In his welcome messages on the Bushenyi District Local Government official website, Mr. Malik Mahabba the CAO states that;
This made me wonder how they expect to increase the district revenue collections when business development has been one-sided in Bushenyi District for the past 15 years. The little revenue collected is embezzled left and right, a total of 286 million is said to have been embezzled between 2014 and 2020.
Ishaka is the only town that has grown in the past 15 or so years. The Bushenyi town I knew in 1990 and early 2000, when UEB was still on liberation road was more vibrant than the Bushenyi town that is now, the same is empirical in Nyakabirizi, Rwentuha among other towns. The key mystery that needs to be unearthed is how our great patriotic leaders ensured there was balanced economic development within the greater Bushenyi district town councils even when it was bigger than now. This will highlight the role of some King Makers in Bushenyi politics for the past 20 years. It's not by mistake that the Ishaka is growing at the expense of other town councils.
PIBID which should have been a valid source of revenue, after 15+ years of existence, with over 50B UGX worth of investment all it can market are Toke cakes on its social media pages instead of exporting banana flour while supporting local matoke farmers and those in the region.
The only reason that our elders used to pay the graduated tax that supported development projects in the district is simply that almost every household had an income-generating source like tea, milk, coffee, matoke, etc. This would be evident by the endless morning and evening lines that used to be at the Bushenyi diary and coffee trucks that combed villages buying produce during harvest times. That's why most of us who boast of the greater Bushenyi Dream went to the best school our heads could afford on incomes from such sources and the Bushenyi development model was stemming from each household in a bottom-top approach but now the reverse is true, the few who are at the top are feeding the majority who are down as they wish. Annoyingly we are too blind to see that they feed us once in 5 years and we feed them every day of our lives for the next 5 years.
The Bushenyi problem is the leadership crisis right from MPs to Local councils. MPs ain't doing their supervisory roles, local councils are in endless fights over budget allocation and the kingmakers are busy erasing anyone that doesn't support their Ishaka vision off the Bushenyi political scene All that is left for a common man is to wait for the King Makers to bribe them into voting leaders that groom their individual interests. Forgetting that, when you go to KIU you pay tuition and medical fee depending on the services needed. When you stay in their houses, you pay rent. The only time these Kingmakers have given Bushenyi people "free" money is during elections which we repay every day for the next 5 years.
So as i endorse Yedidia Nyakahangura as the next MP for Bushenyi Ishaka Municipality, i constantly remind him of the greater Bushenyi Dream. The Bushenyi our elders led to shared glory that our generation is proudly identifying ourselves with and to some extent lost in.
My reminder to all of us who belong to the greater Bushenyi dream is that if we don't wake up from our slumber soon, the only thing Ugandans will remember us for is that we were responsible for fronting the Age Limit Bill and Kabagarame. One thing is real for sure, that the development curve for most parts of Bushenyi has been on a free fall for the past 20 years and the Bushenyi Dream has been reduced to Ishaka dream.
