By Ali Mambule

MASAKA district leaders have rejected a proposal by Kalungu East MP Umar Lule Mawiya to create a new district, to be named Kalungu. The Bukoto Central MP, who is also the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Ssekandi, the LC5 chairman, Vincent Sempijja and other MPs said a new district was not a solution to the local problems.

“If it is fashionable these days to create new districts, then Bukoto South can also demand one. But if it is about service delivery, a district is not the solution,” Bukoto South MP Matiya Nsubuga (DP) reasoned during a meeting at Ssekandi’s home in Kizungu in Masaka municipality.

Mawiya, however, defended his idea, saying the district, with a population of over one million people, was getting less than sh30b from the central government, just like other districts with smaller populations.

Ssekandi, however, dismissed the argument, saying the Government would review the funding of districts after a parliamentary study on their sizes and populations is completed.

Bukomansimbi MP Kisiki Lubyayi attacked Mawiya for mobilising his constituency councillors without informing him. “It is absurd for a colleague to visit my constituency asking the people to break away from the district without notifying me,” Lubyayi said, prompting participants to demand that Mawiya apologises to Lubyayi. Mawiya conceded and apologised.

Sempijja noted that the area did not require more LC5 chairpersons, women MPs and chief administrative officers to get services. “Kalungu East, Bukomansimbi and Kalungu West are some of the major beneficiaries of road works, clean and safe water and agricultural services in the district. It is wrong for the MP to misguide the people that they are not beneffiting from the district,” Sempijja said.

During a recent tour of his constituency, Mawiya urged councillors to pass resolutions supporting the creation of a new district.

Former finance minister Gerald Sendaula, on a seperate occasion, also rejected the idea. Sendaula said, during the burial of Matthias Sendegeya, a lawyer, in Bukulula sub-county, that a district meant introducing new taxes which would burden the people.