Fort portal municipality Member of Parliament advises fellow M.Ps to lobby through Parliamentary committees

The Fort portal Member of Parliament Hon. Alex Ruhunda has advised his fellow members of parliament especially the new M.Ps to utilize the parliamentary committees to lobby for their constituents. Hon. Alex said given the congestion in the 10^th parliament, it may not be easy for one to attract the attention of the speaker of parliament so as to be given chance to talk on the floor of parliament hence need to use other available avenues for lobbying

Hon. Alex said this while appearing live on ToroDev supported weekly talk show on 17^th September, 2016 on ‘Orukurato’ program. The talk show is aired live every Saturday 8:00pm to 10:00pm on Hits Fm where different office bearers appear to share their plans for their constituents and also give accountability.

Hon. Alex Ruhunda Member of Parliament Fort Portal Municipality

Hon. Alex Ruhunda shared his plans for the 5 years term (2016-2021) and these included; extending electricity to other parts outside the municipality like Busoro Sub county that is proposed to be added to the municipality and that electricity line will be commissioned before October 2016, Upgrading of transformers to 3 phased in Kabundaire, Kasusu, Kacwamba which is on-going so that business people can have enough electricity to do their work without interference, marketing Fort portal tourism city to the outside world. Hon Alex said in 2001 less than 10.000 (ten thousand tourists) were visiting Fort Portal and now between January 2016-September 2016 already 170.000 (one hundred seventy tourists) have visited hence need to do many more things that will attract many tourists so that we are able to benefit from them as people of Rwenzori region and Uganda as a country.

‘’ I have already talked to Uganda Tourism Board & Uganda Wildlife Authority and we are in plans to build a canopy in Kibaale forest (Sebitoli & Kanyancu) areas so as to tap on the opportunity of tourists who come to see birds in other countries to also come here, through this, we shall be benefiting economically because we shall be the people to provide different services to the tourists’’, said Hon. Alex Ruhunda.

We want to construct a water reservoir and we have already talked to the management of Rwenzori diocese and they have given us land where to construct the water reserve. This will keep our people with an alternative even when National Water and Sewerage cooperation (NWSC) supply is off, we are also working closely with European Union to extend water to areas of Kiko town council/Sub County and work is on-going.

We are lobbying for a modern sewage treatment plant because NWSC is using old ways of treating sewage, we have secured land in Karamaga for the plant and machines are being assembled in India for the work. The sewage waste will be used as fertilizers to help our farmers increase their yields hence developing economically.

Am making consultations on the issue of a Television for Toro and I assure you I will do what it takes to have Toro Television so that it can channel what people of Toro are doing and the beauty of Toro to people outside Toro and in the long run attracting more potential investors to boost the economic sector and also planning Toro conference where we shall seat as people of Toro to share the Vision of Toro and challenges we have so that we are able to find solutions for our problems.

During the 2 hours, listeners participated through call- inns & Sms; ‘’we have on many occasions gone to Buhinga Referral hospital and we have not got drugs, can the M.P lobby his fellow members of parliament for increased budget for the health sector so that people can stop suffering with diseases’’, said Mr. Asaba Mwanguhya a caller from Bunyangabu county in Kabarole district, ‘’there are tribal conflicts like in Kabonero Kabarole district and this has made people move from their areas to other places looking for safety, can our leaders tell us what exactly they are doing to calm the situation’’, said Nathan Bikanja a caller from Kabonero sub county in Kabarole district.

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