New tarmac road boosting business in western Uganda

A truck ferrying traders on Fort Portal-Kamwenge road recently inside Kibale national park. PHOTO BY FELIX BASIIME.  

THURSDAY AUGUST 10 2017

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/New-tarmac-road-boosting-business-in-western-Uganda/688334-4051722-d6kslb/index.html

In Summary

·         Easy. Traders now find it easier to access market for their goods due to the smooth road.

By Monitor reporters

FORTPORTAL/KAMWENGE. The completion of the 206km Fort Portal-Nyakahita Road is boosting business and tourism in western Uganda.
The last section of the road, the 66 km Kamwenge-Fort Portal stretch, was completed recently.

New businesses, including eateries, lodging facilities among others, are springing up along the new road.

Before the completion of the Ibanda-Fort Portal road, there were only two minibuses plying the Fort Portal-Mbarara route. There are now 13 minibuses plying the route.

Also, in the past, many travellers would connect to Mbarara District via Kasese District, which would make the journey longer by 50kms.

Many farmers, commuter minibus drivers, vendors and residents say they are optimistic business will boom and that they will reap the benefits associated with tarmac roads.

Ms Agnes Kobusige, a farmer from Bukwali, East Division, Fort Portal Municipality, said five years ago, transport was very difficult on the Fort Portal-Kamwenge Road.
She said the road had very many potholes and was always impassable in the rainy season as vehicles would get stuck on the muddy road for hours.

The traders would have to wait for the road surface to dry before they could resume the journey. This could sometimes take days, and in the process, some goods, especially fresh produce, would get spoilt.

Ms Kobusige said now that the road has been upgraded from murram to tarmac, farmers find it easy to transport their produce to the market.
“We are now able to access markets for our produce outside Rwenzori sub-region,” Kobusige said.

Mr Sunday Tadeo, 40, a taxi driver on the new Fort Portal-Kamwenge Road, said before the road was upgraded, they would not drive up to Mbarara Town because the road was so bumpy.

He said it now takes them one-and-a-half hours to drive from Fort Portal Town to Kamwenge District, unlike in the past when the same journey would cost them at least three hours.

“We are now earning more profits because we make [more] return journeys, which was not the case in the past,” he said.
He added that the cost of repairing their cars has also reduced since they now rarely breakdown.

Passengers are also benefitting from the upgrade of the road since taxi fares, for instance from Fort Portal to Kamwenge District, have reduced from Shs15, 000 to Shs10, 000.

Mr Robert Mugabe, a trader at Kabudaire Market in Fort Portal Municipality, said his business of buying produce from Kamwenge has been boosted by the new road as farmers can easily deliver the goods to him.
According to the records at Kibale Forest National Park, many tourists now find it easier to access the park through Nyakahita-Ibanda-Kamwenge-Fort Portal road.

The Kamwenge District chairman, Mr Aggrey Natuhamya, said the upgraded road has boosted business and tourism in the area.

“We are now receiving more guests at Katonga Game Reserve, Lake George, rivers Mpanga and Dura, Kanyancu Tourist Centre and Bigodi wetlands sanctuary,” he said.
He added that the new road has also boosted business for lodging facilities such as Mantana, Nkingo and Bigodi Resort, all in Busiriba Sub-county, Kamwenge Guest home, Tides Motel, Club Afreka and Cape hotel in Kamwenge Town Council.

The Ibanda District chairman, Mr Melichiadis Kazwengye, said the new road will increase the pace of development in the district.
“Now many traders from Kiruhura and Kamwenge districts make stopovers in Ibanda, thereby boosting business here as well,” he said.

Reported by Felix Basiime, Alex Ashaba & Fedinand Tuhame.

Stigma affecting HIV/Aids fight in Kasese, Kabarole

A health worker conducts an HIV/Aids test on a child. File photo 

THURSDAY AUGUST 10 2017

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Stigma-affecting-HIV-Aids--fight-in-Kasese--Kabarole-/688334-4051712-io4ahs/index.html

In Summary

·         Stigma. Many people living with the virus fear to disclose their status due to fear of discrimination.

 By FELIX BASIIME

Kasese. Sarah (not real names), 13, stays with her mother, Margaret Birungi at Nyakasanga West in Kasese Municipality, Kasese District. Both daughter and mother are living with HIV/Aids. Sarah’s father died five years ago.

As a single mother of five, Birungi could not afford staying in town with the family and decided to send Sarah and her siblings to her grandparents in Kibiito, Kabarole District in 2015.

In Kibiito, Sarah joined Mugoma B Primary School, where she dropped out in Primary Three due to stigmatisation.

“She had to leave school due to stigmatisation from her peers and teachers. Pupils would laugh at her for taking ARVs, while teachers would beat her for not performing well in class as she would most of the time miss classes due to sickness,” her mother recollects. She adds that her family was forced to relocate to their current residence in Kasese, where she believed the stigmatisation would be less and also live in better social and economic conditions.

Birungi says even when she [Sarah] fetched water at the borehole in the village, other people would not use it, claiming they would contract the disease.

“I asked myself why I was the only one taking drugs daily and my other siblings didn’t,” Sarah narrated her ordeal to Daily Monitor in an interview recently.

Though the family relocated to Kasese Town, Sarah hasn’t resumed school as she and her mother spend most of the time attending clinics at St Paul’s Health Centre IV.
Birungi says: “Yes, we are now in town, there is less stigmatisation, and better feeding but I cannot afford school fees for Sarah.”

However, despite the interventions by government and other stakeholders, including NGOs, stigmatisation is still a big hurdle in the fight against HIV/Aids.
According to Faith Makombi Kwebaze, the programmes coordinator at National Community of Women Living with HIV/Aids (Nacwola), an NGO based in Kasese, out of 6,800 children in their area of coverage, only 3,500 can disclose their sero status.

Nacwola covers Kasese, Rubirizi, Kiruhura and Sheema districts.
“Stigmatisation and discrimination is still there, especially among the married couples. This is because most men have limited information about HIV/Aids prevention,” Makombi explains.

“Women test for HIV/Aids but when they go back home and disclose their positive status to their husbands and other family members, they are discriminated against and the family breaks up,” Makombi adds.

Nachwola community volunteers (individuals living with HIV/Aids) have come up to offer free counselling services to people living with HIV/Aids as one of the ways to fight stigmatisation.

“We have community volunteers and in schools, our monitors go there to teach life skills to pupils,” she adds.

At St Paul’s Health Centre IV, where both Sarah and her mother Birungi attend weekly clinics, Annet Bintu, a psychological councillor, says they have tried to reduce stigmatisation through counselling.

“We have 59 children who attend our clinics and we have fought stigmatisation up to 65 per cent, which means out of 100 people, 65 can disclose their zero status,” Bintu says.
According to John Thawite, the Kasese District HIV/Aids coordinator, stigmatisation is one of the biggest challenges they are facing in the fight against HIV/Aids.
“Some people have failed to disclose their status because of stigma from the public,” he says.

As a mitigation measure, he says the district authorities have embarked on counselling, especially to the young ones and married couples.

“We have also set up sub-county HIV/Aids committees where we train members to support others. We further encourage teachers to talk about HIV/Aids in classes,” he says.

He adds that as a district, they are about to release a five-year HIV/Aids plan with more interventions, including carrying out a stigmatisation and discrimination survey in the district.

“This survey on stigma and discrimination will give us a direction on more strategies,” he adds.

Kabarole leaders clash over city status

Development. A section of Fort Portal Town. A dispute has ensued between those in favour and against the proposal to change the name of the planned Fort Portal city to Kabarole city. PHOTO BY FELIX BASIIME 

THURSDAY JULY 27 2017

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Kabarole-leaders-clash-over-city-status/688334-4033602-prg13jz/index.html

In Summary

·         Complaint. Kabarole District local government leaders argue that Fort Portal is a foreign name imposed on them by the British colonialists, adding that the proposed city should be given a local name, Kabarole.

By MONITOR TEAM

Kabarole.

A dispute has erupted between Fort Portal Municipality leaders and their Kabarole District local government counterparts over a proposal to change the name of the planned Fort Portal city to Kabarole city.

The row was sparked off when Mr Richard Rwabuhinga, the Kabarole District chairman, during a council meeting last week moved a motion to amend the earlier resolution passed by the same council to change the name of the proposed “Fort Portal tourism city’ to ‘Kabarole tourism city”.

The Kabarole District local government leaders argued that Fort Portal is a foreign name imposed on them by the British colonialists, adding that the proposed city should be given a local name, Kabarole which they said residents have a huge cultural attachment to.

They expressed fear that if the proposed city is name Fort Portal, the name Kabarole will cease to exist because the city area is expected to cover Fort Portal Municipality and Burahya County which constitute Kabarole District.

The Kabarole District local government leaders said the name Kabarole is of cultural significance to the native Batooro and synonymous with the Tooro kingdom, citing the location of King Oyo Nyimba’s palace on Kabarole hill that overlooks Fort Portal Town.

Fort Portal Municipality MP Alex Ruhunda said: “Kabarole District is the headquarters of the entire region and the name should be Kabarole, Fort Portal tourism city should stop confusion”.

However, Fort Portal Town mayor Rev Kintu Willy Muhanga said the municipal council is autonomous from Kabarole District local government, according to the Local Government Act.

“For example, Kabarole District Local Government has a chief administrative officer who is appointed by the central government and the municipal has a town clerk who is also appointed by the central government,” Rev Muhanga said.
“We are not answerable to the district though we are under Kabarole District,” he added.

He vowed to sue Kabarole District local government for its bid to change the name of the proposed city without the consent of the Fort Portal Municipal authority.
“The proposal to change Fort Portal Municipality to Fort Portal tourism city was passed (in 2014) after several consultations with stakeholders, including division councils, but this time, the district council left us behind, why?” Rev Muhanga wondered.

Mr Nyamungo Francis, the Fort Portal Municipality deputy town clerk, said: “As an urban authority, we are still pushing towards national vision of 2040 for Fort Portal tourism city, not Kabarole tourism city”.

He added that Kabarole District local government leaders were illegally trying to change the name of the proposed city.
Both Fort Portal Municipality and Kabarole District local government in 2014 passed a resolution to allow Fort Portal Municipality become a tourism city.
Mr Joram Bintamanya, the Fort Portal Division councillor, said: “According to the proposal, both names would be maintained and people should not worry about it at all.”
He added: “Should Fort Portal town be elevated to a city status, it will be Kabarole city and Fort Portal will become one of the city divisions of Kabarole city.”
Kabarole District used to cover the whole of Rwenzori sub-region until the late president Idi Amin carved Kasese (for Bakonjo) and Bundibugyo (for Bamba/Babwisi) out of Kabarole in a bid to resolve the then tribal conflicts.

Later, the size of Kabarole kept shrinking after Kyenjojo, Kamwenge, Kyegegwa and Bunyangabu districts were carved out of it during the NRM regime.

However, some analysts say the main reason behind the move by Kabarole District local government to hurriedly change the name of the proposed Fort Portal tourism city to Kabarole tourism city is the fear to lose jurisdiction, status, civil and political structures when Fort Portal town becomes Fort Portal tourism city.
According to the Local Government Act, the city can only be created when it has a population of 350,000 people living in the same area.

Mr Muhanga, the Fort Portal Town mayor, said currently Fort Portal has only 70,000 people.
He added that the proposal to annex some sub-counties of Bunyangabu district to Fort Portal should be effected to enable the population reach 350,000.

The Bishop of Rwenzori Diocese, Rt Rev Reuben Kisembo Amooti, cautioned the leaders against arguing about the name of the proposed city, calling upon them to instead focus on delivering quality social services to the people.

By Felix Basiime, Alex Ashaba & Scovia Atuhaire