Gulu City dwellers rallied to utilize the regional parliamentary sitting

Gulu: The people of Acholi sub-region, specifically Gulu city dwellers, have mobilized to entailed the coming of the parliamentary sitting to Gulu city, which is due to happen from August 29 to 30, 2024 at Kaunda grounds in Library ward Bardege-Layaib division of Gulu city.

On Monday, June 17, 2024, the three area members of parliament from Gulu city, Hon. Ojara Maritain Mapenduzi, the bardege-Layibi division MP, Hon. Aol Betty Ocan, the Gulu city woman member of parliament, and Hon. Onen Charles, the Laroo-Peec Davison MP, had a joint press conference at the northern Uganda media club to highlight to the people in Gulu city the benefits of the coming of the parliamentary sitting in Gulu and how they can utilize the opportunities that would be created.

MP Ojara Martin Mapenduzi explained that this is a regional arrangement where parliament will go to the four main regions of Uganda. Namely, Gulu for Northern Uganda, Mbale for Eastern Uganda, Mbarara for Western Uganda, and Masaka for Central Uganda.

“So these are the four traditional regional centers where parliament will have parliamentary sittings. The intention of this is for parliament to have an opportunity to get out of Kampala and move closer to the people in the different regions. It is therefore an opportunity for us, the people of Northern Uganda, that parliament, for the first time in the history of parliament in Uganda, is getting out of Kampala to conduct the formal business of parliament.”

According to Ojara, this arrangement is coming at a time when parliament is trying to demonstrate its stand as a people-centered parliament. ‘’So for us, the people of Northern Uganda, and especially the people of Gulu, Gulu city, where parliament will sit, we take this as a big opportunity for all of us.’’

“When parliament comes to Gulu as scheduled, it will not only be talking about issues or matters related to Northern Uganda; it is going to conduct its formal business as usual. And so it will be looking at national issues, but the leadership of parliament has decided that they will give special attention to matters relating to Northern Uganda.”

There are many opportunities that our people will be confronted with, and it is prudent that our people prepare to tap this opportunity.

‘’So part of what we are doing as leaders in the city is to prepare the ground. And part of the preparation is to sit with you and inform you so that you share this news with the citizens of the region, not just Gulu,’’ he, adding that they will be working with the rest of the leaders in the region. This is not just a Gulu thing, but because we are the hosts, we play a very key role in making sure that we put the pieces together in preparing for this.

Rev. Fr. MP Onen Charles, the MP for Laroo-Pece Division, Gulu City, reveals that they have already started the preparation by visiting Gulu Regional Referral Hospital. They faced the director of Gulu Regional Referral Hospital and a number of doctors and staff of Gulu Regional Referral Hospital.

“The purpose of the visits was to find out the status or state of our regional referral hospital. There are a number of issues and challenges we have identified, and they were able to tell us. And this will help us now to table before Parliament some of the issues that are affecting the Gulu Regional Referral Hospital.

According to Onen, the team discovered that the hospital is lacking a CT scan. For the past two months and some weeks, the CT scans have broken down, and they have not yet procured the equipment. “Actually, they talked of the batteries of the CT scan, which are still to be airlifted from Germany.”

However, there are a number of preparations and a number of areas that we intend to prepare and look at. As I talk now, a team from Parliament is on the way, about to reach here.

“They were here last week on Monday, and they are now on the way to meet the team from Gulu. The Mayor, the Town Clerk, the DPC, the RCC, and then the Army. Because it involves an issue pertaining to the security of the visitors. Over 1,000 people will be coming here, including the 500 members of Parliament plus the over 500 staff of Parliament.”

“We believe that these will be accommodated within Gulu. And the hotelers, the hotels, and the accommodations are something that our people will benefit from. We have also met and talked to the Speaker, saying that if Parliament is coming, the staff of Parliament and members of Parliament are coming to Gulu, and we don’t wish to see Parliament importing service providers from Kampala in terms of those who will be cooking, the catering team, and so forth.”

Onen reveals that “about three people have been identified, and I can now confirm to you that Ms. Santa Obwoya and her catering team have been identified, and she is at the  top of the list of the three catering teams. And I believe tomorrow the other two people, if at all they will be considered, will join Santa Obwoya to provide the catering services.”

It is a call to the hoteliers to prepare; those with lodges should prepare them well.

“It is an opportunity because Parliament is going to make a number of outreaches to some selected schools and institutions, among which Gulu Regional Referral Hospital, Secret Heart Girls’ Secondary School, Gulu University, and South Samuel Baker, among other institutions within the reach of the members of Parliament around that time, There will also be a health camp.

‘’I understand that the Cancer Institute of Gulu has been notified to provide cancer awareness and screening free of charge to the public.’’

Mapenduzi shades light on the sitting

“But you know, this is the normal sitting of Parliament, and the non-members of Parliament will be treated as strangers. So provision of tents or chairs for strangers shall be provided. You are free to go and then attend the plenary while observing the rules of Parliament.’’

‘’We are going to make a number of consultations with the different stakeholders. The business community. We are also going to visit some of the areas within our constituencies, like Bardege-Layibi and Laroo-Pece, and within the city to consult the people on some of the issues that they would like us, the members of Parliament representing this city, to articulate during the plenary,’’ he added.

“Of course, we are also in consultation, and we have talked to the other members of Parliament within the eight districts within the Acholi sub-region. We need to sit together.”

If we don’t prepare, other members of Parliament from other sub-regions, like the Lango sub-region, the West Nile, and then Karamoja, can easily outsmart us if we don’t prepare. And remember, this is a national issue. There are people who will come with their issues from Kasese, from Mbarara, and so forth. So we need to take this opportunity seriously, and we are going to take this opportunity seriously as members of Parliament.

The hotel owners were really identified last week. The hotels in which members of Parliament are going to be accommodated, and perhaps others, may also provide other services apart from accommodation.

So it is also a call upon them that they need to prepare because these are national leaders who have been in different places. So they should portray a good image of the fact that we are capable of hosting national leaders in our hotels and in our facilities.

MP Aol

Since Gulu City is going to be the host, we have to prepare ourselves. Everybody who will come here, these people will come from far and wide.

We want to know how Gulu City is security-wise. They have to also prepare the street lights to be there; the streets have to be clean; and the markets have to have our local foods and fruits. You know, for Parliament, they can only feed members of Parliament one meal.

Then the other meals are for members of Parliament to provide for themselves. We are going to have more than 500 people converge here. I say more than 500 people because not all the members of Parliament will be here since we also have other activities to attend.

But we can ably say more than 500 people because the Parliament staff will also be here. So we need to prepare to market our products. We need to position ourselves.

Let people then later desire to come to Gulu City after the sitting. The sitting is going to be on the 28th and 29th of August. And Kaunda Ground will be made to be the Parliament of Uganda.

So many other people, also from far and wide, who do not have the opportunity to visit Parliament, will come around in the city. So we need to prepare to feed these people. People who come from Kitgum, from Teso, from Oyam, and from Arua all converge here. And people who will also come from other regions of Uganda, not only the northern regions.

Because then people from the western part of Uganda, from central Uganda, and from the east will all converge here. And then we will ask our people to make some economic gains. But also in terms of tourism, we also need our people to prepare so that people will later say, I saw Aruu Falls during their free time. They will visit such places. Or I saw Fort Patiko. I have to take my family there for Christmas break. And you know, when people visit our areas, we get economic benefits.

So we need economic benefits, social benefits, and political benefits. But also to let our people, all of them. Because when we are your representatives, not everything comes from us.

There are certain things that come from people. So for us in the Acholi sub-region, as members of parliament, we will sit together and put up what we have collected from the Acholi sub-region. Of course, we know that we have a lot of issues here.

Issues of compensation come up very, very often as we visit communities. Issues of land are always there; education is another very big one. It’s so prevalent in education. And education can be done nationally, but specifically here, poverty has made our children fall out of school. We have a very, very large number of dropouts from schools.

So education could also be another issue. I move to other communities, and they say instead of putting PDM like this, why can’t they make it for us to benefit, to put it in for education? I say it is for you to now work very hard and put it in for education.

But of course, PDM cannot reach all of us. For those of us in the city, one of the issues that is very big for PDM is that the population of a ward is not equivalent to the population of a parish. So if you are going to treat a parish and a ward equitably, you give a parish 100 million, and then you also give a ward 100 million.

While a parish has a population of 1,000 people and then a ward has a population of 20,000 people, when will this 100 million reach out to the 20,000 people? That is why it cannot quickly respond to the education needs of our people. So we need to collect, and you are our voice.

You will load it up so that whenever we move anywhere, we will be able to collect. If you see even the preparation, we need to sometimes even think about whether some of the members of parliament may have to fly to Gulu. And if they have to fly, then we will also push in for the preparation of our airfield.

They call it an airfield, but I always say it is an airport. The airfield has to be worked on, and that will also help us in the long run. But in the short run, it will help the people who are coming.

So with this parliament coming here, if we put our heads together and unite, we are going to benefit a lot. Some other schools will also bring their children to attend the sessions when the session is on.

Taking people, taking our children to Kampala, is something only very few schools are able to do. But then, if it’s brought into the city, my prayer is that most of the schools in the city, especially the secondary, should bring their students and even their pupils to come and witness and see how parliamentary procedure is conducted. So it is going to be something that is great because it will include a larger population that cannot reach Kampala. I don’t say that schools do not go to Kampala.

We have some of our schools that go to Kampala, like, for example, Mary Immaculate. I think I received them in Kampala about twice. But whenever they went, they only took a small section of the school, not a large population of the school.

So this will be an opportunity to bring most of these children to see. We will also be very excited to see our people respond positively. My prayer is that on the 29^th and 30th, there will be no rain.

I pray that rain does not interfere. Because the tent will be for members of parliament and maybe guests. So our people who come, if there is no rain, will take all their positions on Kaunda Ground.

The Kaunda ground will be big enough to accommodate all of us. But if we come in large numbers, the Kaunda ground should be small. That is, if people respond, people get excited that, at least today in history, let us go and see how parliament conducts its business.

So this is our appeal: that economically, we should position ourselves to benefit. Then, socially, we should also position ourselves to benefit. And socially, even after the two days, we should continue to receive some visitors coming to Gulu city and to the Acholi sub-region to visit some locations.

And also politically, it will give us some mileage that, at least, you know, the Gulu city, and we are the members of parliament for Gulu city. We are very proud of this parliament coming here. Some other people have been opposing it in the media.

At least I heard some negative things. You know, even in Kampala, we use resources. So when parliament comes here, it is also about the use of resources.

Let the people of the Acholi sub-region also benefit from these national resources. So it’s there. It is outreach.

It is possible. So let all of us be very receptive. We should receive people who are coming from very far, and we should have very good reception from our people here.

I always tell them that the best city in Uganda is Gulu City. So all of us should do our best. It should not just be word of mouth, but we should make it possible for people to appreciate Gulu City as the best city in Uganda.

Rejoinder by MP Onen

In addition to that, we should know that this was the dream of the late Jacob Oulanyah while opening the 11th parliament. He said that the 11th parliament will be a people-centered parliament.

It will address the needs and concerns of the people. So the administrators of parliament are now fulfilling the wish of the late Jacob Oulanyah. Parliament should be moved closer to the people.

And the first place, by the grace of God, will be here in northern Uganda. We do not know when the parliament will again go to the eastern part of this country, Mbale, and then to western Uganda, Mbarara, and then Kololo. Kololo will now crown the parliamentary visit away from the parliament.

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