Speaker decries corruption in Mbale City’s Northern Division

Mbale, (UG):- The newly elected Speaker for Mbale Northern City Division, Hon. Robert Kisesi has revealed that they have unearthed a lot of irregularities, in the implementation of government programmes in the area by government officials.

Hon. Kisesi made the revelation during a phone interview with this reporter, today 10th May, 2024. He said the discovery was made during their first Ordinary Council meeting held on, Friday 31st May, 2024, at the Division Hall under his speakership.

The meeting was in fulfilment of the promise he made during his acceptance speech and swearing ceremony on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Kisesi, who is also the Councillor representing North Central Ward after swearing in, told the Councillors that he would soon call for an Ordinary Council meeting to capture a number of issues that need to be addressed, before embarking on committee meetings.

Hon. Kisesi who pledged to prioritize service delivery and value for money during his term of office says, “during the meeting, they discovered that officials at the division abuse the process of implementing government by undermining the involvement of the Councillors in decision-making”.

Elaborating further to DailyExpress, the Speaker said in verbatim, “Officials hardly implement any programme but concoct programmes and projects that they use as a basis to swindle taxpayers’ money”.

“In such cases two or three officials converge, plan an activity and make a budget which they pass with the amount they want to eat, disregarding all the necessary procedures,” he added.

Kisesi, who replaced Hon Kadimba Hussein who was recently appointed the Assistant RCC Mbale City a new position which was recently created by the office of the presidency, was elected by the councillors after he scored 36 votes, to beat his opponents Hon. Waguma Thomas who scored 18 votes and Hon. Kamadi Wandera who scored 1 vote.

Kadimba Hussein while handing over to Kisesi the instruments of power, that have been under his custody, said the instruments are very sensitive and have to be carefully utilised. He also highlighted corruption and poor service delivery as the major problems affecting the development of the City.

He, however, thanked the President for appointing him as Assistant RCC and promised to work tooth and nail to stamp out the negative vices that have retarded the development of Mbale.

“As Assistant RCC his main role will be to fight Corruption, promoting Patriotism and Mobilisation as assigned by the President,” he said.

For the period he has been serving as the Speaker, Kadimba told this publication that the collection of funds from the field does not tally with what is remitted back by the Central Government.

“While the technocrats claim to be collecting 100 Million Shillings the Central Government remitts back between 15 – 20 Million Shillings only, which means money is stolen in the field.,” he said.

With fighting corruption being one of the major roles in his new appointment, Kadimba says he intends not to sleep on the job but utilise the experience he has gained as a speaker to clean up the mess that has hindered the growth of Mbale City.

A number of media platforms in Mbale have been awash with cases of Corruption, Poor Service delivery, sabotage of government programmes and surging cases of crime, lately.

This publication reported on the 9th May 2024 how “Technocrats at Mbale City’s Industrial Division accused by their political counterparts of non-performance, corruption and sabotage of government programmes, regardless of the fact the city is a big revenue earner as compared to the other divisions in the City”.

Recently the City Engineer Mbale, Mr Gimui Johnson, came under fire over accusations of diverting over 500M Shillings, meant for City Roads.