Museveni agrees to proposal to split Kasese district

President Yoweri Museveni has agreed to the proposal of splitting Kasese district in Western Uganda.

The proposal was presented to the President by NRM Councillors and opinion leaders during a meeting yesterday at State House, Entebbe.

This follows a motion presented to Parliament by the Cabinet in 2012 about the issue of splitting Kasese and later in 2014 when a report by the Committee of Parliament was presented with recommendations, that Cabinet should create more districts after the population census of 2014, starting with the large districts of Kasese, Kibaale, Wakiso, Arua and Kabale, which was approved by Parliament.

The President told the delegation from Kasese that as long as the NRM people are united and harmonized on the cause, it would be easy for him to push the matter to the Parliamentary Caucus.

"Once my people are together, I don't have a problem," he said.

Museveni further informed the NRM Party leaders that he agreed with the split of Kasese district because the district, with over a million people, cannot provide everyone with service delivery adding that decentralization removes friction based on sectarianism.

He reiterated that they should handle the issues of the district amicably such that Kasese becomes a district of growth like Kalangala that was split from Masaka district, and is now doing well because of the palm oil production and solar power generation projects.

According to the proposal, the split of Kasese would address the issue of ethnic minorities, improve on service delivery and security and also improve on the supervision and monitoring of the Operation Wealth Creation project.

Museveni also advised the NRM leaders to work on the socio- economic life of the people through mobilizing their constituencies to get income generating activities and participate fully in the Operation Wealth Creation programme, in order to increase their household income.

He added that they would also be able to accomplish this by setting an example to the rest of the people by not only talking but also participating in the Operation Wealth Creation project.

"You can help people by them seeing what you are doing," remarked Museveni.