Kabarole boss raps MP

Sep 13, 2003

Kabarole district chairman Augustine Kayonga has threatened to sue his critics.

By Emmanuel Mulondo

Kabarole district chairman Augustine Kayonga has threatened to sue his critics.

Kayonga was on Tuesday delivering the state of the district address during a council session at the Seventh Day Adventist church hall.

The threat follows accusations by Burahya county MP Steven Basaliza against Kayonga of “dictatorial administration and constructing shoddy Universal Primary Education (UPE) classrooms.”

Basaliza also accused him of flouting the Local Government Act, influencing district commissions and boards and diverting land meant for the district headquarters for personal use.

Kayonga called the criticism “wild and unsubstantiated allegations against local leaders.”
He denied that sh59m under the school facilitation grant had been swindled.

“Let the MP produce the evidence. Why has he not informed the CID if he has evidence of this theft?”
He said the shoddy UPE classroom construction was inherent in the programme design adding that he had pointed them out to the state minister for primary education.

He said they included the pressure to finish work quickly for the district to qualify for funding under the subsequent quarter, lack of provision for site supervision, weather vagaries, lack of consideration for special circumstances with particular references to terrain and procument of materials.

Kayonga said many government programmes were renewed due to the good performance of the district leadership.

“How could we get so many programmes in the district if our leadership was bad as is being said?,” he wondered.

Basaliza came in during Kayonga's speech but did not respond to the attacks as he left early for a burial.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});