Many Microfinance Institutions may be craving for a share of the bonna bagaggawale funds but not Lwengo Microfinance Cooperatives and savings trust Ltd in Masaka district. Its members are worried that their institution could collapse if it implemented the program.

Lwengo Microfinance Cooperatives and savings trust Ltd in Masaka district is one of the 20 SACCOs in Masaka district through which government had hoped to channel funds under the Bonna Bagaggawale program which was officially launched last week by President Yoweri Museveni.

The SACCO was to serve Lwengo and Ndagwe sub Counties that make Bukoto Mid West Constituency. But its board of directors has resolved to reject the offer over fears that the program was designed to kill Microfinance institutions.

The SACCO’s General Secretary Venance Lubiito on Saturday told members during the launch of the Microfinance’s Agricultural Loan that the offer was rejected after scrutiny of the bonna bagaggawale program design which they say is no different from the policy that killed the Co-operative.

This decision was received with overwhelming support from the SACCO’s membership which contends that the program was ill conceived. Others argue that government should instead open up its own SACCO to handle the bonna bagaggawale funds.

The area Member of Parliament Isaac Ssejjoba who had become an advocate for the program was forced to back down. He later appealed to the Finance Ministry to redesign the program to suit the demands of the Microfinance institutions which are the major implementers.

According the Bonna Bagaggawale program design, government is to work with well established Microfinance institutions to loan out the funds at a 1% interest rate which the Microfinance Institutions are saying is too low for their operations.

As the rest of Kampala and all CHOGM host places prepare for the meeting in November, Kalerwe has remained untouched. The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles is set to visit three projects in Kawempe division ahead of his visit to Uganda .

It has been confirmed that Prince Charles will visit a water channel under water aid project, a commercial sex worker rehabilitation center under AMREF and a women’s enterprise under action aid.

The three projects are closely located in Kawempe division; two in Kalerwe and one in Bwaise, are funded by the Prince Charles Foundation. A visit through these areas leaves the hair at the back of your neck, standing.

Just like any other slum, Makerere three zone in kalerwe is characterized by poor sanitation, drainage, and is heavily congested. To access the water project, one has to jump over filthy and open sewerage channels cutting through the unplanned shanty houses.

In fact the office responsible for the commercial sex workers is surrounded by stagnant water and during the rainy season, the place floods. However, according to the area LC 1 chairman, Jaffer Sengendo, preparations are underway to improve the area.

The Secretary for health in Kawempe division Steven Serumaga Mungi says that the 1000meter road is will be tarmacked as soon as they secure funds from KCC and the transport ministry. The council requires 20 million shillings to transform the area.

The residents some of whom are ignorant about the Prince’s visit to their area are disappointed at the state of their zone. With just less than a month to go for CHOGM, this area may prove hard to transform.

Kampala city council officials say 70% of the work to beautify the city ahead of the commonwealth heads of government meeting scheduled for November reveals that has been completed. This follows their tour of the project areas to assess progress being made.

Kampala city council engineer Steven Kimala accompanied by delegates from city council led the entourage into a tour of facilities to be used during the CHOGM starting from Salaama road through Gaba and the city center.

Most of the city roads have been tarmacked, drainage system repaired and buildings by the roadside painted. Engineer Kimala says about 70% of work has been completed.

The rest of the works are expected to be completed by the end of this month with 200 man holes put in place around the city and street lights provided. Works along Gabba road are complete with road tarmac ked, streetlights installed, trees and flower planted.

Forty Five years down the road since independence, Bwera town in Kasese district which boarders with DR Congo is yet to see electricity. Residents have now rely on generators run by businessmen by night. Bwera is a fast developing town found 37 Km away from Kasese Town and to south Katwe salt lake Town board . Unfortunately, unlike Kasese town and Katwe town board it does not have electricity.

Local leaders in Bwera attribute the problem to the monopoly of electricity distribution under the former Uganda Electricity Board which failed to extend the power lines to the area. However, even after the liberalization of power distribution in, Bwera and Mpondwe remain in the dark.

All is however not lost for the residents of these two towns. Some Business men living within these two towns have embarked on a project of generating and supplying electricity to the residents using generators.

They have installed treated eucalyptus trees as poles and use thin wires for connection to various houses. Mpondwe and Bwera Bwera are now lit during the night.

Power is switched off during the day to cut on the costs incurred on buying fuel for the generators.Every house connected to the system with one bulb, pays 500/= daily.

Kasese district received power as early as 1950s for production of copper in kilembe mines but now hardly a quarter of the district’s population has access to electricity.

The LCIII, Chairman for Gombe Sub County, in Wakiso district, Eng. Nsubuga Ssempebwa, is blaming lack of interest in technical education on the government and high institutions of learning.

The LCIII, Chairman for Gombe Sub County , in Wakiso Eng Nsubuga Ssempebwa who officiated at the passing out of the first batch students of Mwererwe Community Techinical School in Gombe said that although government has established well equipped community technical schools in every sub county; there is no mass mobilization about the benefits of technical skills.

He said that many parents feel that taking their children to such schools is spoiling their future. He blasted Makerere University and other Universities who he accused of promoting immorality through beauty contests instead of rewarding innovations in science and technology.

One of the Directors, Marcelo Kamugisha suggested to the Ministry of education to have UNEB technical examinations set in local languages.

The founder member of the school, Khalifan Kyasanku said that the aim of the school is to assist people from conflicts areas to have their children trained in their areas of residence, to have them support them selves.

The coordinator from the planning unit in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Moses Ndifuna has said that many people most especially from Luweero Triangle do not want to work, and instead want handouts from President Museveni .

He said that the government has put up avenues for poverty eradication but many are reluctant to take advantage of them.

Masaka Municipality gets over 600 million shillings from UN Habitat to reconstruct Nyendo Market under its Lake Victoria Water and Sanitation Initiative, to save the lake from waste pollution. But as the project takes off, some traders in the market are holding fears that the market could have been sold off without their knowledge.

It took the Municipal leaders time to convince the market vendors that the Market had not been sold off as is the case in Kampala . UN Habitat has contracted two companies to redevelop the market, improve its drainage systems as well as its sanitation within two months.

The vendors have been given two weeks to vacate the market and move to a nearby open space. The vendors are however wondering how they will operate in place with no pit latrines yet polythene bags that they would have used were banned.

These arguments according to the Nyendo/Ssenyange Division Chairman Gonzaga Kisirinya are orchestrated to derail the program because even the current market has never had a pit latrine. Meanwhile Masaka Municipal Council launches a Municipal Court to ensure cleanliness in the town.

Masaka Deputy Mayor Charles Kasibante Kibabirire says the court was conceived to check the unnecessary littering of garbage and grazing of animals in the town. This is one of the steps the Municipal leadership is taking to strengthen its quest for a city status.

Just a few days ago, after a child in Masaka was electrocuted to death by live electric wires, residents of Kavule in Gombe Sub county in Wakiso district are on tension, after a night of heavy rains left electric poles broken and live wires hanging over their roofs.

Over three electric poles broke down due to decay three weeks ago, but the Electricity Distribution Company, has not responded to the problem leaving the residents in perpetual fear.

The LC I Chairman of Kavule, Moses Kalumba said many people operating small business are no longer working.

Residents in the area have also set up a committee to guard the wires against thieves. They are worried that if the wires are stolen, it will take time before it is replaced.