Tempers flare during chaotic Tororo council meeting

Tororo district councilors on Friday turned the council chambers into a boxing ring as they exchanged profanities in a chaotic meeting.

It started when a section of councilors accused district speaker John Okea of being biased while presiding over the election of the committee chairpersons.

Angry councilors, some of whom had expressed interest in heading some of the committees but lost in the elections, accused Okea of influence peddling in the election of committee chairpersons which they said was against the law.

As tempers flared, Okea announced that he would use his position to shift members of the council to randomly join committees not of their choice because none of them was voted by the electorate to join particular committees of council but had pledged to serve them a statement that infuriated some of the councilors.

Okea's utterances forced the Nagongera town council councilor Stephen Odwar to grab the list containing names of the committees and the members that the speaker had already placed to each committee and tore into pieces.

Okea was only saved by the sergeant at arms.

Odwar, who had contested to become the finance and administration committee chairperson but lost to Simon Opio of Rubongi sub-county, condemned the action of the speaker.

During the confusion, the councilors elected Erimina Okoth Akware as chairperson of community-based services committee, Michael Mijasi as councilor for Nabuyoga sub-county to chair the production committee, Simon Peter Opio as the Rubongi sub-county to chair the finance, planning committee, Anyeko Molly, the female councilor for Peta Kisoko sub-counties to chair the education and health committee while Paul Eredet, the councilor representing eastern division to chair the works committee.

Following the chaotic elections, the councilors also rejected to pass a supplementary budget.

The proposal to reject the approval of the supplementary budget was submitted by the male councilor representing Malaba town council, Rogers Imailuk, saying there was no regional balance in member's representation into committees in respect to constituencies.

He added that the council cannot proceed to approve the budget when committees of the council have not been constituted as the law requires.

A senior officer in the district planning unit who asked not to be named said rejecting to approve the supplementary budget is going to affect service delivery because the funds that the district has received from the central government  are supposed to address urgent needs.

The officer said the district had received an extra grant of sh1.4b from both NUSAF 3 and education census.

The district LCV chairperson Apollo Jaramogi expressed disappointment with the councilor's resolution on rejecting to approve the supplementary budget even if they had been hurt during the process to elect chairpersons of committees.

He blamed the office of the speaker for ignoring to have the item be reflected among the top agendas in the order paper.

The angry speaker threatened to introduce a red book where he will record the names of all councilors misbehaving during council sessions so that disciplinary action can be taken against them.

The current district leadership has started on a wrong tone.

Recently, a delegation led by Jaramogi went and met President Yoweri Museveni at State House, rejecting the appointment of Woman MP Sarah Achieng Opendi as minister of state for health.

Opendi was saved by a delegation of the elders, religious and cultural leaders whom the president has reportedly invited in a meeting with this delegation.