Tracing internal political squabbles of Kalungu District leadership

Affected. Kalungu District administration block. The political wrangles in Kalungu District have hindered development and service. PHOTOS BY MARTINS E. SSEKWEYAMA.

What you need to know:

  • Differences. The genesis of the troubles currently haunting Kalungu District began in September 2011, when the district council censured Ms Mariam Nabaggala, the then vice chairperson, upon establishing that she lacked the minimum academic qualifications.

KALUNGU. On August 31, Kalungu District residents will go to the polls to elect their next district chairperson, the third to steer the district since its inception in 2010.
The post fell vacant after Democratic Party’s flag-bearer and former district chairperson, Mr Emmanuel Musoke, successfully challenged the victory of ruling NRM’s Richard Kyabaggu in court.
Other contenders in the race include two NRM-leaning independents: Mr Mathias Kintu and Mr David Luyombo Busagwa.
In the previous disputed election, Kyabaggu garnered 12,920 votes while Musoke got 12,581 votes.
Whoever emerges victorious on the polling day will be faced with the daunting task of finding a solution to the wrangles between district councillors and the technical team.
The wrangles, that have been going on for six and half years that the district has been in existence, have hindered development and delivery of social services.
The district local government offices, health facilities and police stations in Kalungu District, which was carved out of Masaka District in 2010, are housed in dilapidated structures, many of them belonging to Buganda Kingdom.
Ms Florence Kintu, the pioneer district chairperson and former district woman MP, blames Kalungu District’s problems on selfishness of key individuals within the ruling NRM party.
According to Ms Kintu, Kalungu District was derailed from the principles that formed the basis of their demands for its creation.
She argues that the new district was infiltrated by ‘self- seekers’, who eventually turned themselves into political power brokers in the area; some of whom she says initially stood against the idea of its creation.
“We had agreed to have a district that benefits all of us despite the divergent political opinions we hold as leaders and residents. In fact, during the first months of the interim leadership, all fronts were geared towards seeing that the district develop,” Ms Kintu says.
“However, this path was lost barely a year after the general election (of 2011), with so called area bigwigs clandestinely working to fail the elected leadership,” she adds.
The genesis of the troubles currently haunting Kalungu began in September 2011, when the district council censured Ms Mariam Nabaggala, the then vice chairperson upon establishing that she lacked the minimum academic qualifications to hold the office.
Following this incident, the district started to operate on notions of retribution and political sabotage, mainly perpetrated by the different rival factions that shortly emerged within the district leadership.
In the aftermath of her dismissal, Ms Nabaggala allegedly revenged by rallying her NRM colleagues who were the majority in council and they passed a vote of no confidence against the district speaker, Mr Raphael Kissekka (DP), accusing him of disrespect.
The duo’s censure did not build any cohesion either as the two officials sought redresses in courts of law, hence widening the rifts both within the political and technical wings of the district.
Consequently, the underlying squabbles started costing the district council the required quorum to pass key decisions, including budgets, besides failing the effective monitoring of public projects implemented by the district.
Left with no options, both the then district chairperson and chief administrative officer Emmanuel Musoke and Lillian Nakamatte respectively, resorted to having the desired decisions only passed by the executive committee or approved at the ministerial level.
But after waiting for 13 months without a substantive district speaker, court ruled in favour of Mr Kisekka, ordered his reinstatement and granted him all legal costs incurred, a decision that financially strained the district at its infancy.
Since then, the district has never healed from the wounds of internal bickering that have also had a bearing on low local revenue collections and poor service delivery.
For instance, in their 2015/16 Budget Framework paper, the district had budgeted for Shs679,837,000 from local revenue, but by end of September, only Shs165m had been collected which is far below 50 per cent.
This has been the same trend throughout the years.
The 2016 Auditor General’s report also established several challenges that include, among others shoddy work in public contracts and existence of dilapidated infrastructures in many primary schools in the district.
“Our NRM camp formed a parallel centre of power that intended to work against the leadership of Mr Musoke who was a DP member, not knowing that it could eventually affect the entire system. But there are now indicators that people have realised the mistakes after paying a cost. I am now hopeful they are about to forfeit such characters for a common good,” says Ms Kintu.
Mr Davis Ddembe Beyeza, the outgoing and longest serving district chief administrative officer, observes that the district is largely suffering from leadership deficiency, which he says has made it difficult for them to build an effective team to steer the district to greater heights.
“It is a district where councillors demands for bribes to pass a district budget and other social projects, which has often ignited bitter clashes between the political and technical wings,” he says.
According to Mr Beyeza, the district’s capacity to raise local revenue targets would have a direct correlation with political mobilisation, which the district apparently lacks.
He says for the period he has worked in Kalungu, many technical staff have felt insecure working in the area over unnecessary political interference, blackmail and witch-hunt by politicians.
“The district council has barely had constructive deliberations and ideas, many of the debates have been personal and often times based on intrigue and false accusations,” he reveals.
On his part Mr Kyabaggu acknowledges the failures, but blames them on disunity and meagre resource envelope.
“We could have performed better as a district if we had enough resources despite the problems at hand. Look at the one year I was in office, a number of roads were worked on, using the little we money we have,” he says.
But Mr Abdul Bbaale, the district speaker, claims there is a deliberate move by the technical wing to frustrate political cohesion and cover up their corrupt acts.
“Unless the elected leadership is left to perform its responsibilities, Kalungu may take long to match other districts it was created along with,” he says.
Mr Leo Kizito, the Kalungu Sub-county chairperson, is also worried that the district leadership has failed to perform to their expectations.
“We also feel bad because of the political stalemate in the district because they are costing us a lot of opportunities we would have tapped into for our development,” he says.
The Agriculture and Fisheries minister, Mr Vincent Ssempijja, was the Masaka District chairperson when Kalungu District was created out of Masaka.
He denies failing the progress of the district, saying he instead prioritises it in all government programmes under his docket to ensure that communities are economically empowered, hence raising the capacity to raise local revenue.