upon people to respect each other’s right to own land and always follow the law whenever there is an issue that needs to be addressed.
“I want to thank the RDCs and the security committees for your tireless efforts against illegal evictions. As government, we have studied the problem of dual ownership. Most of these illegal evictions happen because of the crisis between land lords and bibanja owners,” she said.
The minister added that they therefore decided to eliminate this problem by paying land lords and enabling bibanja owners to get land titles.
“We are working with our development partners such as GIZ and soon this program will be starting here as well. We are going to embark on training duty bearers on matters of land management and conflict resolution. We are aware of the issues in Kitumbi, Kamusenene, and we are pursuing efforts to settle your land ownership issues.”
In his remarks, Michael Wamuntu, the Parish Development Model (PDM) Focal Person of Kassanda District Local Government said the political wing has been so supportive during the sensitisation and training of PDM in the district.
He said the PDM steering committee chaired by the C.A.O has supported the whole process and the population has seriously embraced the PDM programme in the district.
Mr Wamuntu said that the Ebola outbreak slowed down the pace of implementation of PDM activities in the district. He explained that the recovery from the Ebola pandemic is a slow process thus affecting the pace of implementation of the programme.
“The public still have a mind-set that this money is an appreciation from the government therefore a lot needs to be done to change their mind set so that they understand this is seed money meant to help them overcome the injustices of poverty, it should be used cautiously,” he said.
Mr Wamuntu pointed out organising refresher trainings for all stakeholders, trainings in financial management and loan acquisition, training of PDM SACCO members and supporting of households to develop their socio-economic transformation as some of the steps that can aid the recovery processes.
Hajji Sirajje Ssendawula, the Kassanda District NRM chairperson highlighted some of the areas NRM has performed tremendously in the last 37 years. He highlighted security, infrastructural development, health and education.
“In 1986, Kassanda District had only 30 government aided primary schools but as of now we have 100 and 500 private primary schools. For secondary, we had 3 secondary schools but today we have quite a number,” he shared.
Mr Ssendawula also pointed out how the district has benefited from the Rural Electrification Programme where electricity lines from Kassanda to Namabaale, Kassanda to Kamuli, Kassanda to Kalwana and Bukiuya to Kitumbi are already constructed remaining commissioning for people to begin enjoying the service.
