Luwero District leaders accused of blocking citizens’ access to information

13th July 2011

Village budget club members during a press conference with journalists from Luwero 

and Kampala based radio stations and newspapers. Such engagements are aimed at

increasing visibility and knowledge on the work of the village budget clubs in 

demanding for greater gender accountability of government.

Members of the village budget clubs in Luwero district accused government officers of issuing them with threats and refusing to provide them with information like district budgets and plans, which they require while monitoring government programs at community level. This was during a press conference organized by the village club members in Kasaala who monitor the implementation of development programs aimed at promoting transparency and accountability to the communities.


In a press statement read out by the club secretary to journalists from Musana FM, Top radio, New vision and Bukedde, CBS radio, Simba Radio, Radio One, Kaboozi, Capital and Beat FM, the club presented highlights of the key government programs they had monitored since 2010 after receiving training from Forum for Women in Democracy. This included following up on teacher absenteeism, ghost pupils, and the lack of senior women teachers in the different schools. Under agriculture, the groups monitored the Community Driven Development fund and Rwenzori Fund which had fraud elements that were ironed by the district leadership after the community interventions. The clubs are following up on the matter of increasing access to water in Kasaala given that the boreholes in the parish were few and some were not functional.
It was also in this meeting that the community urged the media to increase press coverage on the inconsistencies in service delivery as a means of fighting corruption and promoting transparency in service delivery “as journalists you can further investigate the issues we have shared with you and report on them through your radios or newspapers in order to expose and shame the perpetrators”, stated the Chairperson of Kyegombwa Village Budget Club, Nsubuga Edward. 

Also present at this meeting was the chief administrative officer and the representative of the LC V who pledged to support the work of the village budget clubs which to them complements government’s role of monitoring service delivery in this district. He encouraged the journalists not to tire of reporting and publicizing corrupt tendencies. He further cautioned the village budget clubs not to monitor only the service providers but also the beneficiaries of the government programs citing that some government programs had collapsed mainly because the beneficiaries were not responsible enough to support their children in education, or take the necessary measures to tend to the livestock or improved seeds provided by government to transform their livelihood.

Supported by forum for women in democracy and Mwana Inchi, the press conference was the first of its kind in Luwero and the community members pledged to continue holding at least one meeting after every three months.

By Carol Namagembe, Communications Officer FOWODE