On 5th/07/2017 Rwenzori Rural & Urban
Development Organization (RUDO-Uganda) RUDO in Partnership with ToroDev and KRC
organized face the citizen’s meeting at Hamabale village, Karangura sub county
in Kabarole District to bringing top duty bearers both political and technical
together to hear and respond to the concerns of citizens aimed at finding
solutions to the challenges/concerns from community members as a way to improve
service delivery.
The meeting came up after ToroDev conducted a rural radio debate/magazine
in Karangura Sub County in the month of April 2017 where citizens raised their concerns
and when the voices were amplified live on radio, duty bearers were listening
and were touched by concerns of the citizens who complained of the poor service
delivery in Karangura Sub County. After the broadcast of the voices the
district chairperson contacted the leader of RUDO through a cell phone and
requested him to organize a meeting in order to get a platform to address some
concerns for positive actions.
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Community members & duty bearers listening to comments from CSO's |
The meeting was attended by 320 people who included
community members, CSO’s, duty bearers both political & technical that
included among others; LCI, LCII, LCIII, parish chief, sub county &
district councilors, district
chairperson, Resident District Commissioner (RDC) and media.
“In the month of March we
carried out a simple research as a forum to know the state of service delivery in the Health, Education, Water,
Roads and Economic development sectors, where we found out that services in the
above sectors are in a sorry state, we decided to request for a rural debate
which was held in April 2017 and the voices of citizens were amplified live on
radio which captured the attention of duty bearers and requested for this
meeting”. Said Mr. Kule Vincent,
the Chairperson RUDO
Vincent added that the key
challenges shared during the rural radio debate/magazine included; absenteeism
& late coming of health workers at Nyakitokoli HCII, limited drugs at Nyakitokoli HCII, Poor performance in government
primary schools, Impassable roads with lots of potholes, lack of clean and safe
water in the sub county etc and today we are here to listen to what our leaders
have to say as we find a solution to
address these challenges.
“In Karangura sub
county we have five (5) government aided primary schools but last year we got
only one 1st grade out of hundreds of pupils that sat for primary
leaving examination (UNEB) this shows that education standards are still very
low in our sub county and we have (1) secondary school which performs very bad
with no first or second grade for many years now”. Said Joshua Magezi, a member of RUDO
while presenting the issue paper at Karangura Sub County.
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Joshua from RUDO presenting the issue paper before duty bearers |
Joshua added that poor performance is due to late coming of teachers, absenteeism
of students, overcrowded class rooms
which do not allow learners to be comfortable while studying, PTA and SMCs are
not active to play their roles and
responsibilities, poor inspection of schools from DEOs office and political
leaders, etc I call upon duty bearers present today to address these challenges
for a better Karangura.
“I request duty
bearers to work on Kihondo - Kazigo road which is impassable during rainy
season and this road is a busy one connecting to other areas, dear district chairperson I am happy that you are here kindly find a way
to address these challenges”, Said Erisa the chairperson local council one (LC
1) Hamabale village.
Area LC I Erisa & Chairman LC 111 sharing with community members during the meeting
“I appreciate responsible citizens who have boldly stood to
speak on behalf of others however, am here in the capacity of DHO because he is
the one who sent me here to address concerns raised regarding the health sector
especially on Nyakitokoli HCII, first of all I want to assure you that by next week all staff of Nyakitokoli HCII will be transferred and new staff will report
on duty by next week, you will receive a
new In-charge and as the office of DHO
we shall monitor regularly the performing of these people who are coming to
make sure they provide health services as required by people in this Sub county
and promise you that we shall sit in a meeting as health department to find
a solution to each challenge raised and soon we shall give you a
feedback through RUDO and ToroDev”. Said
Catherine Kemigabo the Kabarole District Health Educator (DHE) during the
meeting.
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Catherine Kemigabo the district health educator (DHE) responding to concerns from the Health sector |
Catherine added, I request everyone to respond positively to
health activities that are going on in the district, like sleeping under
mosquito net, testing for HIV, drink boiled water, pregnant mothers to go for
antenatal checkups and use of family planning. Use any available avenue to
inform us where you need our support as a district.
The following were the action points
and commitments by the leaders during the meeting.
The sub county chief and chairman LCIII committed to provide
Seven hundred thousand (700,000/=) to murrum Busoma-Hamabale road within a
period of four (4) days. We are happy to report that construction of the road began
two days after the meeting on addition to pledging to monitor s/c projects,
schools and the health centre, follow up the construction of the bridge
connecting Bulera to Butulya zones, purchase of an attendance book for health
workers which will be kept at designated place to check the attendance and reporting
& leaving time at the health facility.
The RDC ordered police to start arresting health workers who
report late and leave early, he ordered the LCI to always work with police to monitor
heath workers, and he pledged to work with the district authorities to follow
up presidential pledges as presented in the citizens’ petitions. The RDC
ordered for immediate arrest of people without toilets residing near the health
unit, the arrest of children attending markets during school days/hours and immediate
arrest of two (2) teachers who have continued earning tax payers money without
working. These teachers are from Kibyo p/s and Kamabale p/s.
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The district Woman councilor representing Karangura Sub county responding to some of the concerns during the meeting |
Kabarole District chairperson
during the meeting assigned the sub county chief Karangura and Town Clerk
Karago to murrum, Busoma-Hamabale road within 4 days, he committed to construct
Butulya bridge, construct classrooms in the most affected schools in the next financial year 2017/18 and also lobby for upgrading of Nyakitokoli HCII to
HCIII in the next financial year so that it can be equipped with enough human resource, maternity ward
& enough drugs to handle the big numbers of patients who come to seek for
health services . He also promised to secure funds for water project in the
next next financial year, secure Government Aid for St Joseph SS-Karangura and send
3 heifers to Karangura Sub County under operation wealth creation to increase
incomes of community members aimed at development of the Sub county.
“We are grateful that our efforts of presenting petitions, organizing
rural radio debates, attending radio talkshows and mobilizing citizens for this
meeting have not been in vain, already the road is half way constructed and men
are still at work. New staff at Nyakitokoli HCII will report this week on
Thursday of 13th July. We very much appreciate our partners ToroDev
and KRC for the financial support”. Said Kule Vincent RUDO Chairperson.
As ToroDev we thank all our partners SIDA, NED, SPIDER, ICT4DEM, CIPESA for the technical &
financial support and also the advocacy forums we work with for the advocacy
& monitoring work done in communities.