Kayunga district headquarters building. PHOTO/ FRED MUZAALE
Kayunga District, with a population of about 450,000 people, is slated to celebrate its 24 years of existence later this month, with President Museveni expected as chief guest.
As residents and leaders gear up for the celebrations later this month, they highlight the district’s achievements and challenges.
On November 23, 2000, Parliament approved the creation of Kayunga District out of Mukono District. The district became operational on December 14, 2000.
The demand for a district status by local leaders and the elderly was informed by their desire to take services closer to the people.
“Bugerere area, as it is called under the Buganda Kingdom structures, was referred to as the ‘Karamoja of Mukono District’. People from Bugerere were being marginalised when it came to service delivery. And when it also came to appointing the district executive, we were given only one position of district vice chairperson,” Mr Steven Dagada, who was among the politicians who spearheaded the creation of Kayunga district, reminiscences.
Mr Dagada was also the founder chairperson of the district, whose leadership laid a firm foundation for the administrative unit.
“In 2000, when the President visited Mukono District, the district leadership chose Kitimbwa Roman Catholic Primary School in Kayunga as the host ground. We saw this as a big opportunity to ask the President to grant our area a district status,” Mr Dagada explains.
And when local leaders asked the President to elevate Kayunga to a district status, Mr Dagada said Mr Museveni granted the locals their wish.
However, 24 years later, the district is still grappling with several challenges.
Mr Muhammed Ssendyose, one of the elders in Kayunga District, says although the demand for a district status was, among other reasons, intended to create jobs for children born in the area, this has not been the case.
“Most of the jobs in the district are given to people from outside the district. This means the subsequent district leadership doesn’t know why we had to spend sleepless nights planning how we could get a district,” Mr Ssendyose says.
Worse still, Mr Saleh Bulinsoni, the Kayunga District speaker, says some district leaders extort money from job applicants. This, he says, has left some competent job seekers, who cannot afford to pay for the jobs, without jobs.
“Even if the district jobs are for all Ugandans, children from Kayunga should be given first priority,” the district speaker notes.
Mr Dagada adds that the unending political wrangles in the district among some key leaders have also divided the residents.
The wrangles, he says, have created divisions and cliques, which on many occasions oppose every district development strategy their opponents come up with, hence stiffling development.
He cites the relationship between Mr Moses Karangwa, the Kayunga District National Resistance Movement (NRM) party chairperson, and Ms Ida Nantaba, the District Woman MP, who were once good friends but currrently, the duo does not see eye to eye.
Their wrangles since 2011 have attracted the intervention of President Museveni, who tried to mediate, in vain.
Besides the political wrangles, there is also ethnic tension between the Banyala and Buganda Kingdom loyalists over ownership of property.
“Leaders in Kayunga should work for unity and they should know that leadership is like a short relay race whereby one runs and hands over the baton to the other,” Mr Dagada says.
But Mr Andrew Muwonge, the Kayunga District chairperson, says their biggest challenge now is the unfulfilled project of tarmacking the Kayunga-Galiraaya Road.
When tarmacked, Mr Muwonge says, the road will spur development in the rural parts of the district.
“We also face staff gaps in health, education, and other departments, which in a way affect service delivery,” he adds.
On the other hand, Mr Moses Kalinda, who is part of the organising committee to mark 24 years of Kayunga District, says the celebrations are deserving given the many achievements they have registered.
Mr Kalinda notes that for instance, out of a total of 1,500kms of roads that were being worked on by Mukono District, only 35km were in Kayunga area.
However, he said more roads have been taken over by the district, raising the coverage from 35km to 550km, which has improved the state of the road infrastructure in the area.
In addition, the water coverage in the district has gone up to 75 percent from 25 percent 24 years ago.
He adds that because of its district status, Kayunga hospital has been fully equipped and elevated to a regional referral hospital level hence offering improved services.
Ms Immaculate Namata, a district workers’ female councillor, says the district has progressed in the areas of education, health, sanitation and infrastructure development, but warns that auctioning of jobs ‘by some top officials’ has tarnished the district's image.
“Some district officials, among them fellow district councillors, have been arrested in connection with the selling of jobs. The district leaders should know that they are in office to serve and not to enrich themselves,” Ms Namata, who has already declared her intentions to contest for the district chairperson seat in the 2026 General Election, says.
To address the challenge of land grabbing, which is rampant in the district, Ms Namata urges the government to assist people occupying public land who are facing eviction to acquire freehold titles.
