Buhweju councilors storm out of meeting over altered agenda

Buhweju District councilors on Friday afternoon protested and moved out of a scheduled district council sitting accusing the district executive committee of altering the order paper to serve their own interests.
The district council was scheduled to accomplish a number of tasks including passing the 2022/23 financial year budget, approving statutory bodies as required by the procedure.
According to Mr Rwozi Bishanga, who represents workers, they realized that most of the items that the business committee had agreed to include on the order paper had been discarded.
"A few minutes after entering, we realized that the order paper that was agreed upon by the business committee had been changed and some sections removed for reasons unknown to us. We found this quite unfair and we moved out," he told this publication.

Out of 32 members, only eight councilors, including the district executive committee remained behind.
After moving out, the charged councilors went and held a separate meeting which they said was neutral for deliberations given the fact that not all of them subscribe to the National Resistance Movement (NRM). Buhweju holds council sittings in the district NRM office, something that some of the members were not comfortable with.
"Some of the members are even independent but meetings are held in NRM office. This is also wrong. We need a space that is neutral for deliberations," Mr Bishanga said
It took the intervention of the Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Mr Godfrey Tumwebaze Goodman to address the charged councilors and give guidance on how they should have approached the issue at hand. 

"You should have disagreed and argued your case using the right procedure instead of storming out of the house. Under normal circumstances, you should get the order paper and consider it for adoption or not. If something went wrong, you should have raised it as a concern," Mr Tumwebaze told the councilors.
An emergency meeting was held between the RDC and executive committee and a resolution was made to adjourn the meeting to Monday next week. The leaders also agreed that an order paper that includes what the business committee had agreed upon be prepared for Monday sitting.

The district Chairperson, Mr Deo Atuhaire said the councilors were getting diverted from what took them to the district. He advised them to do business following the right procedure and also consider the impact of their actions on the development of the district.
"They are acting in a diversionary manner. This is not what people sent them here to do. Your voters should not hear that you shunned a meeting that was intended to pass a district budget. That is wrong!" he said
The district speaker, Mr Asumani Saverino alleged that the protesting councilors had been bribed to disrupt business of the council.