President Museveni has said the construction of a public university for Sebei sub-region is in the offing.
Speaking during a campaign rally at Binyiny Primary School in Kween district on Tuesday, Museveni said the request for the university by locals is granted.
“The issue of public university is already our policy. We took the old independence districts and declared them zones of development. We decided to have one public university per zone,”Museveni said.
“ Some because of history had more than one(universities), like those in Kampala but we are going systematically and shall have one for Sebei. It is a question of budgeting.”
Museveni’s promised stemmed from a request by the Kween district leaders through a memorandum read by the district NRM chairperson, Steven Mangusho for a public university.
“We want government to establish a public university. We already have a 110 acre titled land which has been availed and we request that you grant us that public university in Sebei sub-region,”Mangusho said.
Speaking in response, President Museveni said the university will be constructed but emphasised the issue of budgeting.
“We guerrillas have one problem with civilians we work with. For them they want to do many things at ago, but we guerrillas say one by one. That’s how we are able to manage Uganda,”he said.
“ If we scatter money without focusing on security, roads and electricity we won’t manage( the country. I am glad you have identified the land. We shall plan.”
He said government has already constructed public universities in Lango, Acholi and West Nile, with only Karamoja, Bugisu and Sebei remaining.
Museveni also detailed government’s plan to resettle landslide victims, not only in Sebei and Bugisu but also those around Mountain Rwenzori.
We bought some land here. They(Ministry for Disaster Preparedness) have got shs56 billion and looking for more land and it is available in the budget .For each family, we give two acres free and shs10 million cash. That’s is the plan now. We want resettlement away from the danger area,” he said.
“When I was in Bududa, they brought some new idea of resettling them in urban centres of the district. We shall study that because that is what they do in Europe. You hear mountains like Alps and people live in valleys and the mountain used for activities like skiing,” he said.
He noted that after next year’s elections, he would organise delegations from Rwenzori and Elgon areas which are prone to landslides for a trip to Europe to benchmark on how the resettlement will be done.
Museveni however warned locals against encroaching and misusing the environment which he equated to damaging the body’s blood system.
“The blood supply in our system is the one which keeps us alive. If you damage any part of it you die. Therefore, when we say the boundary should be here, it must be guided by science not opinion or prejudice. If I am cutting my nails, I don’t have to go deep and if I do, then I start bleeding. It is the science. It is the same with the hair. I can have any style I want but if I go deep in the skin, I bleed,” Museveni said.
