Councillor Opposes Probe on Kasenda Sub County Creation

Kasenda Sub-county district Councillor in Kabarole, Gideon Ruta, has opposed a committee that has been instituted to probe the controversy surrounding the creation of the Sub County.

Kabarole district council in 2006 passed a resolution to create Kasenda Sub County, curved out of Ruteete, with its headquarters at Rugembe.

But the decision was allegedly based on false information presented to the council by the then district speaker Mary Baguma Nyakwera that Ruteete councillors had agreed to create Kasenda Sub County.

Subsequent investigations revealed that Ruteete Sub County councillors had agreed on the creation of Iruhuura Sub County with its headquarters at Iruhuura trading center, and not the creation Kasenda Sub County.

Last month, Kabarole district council instituted a committee to investigate the creation of Kasenda Sub County. However, Ruta has opposed the committee.

He says that members of the committee are likely to be biased and the investigations are wastage of resources.  

Ruta says that on December 19, 2009, Kabarole district council resolved to set up a committee to investigate the same controversy. He adds that on March 11, 2010, the committee that was chaired by Isingoma Kimome, the former councillor Hakibale presented its report that showed over 300 people from the parishes of Isunga, Kasenda and Nyabweya that make up Kasenda Sub County supported the creation of Kasenda Sub County.

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On why he moved a motion for creation or Iruhuura Sub County but later changed his mind to agitate for Kasenda, Ruta says that it was because of the outcome of the committee's findings.

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Chris Tushabe, a resident of Iruhuura, who chaired a committee to form Iruhuura Sub County, says that Kasenda and Nyabweya parishes first applied for a Sub County status in 1993.

However, the status was never approved because the areas were underpopulated. In 2001, residents of Isunga agreed to join the two parishes on condition that the headquarters will be situated in Iruhuura Trading Center.

Tushabe says they were shocked when the Sub County headquarters were transferred to Kasenda by the then Kabarole Chief Administrative Officer the late Iporotum Okiror.

But Mary Rwakyaka, the chairperson of the committee says they will do their work without any bias because they are not residents of the area.

In 2005, the then Kabarole District Clerk to Council Malik Mahabba and wrote to the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Local Government indicating that Iruhuura Sub County had been created out of Ruteete Sub County with Kasenda, Nyabweya and Isunga parishes.

However, in another letter written by Mahabba dated March 1, 2006, indicated that the district council had resolved the creation of Kasenda Sub County.

“Now, therefore, be it resolved by council that the following new sub-counties are created in Kabarole district and their headquarters be indicated here in; Kasenda sub-county with a total population of 18,675 people consisting of the parishes of Kasenda, Nyabweya and Mitandi with its headquarters at Rugembe trading center," Mahabba wrote.