Fort Portal Councillors, Executive Bury Hatchet

Fort Portal municipal councillors and the Executive have reconciled.

For close to a year, a section of councillors has been accusing the Speaker, Gilbert Kayondo, and the executive led by the Mayor Rev Willy Kintu Muhanga, of incompetence.   

The councillors, who were led by Joseph Musirikale, the Nyabukara ward councillor and male youth councillor Kenneth Kaliba drafted a motion last month to impeach Kayondo. 

However, the motion was later quashed by the representative of the Solicitor General, Isaac Singura, who said it was illegal because the movers had ignored a number of procedures including failure to elaborate the exact grounds on which they wanted to impeach the speaker.

As a result, the aggrieved councillors boycotted three consecutive council sessions.

On Wednesday, all the councillors and executive members attended a meeting held at Haulden Hall, St John’s Cathedral in Fort Portal. It was chaired by the Fort Portal Municipality Member of Parliament, Alex Ruhunda.    

In the closed-door meeting, agreed to work together since there are plans to transform Fort Portal into a tourism city.

They also made a number of resolutions which will be adapted in the next council session.

These include the executive sharing its plans with the councillors to enable them perform their duties efficiently.  

The Mayor and the Speaker must always also provide room for caucusing on matters of sensitive nature that may create disharmony.

It was also agreed that all petitions, and legal suits in courts of law should be withdrawn for purposes of meaningful reconciliation.  

“For purposes of instilling confidence in public, it was resolved that there should not be any other individual or group character assassination on any media, i.e. Radio, TV, Print Media and Online/Social Media,” reads part of the document containing the resolutions.

The Speaker was also asked to remain impartial while conducting the council sessions.