PRIME MINISTER MBABAZI ASSURES KANUNGU ON COLLAPSED BRIDGES
By Kyetume Kasanga
Monday, May 6, 2013
Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi has assured the people of Kanungu that reconstruction of the
three bridges that collapsed in the district last year is to start as soon as the ongoing procurement
process is completed.
The assurance comes amid rising impatience among residents that the works have unnecessarily
delayed. Mr Mbabazi was speaking during a church service at St Peter’s Cathedral, Nyakatare in
the Diocese of Kinkizi on Sunday.
Thousands of the faithful thronged the diocese to receive the Most Rev. Stanley Ntagali. The
8th Archbishop of the Province of the Anglican Church of Uganda was in the area at the start of
his nationwide pastoral familirisation tour of the entire 34 dioceses.
Representing President Yoweri Museveni at the function, Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi
belatedly laid the foundation stone for, and officially opened, the Cathedral whose completion
works are, however, still ongoing.
He delivered the President’s cash contribution of Shs 10m, pledging Shs 3m more from the
three-member Kanungu Parliamentary Group which he chairs. Other members are Elizabeth
Karungi (area Woman MP) and Dr Chris Baryomusi (Kinkizi East) who were both present.
The group also pledged another Shs 3m to the Cathedral Choir to enable them record their
church music. Mbabazi and his wife, Senior Presidential Advisor Jacqueline Mbabazi pledged
another Shs 1m, and donated a heifer to the Ntagali’s.
“There is no doubt that the church and other religious denominations are doing a great job in
providing social services to our people, in addition to looking after their spiritual and mental
health,” Mbabazi noted. “We are committed as government to supportin them.”
Dr Baryomunsi echoed the people’s concerns about three bridges that collapsed last year in the
district. He said their patience was overstretched because the procurement processes for the
reconstruction works on the bridges were taking too long.
Mbabazi assured the congregation that the bridges of Mitano on Rukungiri-Kanungu road,
Ntungwa on Ishasha-Katunguru road and Birara on the Rukungiri-Birara-Kanungu road would
soon be put back. About sh15b will be used for the purpose.
Presiding over the service, assisted by the host Bishop Dan Zoreka, Archbishop Ntagali said the
fight against poverty, corruption and land grabbing among other vices must focus on the people’s
mindset. He donated 10,000 coffee seedlings to Christians of Birehe where he was brought up.
Mr and Mrs Mbabazi later hosted the Archbishop and his entourage to a sumptuous dinner at
their home in Karubeizi, near Kihihi Town, accompanied by music and dance from the
neighbouring Karubeizi Church Choir. ENDS.