CAO flees as councillors fight over district headquarters

Jinja- The Jinja District Council chambers were on Thursday turned into a boxing ring as councillors engaged in fist fights over disagreement on whether to relocate the district offices to Kagoma County in Buwenge Sub-county, or keep it at Busoga Square.

The dust up was sparked off by recommendation by the works committee that Kagoma be developed as the new district headquarters.
The district council speaker, Mr Michael Nyende Musana, kicked off the storm when he announced the controversial decision.

“As the speaker of this district, I have decided that Kagoma be worked on as the new site for our district headquarters and the current offices at Busoga Square be renovated using the Shs2.5b that is on the district account,” he said.

Soon tempers flared as the debate turned fierce, split the house and councillors descended into bitter exchange of words.
Ms Jennifer Kongo, the councillor for Jinja East, quickly jumped out of her seat and rushed to the speaker’s table, banging the table in a face-off with him.

Mr Musana was quickly saved by the sergeant-at-arms and other male councillors, who rushed to separate the two officials.
The council was then forced into an abrupt end at 5pm.

But Ms Kongo was not done yet as she confronted the vice chairperson, Ms Florence Asiyo, who was addressing journalists to justify their move to shift the district headquarters to Kagoma. Again Ms Asiyo, like the speaker, was only saved by male councillors, who rushed her out of the chambers as the council hall turned into more chaos that lasted about half an

In the melee, the district chief administrative officer, Mr William Kanyesigye, and his deputy Sharifa Nakintu, vanished, leaving only the district chairperson, Mr Titus Kisambira to tame the chaos in the chambers.

The Butagaya Sub-county councillor, Mr Fredrick Munirwa, said relocating the offices to Kagoma would allow the current offices to be renovated to generate more revenue for the council

“It will develop Kagoma, and the current offices will be used for generating revenue. We are also implementing the resolution that our predecessors passed that the offices be relocated to that area,’’ he said.

But Ms Juliet Mutesi, the Bugembe Town Council councillor, dismissed the argument, saying the offices should remain at Busoga Square since the entire district is proposed to be turned into a city. She said the funds should be used to develop the current offices. The Shs2.5b was acquired in 2014 during the leadership of the current Minister of State for Cooperatives, Mr Frederick Ngobi Gume from the controversial sale of land adjacent to Busoga Square to Bank of Uganda to build a currency centtre.

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