Museveni awards 380 heroes with medals

A total of 386 heroes, some of whom are dead have been awarded with medals at Heroes Day celebrations presided over by President Yoweri Museveni at Bukalamuli-Kikandwa, Mityana district.

Among these, 182 were awarded Naluubale medal- an award given to all civilian activists who contributed towards political development of Uganda either through armed struggle or otherwise, 121 were given Golden Jubilee medals for their outstanding service to the country between October 9, 1962 to October 9, 2012 while 65 were given the Luwero Triangle medal- an award given to any officer who joined the struggle against dictatorship in Uganda at the climax of the Luwero struggle.

The 386 people awarded were part of the over 750 heroes who had been approved by the president to receive the medals. However, those who were not awarded at the celebrations that took place on Monday shall be awarded in the subsequent functions, according to the National Chairperson of the Heroes Award Committee, General Elly Tumwine.

Museveni's speech

In his speech, President Museveni rooted for free education, urging parents to send their children to the Universal Primary Education (UPE) schools, claiming that the government has done enough by constructing infrastructure and facilitating the teachers in public schools.

However, Mr Museveni, like on many other occasions before, accused the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADs) officials for mismanaging the NAADs funds given to them to develop the agriculture system in the local areas.

“I have decided to restructure NAADs and scrap many of the jobs of NAADs officers both at the National and local level so that we actively involve the local farmers in promoting agricultural development across the country. The officials who were entrusted with NAADs money instead used it to pay themselves hefty salaries and organizing workshops through which they have been embezzling the funds at the expense of its objectives,” said Mr Museveni.

“However, the good news though is that we still have the money. When we started, there was no money but now we have the money. The only challenge I had is getting reliable channels through which to convey this money to the citizens,”Mr Museveni added.

Mityana district has been receiving shs1.2billion annually for NAADs but this money cannot be traced.

Mr Museveni added that he will deploy soldiers in every constituency to help man all the money meant for government programmes like the Microfinance money, Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), Peace Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) funds, among others to inhibit mismanagement issues and help develop agriculture across the country.