The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Thomas Tayebwa, has said he will prioritize the transformation of Ruhinda County into a model constituency through the utilization of the tropical rainforests for production.
With the Slogan of “Tugmize nentuguka,” literally translated as “We continue with development,” Tayebwa pledged to work towards improving tourism, unity, and household income.
“We have all this land, most of our people have now come out, we are fighting so that we can be productive people,” he said.
He promises to distribute free coffee seedlings to farmers and ensure the production of waragi is reduced in the area.
“When COVID hit us, that’s when we realized that though local brew (waragi) educated some of us, it’s not a sustainable kind of venture that will transform our area, so we’ve gone into coffee, and some of the best coffee, which is exported, is coming from our very own area,” he said.
He said that they are working with the Uganda Wildlife Authority to start the habituation of Chimpanzees that were found in Imaramagambo National Park.
“Our area, part of it is a national park luckily enough, we have found that we have chimpanzees, we have worked with UWA to start habituating these chimpanzees so that we can widen the variety that we do have (4:45) around the circuit of Queen Elizabeth National Park, I can tell you in the next five years, you’re going to be seeing tourist flooding this area, bringing a lot of income to this area, so, it’s going to be a total game changer,” he said.
Tayebwa made the remarks shortly after being declared as the sole nominated candidate for the Ruhinda North County Member of Parliament in Mitooma district.
Tayebwa said that he was ready to support the NRM candidates across the country since it’s the norm of the party, noting that he was waiting for President Museveni in the region to begin campaigning.
“It’s painful when you’re a member of Parliament and you see your colleague lose it, especially the flag, because we are a family, we all go through the same trials, we work together on different projects, we handhold each other in the NRM fraternity, and then you go to the community, and it decides to use its power to pick one and leave the other, but, we have rules as a party”. He said.
He said that despite the grievances within the party that arose from the party primaries, members should reconcile for the better of the party.
Tayebwa said that he was still in talks with some of the independents to convince them to step down for the flagbearers.
“As the only candidate who has been nominated to contest for the post of Ruhinda North, I therefore declare Thomas Tayebwa unopposed Member of Parliament for Ruhinda North,” Nahamya declared.
Moses Tumwekwatse, the Mitooma District NRM chairperson, said that Tayebwa’s performance in the county was the key to being nominated unopposed.
“We are not surprised because our speaker is a performer; he has served and delivered services not only to the NRM party but also to his electorates, so being unopposed was almost expected, he said.
Tayebwa will serve his third term as Member of Parliament for Ruhinda North Constituency, in Mitooma district, which he has represented since 2016.
Meanwhile, in Kiruhura District, Ruth Rujoki Mushabe has also been declared the Kiruhura Woman Member of Parliament unopposed.
Rujoki defeated the incumbent Woman Member of Parliament Jovanice Twinobusingye Rwenduru in the NRM party Primaries, who later declared that she would not contest in the general election.
Rujoki garnered 24757 votes against Rwenduru’s 21205 votes to take the flag.
***URN***