Saleh consolidates MP bid

Feb 21, 2010

Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho, alias Salim Saleh, has said he has interest in Nakaseke constituency because it was where he sustained severe injures in the early 1980s during the National Resistance Army (NRA) war against dictatorship.

By Frederick Kiwanuka

Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho, alias Salim Saleh, has said he has interest in Nakaseke constituency because it was where he sustained severe injures in the early 1980s during the National Resistance Army (NRA) war against dictatorship.

During the NRM conference in Nakaseke sub-county on Friday, Saleh, who recently expressed intentions to contest for the area parliamentary seat, said: “If I had succumbed to the bullet wounds i sustained in the early stages of the liberation struggle, I would probably have been buried here.”

Saleh, who has been registered in Kapeeka sub-county as an NRM supporter, said he would contest for the seat if the party mandates him.

Recalling the incident that nearly cost his life, Saleh added: “It is here in Nakaseke that I shed a big amount of my blood. It has never happened to me elsewhere, not even at home, because my mother never used to beat me,” he said

While commanding the battle at Bukalabi on February 21 1983, Saleh was shot in both arms by the UNLA government forces in a clash where NRA lost 10 fighters and several others got injured.

After the war, Saleh bought land in Nakaseke from the co-operative union. He dedicated part of the land to a cemetery for the fallen bush war heroes and uses the rest for maize cultivation.

Saleh, the senior presidential advisor on defence, is spearheading a multi-million project to commercialise maize production in a bid to boost food security and household incomes in the area.

He appealed the over 1,000 NRM grass-roots leaders who attended the conference, to contribute constructive ideas that will guide him in his mission of developing Nakaseke.

Saleh urged farmers to form co-operative societies through which they will access financial assistance from the Micro Finance Union.

He said he would connect them to the financiers and to secure markets for their produce. Saleh also promised to construct a tomato paste factory for farmers in Nakaseke and Kasangombe sub-counties.

On Nakaseke Hospital, he said he had dispatched a team of doctors to assess its needs, adding that the hospital was important in the history of the liberation struggle.

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