Mengo partners with districts on development

 

 

This was revealed yesterday by the Buganda Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga while meeting Wakiso district leaders together with the Buganda Tourism board at the kingdom’s administrative headquarters at Bulange, Mengo in Kampala.

 

“When we cooperate with districts to undertake joint development programs, this will greatly enhance development in Buganda and the whole of Uganda,” Mayiga said.

 

The Katikkiro said the initiative to cooperate with Buganda leaders like MPs and local governments’ leaders to undertake joint development projects is meant to implement the Kabaka, Ronald Muwenda’s advice to all leaders in his kingdom to work together regardless of their political affiliations to develop Buganda.

 

The Katikkiro echoed the same message to the Buganda caucus MPs when he met them on Wednesday. They agreed to cooperate with the kingdom to undertake an aggressive campaign to fight poverty in Buganda.

 

In yesterday’s meeting, the Wakiso leaders led by the district chairman Matiya Lwanga Bwanika assured the Katikkiro that they would partner with Mengo to promote tourism by developing all the cultural sites within the district.

 

“Our district council has already approved this proposal and we even have a budget to cater for it. We have about 24 royal tombs in Wakiso and many other cultural sites and natural resources. We shall plant trees along the roads leading to these sites,” Bwanika said.

 

With an estimated population of 2.2m people, Wakiso has a budget of sh64b for the 2014/2015 financial year, which is nearly 10 times the sh7b budget for Buganda kingdom for the same year.

 

The Buganda Lukiiko recently resolved to demand that a constitutional amendment be made so that the kingdom retains a portion of tax revenue collected by the central government from Buganda to fund its development programs. 

 

The Wakiso tourism committee which Bwanika came with included the district CAO James Ssewankambo, the committee chairman Norman Ssemwanga, Annet Mugerwa, district engineer Sam Mwesigwa, forestry officer Harriet Nankya, district commercial officer Waiswa Mpakibi, District community development officer Alex Kivumbi, finance officer Dorothy Namande, and the district information officer, Prosy Nakalembe.

 

They gave the Katikkiro a list of 48 cultural and other sites, 16 forest reserves, 12 wetlands, 7 stone quarries, and 8 sand pits, which will have to be developed and promoted as tourism sites.

 

“Many of our wetlands are being destroyed. It is unfortunate that when we were fighting Sudhir away from Lutembe wetlands, we were not helped by the kingdom yet you are major stakeholder,” Bwanika said.

 

Bwanika advised the Katikkiro to always convene meetings with district leaders to discuss how best they can partner to undertake joint development projects.

 

Citing Britain, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Kenya as countries reaping big from tourism, the Katikkiro expressed dismay that whereas Uganda has enormous tourism potential, the country is underutilizing the potential.

 

“When I went to the United Arab Emirates recently, I was told Dubai alone got 11m tourists last year. Apart from Egypt, all those other countries have nothing compared to what we have in terms of tourism sites. The difference is that we have not yet prioritized tourism marketing,” Mayiga explained.