Introduction
Kilembe sub-county was established in 1950s by Tooro kingdom and mainly engaged in copper mining by the private investors. The sub-county is situated in Busongora county Busongora south constituency and it neighbors Mahango sub-county in the West, Rukoki Sub- County in the East, and Kasese municipality in the south and Rwenzori mountain s national park in the North- Democratic Republic of Congo.
However, recently it was reduced when Bulembia Division was curved out to make Kasese Municipality
Administration
The sub county has 4 parishes namely
- Mbungu parish
- Kibandama parish
- Nyakazinga parish
- Bunyandiko parish
It also has the following staff;
- Bimenya Francis –senior assistant secretary
- Kitimbwe Ismail –community development officer
- Bwambale Joan –Assistant community development officer
- Kazige Seith Senior Accounts assistant
- Muthahinga peter – parish chief – Kibandama
- Bwambale M. Fred – parish chief -Bunyandiko
- Kiringabakwe Abel – parish chief –Mbunga
- Bwambale Zedekia- parish chief –Nyakazinga
The sub –county has 15 councilors including the chairperson who supervise the sub-county staff and monitoring Government programs as per their mandate.
However sir, these councilors are new in the system hence requesting your office to orient them so them they can understand their roles/responsibilities.
As mentioned earlier, the sub-county is occupying Kilembe mines house and situated in Bulembia Division and have written requesting us to leave their premises and go where we are supposed to be and as you are aware this sub-county cant afford buying land and the construction of the sub-county headquarters and this is being spearheaded by the Kasese municipality, we therefore appeal to you for assistance in the regard so that we can shift our sub-county Headquarters to where it is supposed to be –Bunyandiko parish.
Education, especially at primary level we are not doing well due to the fact that our government aided primary school are in hard to reach and lives areas and they are:
- Mbunga primary school
- Nyakazinga primary school
- Kyambogho primary school
- Bunyandiko primary school
- Buwatha primary school
- Kibandama primary school
- Bulimi primary school
- Nganji primary school
Private schools
- Kasungu nursery and primary school
- Kisanga nursery and primary school
- Kibandama hope nursery
- Kirimu nursery
- Kingazoghera model nursery
- Light of hope nursery school
Private secondary schools:
- Trust secondary schools
- Kilembe parents vocational secondary school
- Mt rwenzori alliance secondary school
Poor performance in these school are attributed to the above reasons and more so the DEOs office which transfers some teachers to other places without replacements. Some of our schools don’t have female teachers and handling of girl child is a big challenge to us
We kindly request the government to take up Kasungu and kisanga primary schools because the no of pupils have gone high and the proximity of these schools to parents who can’t take them in distant schools.
Iam happy to inform you that on 9/11/2016 the secretary for works- kasese district local government Hon .Mutanaba came to handover the construction site for the teachers house at Bunyandiko primary school, in addition to other staff house at other 7 schools. We hope that there will be some improvements in academic performance.
Health
In health, the sub-county mainly uses Kilembe mines hospital and it also has 2 health facilities and another health facility which has been built by the sub-county and the community but has no staff and drugs –Bunyandiko Health Centre II. Others are
- Kalibo Health Centre III
- Mbunga Health Centre II
The performance at these facilities is very poor due to the fact that there are very few workers and also found in hard to reach/live areas.
We therefore appeal to you take up Bunyandiko health Centre II a parish with very big population and giving us enough health workers at those facilities
Works / Roads
The CAIIP road which was started last year, has not been completed and the leadership is wondering to why it was not completed.
Community access roads are in a sorry state due to the current heavy rains which has devastated same parts of the sub-county.
The sub-county has planned for a few of them (access roads) in the financial year 2016/17 when the money comes and we shall use road gangs due to the fact that a grader cannot climb the hills to work on the same roads as proposed.
Water
The sub-county is faced with lack of water especial hilly areas where the sub-county is based. In 2010 a design for a GFS was done to supply water in Mbunga and Bunyandiko parishes but since then nothing has been done despite a lot of efforts to have this project done. A copy of the design is available.
We therefore kindly request you to follow up this issue so that we get water.
Production
Sir, 93% of the community are farmers/ peasants and engaged in coffee, beans, Irish potatoes and to some extend bananas and fish farming.
On behalf of the sub-county council, we wish to commend government for coming up with Operation Weather Creation (OWC) strategy that has helped farmers with agricultural inputs i.e. coffee seedlings, mango seedlings, passion fruits and diary cattle to farmers. The farmers are very happy with the program and have embraced it.
In the recent distribution of input for this season farmers have benefited as follows;
- we have supplied 105,152 coffee seedlings
- we have supplied 25,600 passion seedlings
- we have supplied 14,019 mango seedlings in addition to other seedlings which had been given out including 5 cows whereby 1 died and another 1 which is said to have been sold by the beneficially.
According to the survey conducted previously, the survival rate of these seedlings which was at 52% and this was as a result of drought that hit most parts of the district and the sub-county.
Community based services
Under community based service, the sub-county has benefited a lot previously i.e. CDD funding, PWDs funding and the recent introduction of the youth live hood program (YLP).
The CDO is currently on survey to assess the impact of the program and the projects which were implemented under the same.
However we have one case whereby 1 group of the youth have failed to pay back due to the fact that, the project they were engaged in (piggery) swine fever killed their pigs and have opted for fish farming so that they can get some money to start paying back (mbunga youth piggery project).
We kindly request you to continue supporting other groups for the development of the sub-county.
Finance / Revenue:
Sir CAO, the sub-county is limping in terms of revenue collection due to lack of revenue source s in terms of local markets, licenses/ permits and local service tax.
The sub-county is faced with a lot challenges i.e. cofounding government programs implementation of local projects and councilors allowances among others.
The only sources of revenue are G tax compensation which is unconditional grant DDEG and CAR which is a conditional grant which comes from finance ministry.
As earlier mentioned this is why we have failed to establish our own sub-county headquarters in Bunyandiko where we are supposed to be.
However, the sub-county is making an effort by ensuring that all small businesses in the sub-county are registered and assessed so that we can get some little revenue.
We also request you to formerly communicate to Telecommunication managers to start paying annual operation permits for their masts based in our localities/sub-county i.e. MTN and Airtel and each is supposed to pay 600,000/= per year according to a secular from the ministry of local government.
Some time back your office promised to do the same but we have never received the feedback.
Loyalties from Kilembe copper mining should be shared according with the sub-county due to the fact that all minerals in our hills are based in the sub-county but not in kasese municipality as claimed.
This resource can boost the sub-county development in term of revenue collection for its development
We therefore request you to intervene so that, we can benefit from the above sources of revenue;
Operation permits for masts and
Loyalties from minerals /copper
Some time back kilembe sub-county was the main collector in terms of G tax payment but when you compare the current releases in terms of G tax compensation from the Centre of shs 2,800,000= per quarter you fail to understand how it is calculated hence a need to revise our figures to at least 4 million shillings.
Key challenges
The sub-county is faced with a lot of challenges notably;
- Lack of water
- Lack of revenue sources
- Poor education
- Lack of land and houses for the sub-county headquarters
- Poor road network due to uncompleted road under CAII program
- Floods/run offs due to heavy rains in the hills
- Lack of enough health centres and workers
- Lack of government aided secondary school
conclusion
I wish to thank you for sparing your time and visiting this sub-county in an effort to know the challenges we are facing in presence of our Hon councilors and other technical staff.
We are determined to improve the situation of this sub-county in case give support in solving the above challenges/problem especially revenue enhancement and consideration of the water crisis in the sub-county.
Bimenya Francis
Senior Assistant Secretary