Museveni addresses Busoga Lukiiko

By Esther Mukyala
in Bugembe

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni yesterday addressed the Busoga Kingdom Lukiiko (assembly), warning that headmasters who flout his directive against charging lunch fees under the Universal Primary Education scheme would end up in jail.

At the start of his five-day tour of Busoga, Museveni advised rich parents, who insist that their children must have lunch at school, to take them to private schools instead of forcing poor parents to pay for meals.

This was the first time the President addressed the Lukiiko at Bugembe, 6km from Jinja town.

Kingdom deputy speaker George Mutyabule chaired the meeting that was attended by the Kyabazinga, Henry Waako Muloki, Katukiro (premier) Prof. Juma Wasswa Balunywa and Busoga ministers and chiefs in the Lukiiko Hall that was packed to capacity. Government ministers and NRM MPs from Busoga attended.

Mutyabule said Museveni was the first Ugandan president to address the Busoga Lukiiko. The Lukiiko unanimously passed a motion expressing “their unswerving and unreserved support to the President and to the Government.”

Museveni said he was receiving persistent reports that pupils are forced out of school because their parents cannot afford lunch fees. Nobody is allowed to charge what he called “mandatory charges in UPE schools.”

The Government introduced UPE to ensure that all children get education, he said. Under UPE, parents and the Government have different roles. The parents provide entanda (meals), exercise books, uniform, pens and ensure hygienic conditions, he added. The Government pays teachers’ salaries, provides textbooks, libraries and laboratories.

He advised leaders to concentrate on problems that affect the UPE programme, like addressing the performance of teachers.

Museveni was visiting Busoga to inform the people that the NRM government had achieved economic recovery as it had set out to do in 1986. He was also out to inform the Basoga that the country had been pacified and that the groups that were carrying out extra-judicial killings had been defeated.

Another purpose of his visit was to inform the population that the army had been tamed and that the NRM believed in educating the masses, hence the introduction of UPE and Universal Secondary Education programmes.

Museveni criticised land fragmentation, which has resulted into small family landholdings. He said in his countrywide Bona Bagaggawale drive, he would guide the people to maximise use of small plots of land to earn more money. The local population, he said, should engage in poultry farming, cattle rearing and keeping of bees for honey, which do not require a lot of land.

The Kyabazinga urged the Government to return Wairaka College to the kingdom and assist it to turn the institution into a polytechnic to impart skills and reduce unemployment.

He also expressed the need to train more nurses and midwives in the region. “Poor health is a neighbour of poverty. With more nurses, the health situation can improve tremendously.”

Muloki thanked the President for supporting him and Busoga and for restoring traditional institutions. He noted that such institutions help the Government to implement its policies and shape morals.

The Katukiro said his government had set up a committee of experts to study how Busoga could get land for industrial development. He said the committee was studying the plan for new towns and re-organising the old ones.

Balunywa pointed out that the Lukiiko had also set up a committee to study the Land Bill.

In case of disagreements, they were ready to find a common position with the Government, he said.

He told the President that in areas with traditional rulers, the Government should allow a referendum on whether the people in those areas can accept to pay taxes to sustain their institutions.

He said in Busoga “the Lukiiko operates on democratic principles”.

Balunywa appealed for government assistance, noting that the Lukiiko had failed to sit four times a year as expected due to financial constraints.