By Peter Muyanda-Mutebi
A letter to the Ssese MPs
Hon. Tim Lwanga (Kyamuswa),
Hon. Ruth Nvumeta Kavuma (Kalangala),
Hon. Fred Badda (Bujumba)
OVER five years ago, the Government of Uganda decided to fund the construction of a modern ship to facilitate both inter-island travel among the 84 islands that constitute the Ssese archipelago, and their linkage with the mainland.
After a slow and hesitant procuring process, the ship was finally completed. Since its completion, this vessel has sat beautifully, but idly at Port Bell in Luzira, suffering from lengthy non-use and threatened by possible vandalism. It is also being quite expensively maintained by the tax payer for doing nothing.
In the meantime, the people of Ssese are eagerly crying for its long-awaited critical services.
As the Members of Parliament of Ssese, first you politically owe to your constituents an urgent and clear explanation why the services of this ship have been withheld and delayed for such a long time. Second, you have to move from the level of words to that of action: we urge you to use your good offices and cause immediate assumption of effective services of the Kalangala Ship.
We expect this service to begin before Christmas, 2005 and the people of Ssese will welcome that as your Christmas gift to them.
Members of Parliament, you are fully aware that during the past two years the three of you either individually or jointly have on very many occasions publicly announced to and assured the Basese that the Kalangala Ship was to start its operations the following month or so. During 2005, for example, you told us April was the D-Day, then you moved it to July, after that you stated October.
During the latter month you told the Basese that some kind of “commissioning†of the ship had taken place. Following this event, a studied silence fell on the way forward of the Kalangala Ship.
There are some critical questions which the people of Ssese want you to convincingly deal with:
You, as Members of Parliament of Kalangala, as you related to the process of acquiring this ship during the past five years or so, what measures did you take to ensure that:
the stakeholders were involved in determining the routes that the ship would follow? Would it cover, for example, Jaana. Bubeke, Bukasa, Bufumira, Kitobo, Serinya, Bunyama, Bubembe and Bugala?
objective and sustainable criteria are used to agree on the route?
the respective landing sites are constructed in the appropriate places and in meantime;
What was the significance and relevance of the October “Commissioning†of the Kalangala Ship to the people of Ssese? Was it just a hot air showy political gymic?
Why have the three of you, Members of Parliament, both individually and jointly failed to persuade the “powers that be†to get the ship launched and fully operational sooner than later?
In the meantime, I want to confirm to you that our general impression to-date is that in respect to the Kalangala Ship, your performance has been quite pedestrian. In our desperation, we have been forced to resort to one prayer. This is that His Excellency President Museveni decides to visit the Ssese Island in the near future.
Then the Basese would have an opportunity to appeal to him directly as they recently did in respect of the second new Bukakata-Bugoma ferry.
As you are fully aware, for the past five years, the Basese, through their Members of Parliament have craved for a second new ferry to improve services at the Bukakata-Bugoma route. In spite of these cries, up to the present day, no funds for the new ferry have been included in the national budget. You are indeed in a better position to explain this omission.
However, in October, 2005, on his way to officially launch the Palm Oil Project in Ssese, President Museveni stopped over at Bukakata landing site and had an exchange of views with the peasants. The latter, among other things, requested for a second ferry.
The President subsequently announced the award of the requested ferry. It is now up to the Members of Parliament to follow up on this matter. We sincerely, hope that in order for the Kalangala Ship to start effective service, it will not require the President’s visit to the Islands and a direct appeal to him by the peasants.
You can still salvage the situation. We look forward to a higher level of commitment and powers of persuasion on your part. We believe it cannot be such a difficult task to get the powers that be to immediately launch the Kalangala Ship.
You owe this to the people of Ssese. If this is not possible, please let the people know why? Who is to blame? And what is the way forward?
The writer is the Kabaka’s Ssaza Chief for Ssese County