Tuesday 12th May 2020 marked four years since President Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Movement started another five year term following the 18th February 2016 General elections.
Today, Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda launched the NRM Manifesto week, giving accountability to the country, about how far the President and his party have gone in implementing the manifesto, Four years into this term of office.
“Four years into this term of office, we would like to inform Ugandans that we are on course to achieve the targets we set together with the people of Uganda. We are using this Manifesto Week to take stock of what has been achieved so far, the challenges that we have encountered, the steps being undertaken to address those challenges, and the way forward” Rugunda said.
During the event that took place on Friday morning at the office of the President in Kampala, PM Rugunda announced that in the course of next two weeks, different sector Ministers will be informing Ugandans about what is happening in their dockets in line with the Manifesto.
Overall, assessment of the implementation of the Manifesto commitments to date stands at about 80 percent. He added that they were on course to achieve most of the targets set out in the NRM Manifesto.
“As you are aware, maintaining peace and security has remained the core ingredient upon which the various social economic activities are hinged. At the regional level, we continue to work with neighbors, the UN, African Union, IGAD and other partners to support efforts aimed at promoting regional peace and security” he noted.
In the health sector, the Prime Minister said they completed and commissioned the Specialized Women hospital at Mulago. This is a sign of NRM’s 9 continued commitment to the health of our mothers, daughters and the new born babies, while the rehabilitation of Mulago National Referral Hospital is at 95 Percent completion.
On energy, Rugunda says Karuma Dam will be completed by end of the year and this will add an extra 600 MW on the national grid this will bring generation capacity to around 1839 MW. “All our District headquarters are now connected to power, save for the newly 11 created districts. In addition, money was mobilized to connect all our sub counties by close of 2020” he revealed.
In the Education Sector, the Premier says money was mobilized and the Government policy of establishing a seed secondary school for each sub county commenced with the construction of 129 schools in sub counties where there are no secondary schools.
“The fundamentals of the economy that are responsible for rapid economic growth are being 13 systematically dealt with. It is not surprising that our GDP growth rate that had declined due to severe drought among other factors has regained pace at 6 percent. We know that Covid-19 will have negative impacts on growth, but we are confident that we will bounce back” Rugunda said.
About challenges faced during implementation of the manifesto, Rugunda says there were delays in acquisition of land for flagship projects across sectors. Compensation remains expensive and sometimes delays project executions.
“In addition, there is corruption. This undermines the different efforts invested to achieve our targets. However Government has strengthened anticorruption efforts, including by establishing the State House unit led by Lt Col Edith Nakalema to fight corruption” he noted.
The Prime Minister urged accounting officers at the local government levels to organize to use radios and other media to tell Ugandans about the implementation of Government programmes in their various districts.
