Maracha District have been challenged to engage in massive sensitization geared to mindset change for socio-economic transformation and communities to have positive reception towards government livelihood programs.  

The appeal was sounded by Lt. Col. (Rtd) Ambako Kibrai, Senior Presidential Advisor–Mobilization during a status review meeting on the implementation of the NRM manifesto on Thursday, August 7.

Lt .Col. Ambako said the elites in Maracha District should be close to their local communities in order to be change agents rather than running away from them.

“Go to Kampala, see the houses the people of Maracha have built, here in your village you fear going there, some of you have never slept in your village for the last three years, how are we going to change the mindset of the communities,” he said.

Lt. Col. Ambako said the adults are responsible for the mindset change of the young people through dialoguing and being exemplary to them.

He stated government has come up with several initiatives that directly or indirectly address the plight of the youth, dismissing the talk the government has done nothing to uplift the youth. 

“What you call a youth today in Uganda is NRM by birth, they are alive because NRM has good programs.  But you find the youth saying government has abandoned us, government does care about us, is it true?” he submitted.

He called for team work among heads of departments in order to deepen multi-sectorial collaboration in realizing the NRM manifesto in the district.

Maracha Resident District Commissioner, Ms. Patience Edith Wibule Nambale said the engagement was aimed at promoting accountability for the funds the central government has been sending and the promises President Yoweri Museveni made. 

Maracha District Chairperson, Hon. Obitre Stephen said the malaria burden in the district had tremendously reduced due to the indoor residual spraying (IRS) program.

“Malaria has been the most diagnosed sickness in our health facilities, 70 percent of our diagnosis has been malaria that intervention (IRS) coupled with nets, regular flow of medicines we are really doing very well in this area.”  

Hon. Obitre applauded government for the investment in improving the road infrastructure in the district in which he appreciated the UGX 1 billion which has boosted funding to the sector and changed the face of the district roads. He said the challenge remains improving the state of sub-county roads.

“Our biggest challenge is the sub-county roads. Some of the roads are terrible, they cannot be done by the district, they are supposed to be done by the sub-counties through monies given to them which are meagre,” he highlighted.

He said the district does not have a vocational institute and appealed to the central government to consider the issue.

The Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Mr. Peter Erisu Emwos said the government has done her best in establishing livelihood programs it is now to the local communities to make sense of the monies. He tasked the political and technical leaders to mobilize communities to meet the Parish Development Model (PDM) beneficiary thresholds.

Emwos appealed to government to address the human resources gaps in the district to boost service delivery by availing more wage.

“We have only two substantive chiefs this is a big blow to the district, we only have one substantive town clerk,” he said.

Maracha Deputy Resident District Commissioner, Ms. Monica Kotevu said the mass renewal and registration for national IDs was moving on smoothly, revealing to stakeholders 26 kits are in the communities.  

She appreciated the government for paying the peace dividends for West Nile Bank Front and further revealed that verification for Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) was ongoing, and appealed to those who have gaps in their submissions to fill them for submission to Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs.