The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Fort Portal, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The elected Fort Portal Tourism City Woman Member of Parliament – MP Irene Linda has vowed to push for more funding to women and youth groups once in parliament.
Linda, the National Resistance Movement – NRM party candidate, contested against six others who included the incumbent Kabarole district Woman MP, Sylvia Rwabwogo.
Linda argues that at a national level, the youth still form a bigger percentage of the country’s population but, like women, they are facing financial constraints that have left them in abject poverty.
She said during the budgeting process, she wants more funds to be allocated to the Youth Livelihood Programme – YLP, and Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme – UWEP.
Billions of money have been injected into the two projects but the recovery rate has been very low. In the 2018 Auditor General’s report, it was noted that more than 28.4 Billion Shillings may never be recovered as almost 64 per cent of the sampled YLP projects were non-existent.
The report also indicates that a total of 38.8 Billion Shillings that was disbursed to 5,505 groups in the financial years 2013/14 and 2014/15, only 26.7 per cent was recovered from the youth countrywide.
But Linda argued that this can be solved by giving more financial literacy to the beneficiaries to ensure they start viable income-generating projects so that the money is not wasted.
In agriculture, the first-time legislator said she will work with fellow MPs from Tooro Sub-region to ensure the Kabarole Agro-industrial park becomes a reality to enable farmers to add value to their produce.
In September 2018, Gen Salim Saleh, the Chief Coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation – OWC, launched the 500 acres of land in Kyembogo village in Rwengaju Sub County where the park will be constructed.
However, to date, there is no single activity taking place in the area. Last year, the Kabarole district Assistant Chief Administrative Officer – ACAO, Michael Kisembo, told our reporter that they were working on the master plan for the park.
Linda said once the park is in place, farmers will stop selling their produce in raw form and this will fetch them more income.
With Fort Portal now a tourism city, Linda said she wants to work with Tooro kingdom to promote cultural tourism for the benefit of the electorate.
Linda is not very new to politics and leadership. For over 20 years, she has held different positions in local councils of Kabarole and Fort Portal.
In 1997 she first served as the General Secretary of Kasusu cell that is now in Central Division, Fort Portal City. She also served as Secretary for Gender at the then South Division Fort Portal Municipality. The division was annexed to West and East divisions to create Central Division Fort Portal City.
In 2001, she was elected the Kabarole district youth councillor and later appointed as the Secretary for Finance and Planning for the district council. At that time, she was 24 years old and the youngest of the leaders. She says several developments in the district characterized this period.
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