RULINDO District plans to construct 56 cell offices as part of its efforts to promote good governance, the Mayor, Justus Kangwagye, revealed in an interview with The New Times, recently.

Speaking on a wide range of issues, the Mayor said the district has made great strides over the years, due to the team spirit of workers at different levels.

The district has on two separate occasions ranked second in the highly competitive performance contracts commonly known as ‘Imihigo.’

Below are the excerpts, of the exclusive interview. 

What secret lies behind Rulindo District maintaining the first position in the Northern Province and second nation-wide in Imihigo for two consecutive periods? 

Kangwagye: We attribute our performance to the commitment of the district cultural group ‘Abadahigwa’ in working hard together for the common cause of eradicating poverty and steering economic development.

Land consolidation has enabled the district to set aside 2800 hectares of land for agricultural production. This is in addition to promoting agriculture and livestock farming in the entire district. 

What do you consider to be the major innovation of the district? 

Kangwagye: The major innovation of the district is to promote livestock farming. We introduced cows’ collection centers for the provision of water and grazing land to all residents in the community, traditionally referred to as ‘Ibikumba’.

The number of livestock farmers is expected to rise to 750 in the entire district due to introduction of ‘Ibikumba’, which also helps to generate enough manure needed for high yield crop production.  

What are the district’s strategies in developing Good governance, Education, Infrastructure, Health and Savings Cooperatives in the 2009/10 performance contracts?  

Kangwagye: Concerning good governance, the district intends to build a total of 56 Cell offices.

In addition, the district is committed to maintaining zero tolerance to corruption, while at the same time stemming to smoothen out conflict, Genocide ideology and all forms of crime in society.  

The district has also earmarked a large portion of its budget to promoting education. The number of nursery schools will increase.

We expect to enroll over 6000 pupils, and increase secondary school classes to over 400 to promote the 9 year Basic Education program. 

For urban development, the district intends to upgrade 35 trading centers to modern standards apart from developing a master plan.

Family planning awareness campaigns shall also be increased at grassroots levels, to enable residents produce children whom they are able to educate and feed.

This shall be possible with resources from the district and PSI. 

Finally, Rulindo District 2009/10 work plan includes promoting savings cooperatives.

The target is to have savings cooperative societies in each of the 17 sectors of the district, by the year 2010. 

Ends