Rev Canon Robinson Oginga Odinga, the Kitgum Town Parish Vicar told Uganda Radio Network in an interview Thursday that they recently embarked on construction works after receiving 50 million shillings part of 368 million shillings pledge from the president.
Ongoing installation of angle bars on St Janani Luwum Church in Kitgum Town Parish, Kitgum Municipality.
Construction
of multi-billion St Janani Luwum church in Kitgum Town Parish, Kitgum
Municipality has resumed after President Museveni partly fulfilled a pledge of 50
Million
Shillings.
President Museveni while presiding over the ground-breaking for constructing
the church in 2018 pledged iron sheets, cement, and angle bars to finish the
construction of the church.
Although
the President later donated 560 iron sheets towards the
construction of the church last year, Kitgum Diocese failed to receive pledge
on the angle bars and cement amounting to 368 million shillings.
Rev Canon Robinson Oginga Odinga, the Kitgum Town Parish Vicar says
that they
recently embarked on construction works after receiving 50 million shillings
part of 368 million shillings pledge from the president.
He says despite the small amount of money they received, they have decided to
purchase angle bars to kick-off roofing the church whose construction had
stalled.
Rev Odinga says they intend to roof the church to help them in other activities
that need space with shade in the parish.
“We shall partially roof this building because we want to put the money we
received into use. This money is partly what the president pledged to us and we
hope that the full pledge will be fulfilled,” Says Rev Odinga.
Rev Odinga notes that the church construction has this year stagnated due to
the covid-19 pandemic that saw houses of worship closed down and several
businesses from which the church gets support through offertory closed down for
many months.
He called on the president to fulfill the pledge to enable the church to become
fully functional since the current church is not spacious enough to host
Christians amidst the covid-19 pandemic. Rev Odinga has also appealed to other
stakeholders to support the vision of the diocese in fulfilling its dream of
building a modern church.
Don Wanyama, the Senior Presidential Spokesperson says the pledge will
be fulfilled although he didn’t give a reason why it was delivered partly to
Kitgum Diocese.
He advised Rev Odinga to always liaise with the State House to follow up on the
pledge.
“For the official report, I will cross-check with the state House comptroller
and find out,” Wanyama told URN in an interview Thursday.
Lack of funds over the years have crippled construction of the church named in
memory of slain former archbishop of the Church of Uganda St Janani Luwum.
Since 2003, Kitgum Diocese has been hunting for funds to close the 3.5 billion
shillings’ budget meant to finish construction of the church.