NYAKIYUMBU CITIZENS DEMAND FOR THE SPLIT OF THE SUB COUNTY

NYAKIYUMBU CITIZENS DEMAND FOR THE SPLIT OF THE SUB COUNTY

By Masika Scovia- KALI

The citizens of Nyakiyumbu have expressed their need for the split of the Sub county. This was raised by the citizens themselves as an issue in the Neighborhood Assembly held on 31^st July 2013 in Kaghorwe Parish, Kalongoire catholic church with support from IDF in partnership with KALI. The Neighborhood Assembly which was attended by citizens from different parishes including Muhindi parish, Katholhu and Kayanzi  parishes who specifically want the sub county split into 3 sub counties including the parish councilors and the CDO of this sub county Mr. Bwambale Isreal said.

The Citizens said that the reasons to why they are demanding for the split of Nyakiyumbu was the same reason that had fostered the split of the “great” Munkunyu sub county which stretched from Munkunyu, to Muhindi, Nyakatonzi and Nyakiyumbu, all these as parishes. But now the great Munkunyu has been split into 3 sub counties of Munkunyu, Nyakatonzi and Nyakiyumbu Sub County. So, they argued that “…since the government is promoting decentralization for better service delivery, and the constitution puts the power in our hands, it is high time we split this sub county …” the speaker of the Neighborhood Assembly Mr. Mutoka Jolly said during the meeting.

The citizens during their discussions gave the following reasons,

1.    To speed up development in hard to reach areas like Muhindi and Kayanzi. The community here is very hard working and they need electricity to reach their area and also better roads. So, if they are given a sub county, it would be one of the priorities of “Muhindi Sub county and Nyakiyumbu Lower sub county”

2.    Long distances- The citizens argued that they face a problem coming for any development activity at the sub county. These included the councilors from Muhindi and Kayanzi who said that they use 10000- 20000 shillings to attend a council meeting where they are given travel refunds of 3000 shillings which is unfair to them. Also they said that the distances hinders them from reporting of human rights abuses and violations because by the time they come to report the issue to the sub county, evidence has been destroyed and some citizens have no cellular phones.

3.    That some of the government services in these distant places are either not monitored or takes long to be monitored because the facilitation is either not enough or people fail to reach these areas.

4.    Education- Nyakiyumbu Sub County has one secondary school which is Nyakiyumbu secondary school and students find it hard to come from Muhindi and Kayanzi for secondary education and also, one sub county chief and CDO will become 6 people employed.

Out of the 82 people who attended the E’kyaghanda E’kyabakata, 78 supported the split of the sub county by voting and 4 only disagreed with the split (see photo gallery).

The Citizens of Kaghorwe parish also expressed their need to have a health centre II in their locality. They said that apart from Kaghorwe parish, other parishes have Health centre IIs. This issue was brought by a woman M/S Kabugho Rukia. She argued that the available Mushenene H/CIII is an Integrated church founded health centre but have government facilities like staff, buildings and equipment and therefore they pay between 5,000 -10,000/= for outpatients and 15,000- 36,000/= for admissions. That a delivery of a child is between 10,000 - 25,000/= depending on the condition of the mother and the sex of the delivered child and if they fail to pay, the health centre management retains the property of the patients or caretakers yet they know that government centers have free services.

The citizens therefore, said that they need a health centre II where they can be treated for free like any other citizen of the Republic of Uganda. The citizens pledged their necessary support to get land where it can be established and they suggested to temporarily be using the Kaghorwe parish structures to house the Health unit as a kick starter, so that citizens can start getting government health services for free like other parishes.

Below, a woman explaining her reasons for the split  of the sub county