Arua LCV remind Citizens demand for their rights

The Citizens Manifesto (CM) did not remain a paper work but a tool used by the grassroots people to engage with elected leaders on the promises made during the campaign period. The Arua District Chairperson reminded the citizens that it’s their right to demand for better services as were promised during the campaigns. This was manifested when Community Empowerment for rural development (CEFORD) a member of Citizens Election Watch-IT (CEW-IT) was carrying out training for CBOs in CM popularisation.

The training that took three day attracted 24 participants from Arua, Koboko and Nebbi  and was one of the most memorable events that took place in the last couple of weeks. It took every participant by surprise when the LCV chair asked ‘how do elected leaders know people’s concerns if they are irregular in office?’. To the participants, the district chair had hinted on the gist of the CM agenda for which the CBOs were being trained. From the workshop, the participants vowed to hold their leaders accountable and even proposed to invite all their MPs to come and give feedback on what they had so far done in the last year in parliament.

While CEFORD and CEW-IT were aware of the implications of the information gap that has become common in Uganda, the CM agenda was timely to bring back the leaders to the electorates.

To show solidarity with the voters, the chair pledged to appear on radio and sensitize the communities on the CM agenda. While at the radio Pacis, the callers were concerned by the delay of establishing Muni University for West Nile Region, escalating corruption in the region, declining fortunes of agriculture and the  many promises made during the campaigns. It was also observed that  elected the representatives instead create many excuses for not attending to the voters concerns.  In response the chair pledged to do his role of mobilising the West Nile population particularly the youth in productive activities to curb the unemployment rate in the district, enforce the leadership code Act and forward any civil servants implicated in corruption cases to relevant authorities for action.   It was also noted that the CM was not in conflict with the political parties manifesto, the issues therein were generated through a highly participatory way.

Throughout the country, the CM has been a tool used to empower the citizens to engage with leaders at all levels of Governance. The most unique package with the CM was the concept of citizen’s parliament that was launched in Kamuli district by the Speaker of Parliament of Uganda Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga on 9^th March, who pledged to give support and invite CEW-IT for a round table meeting to internalise the CM. The citizen’s parliament is a fora where communities identify local problems and local solutions with their leaders. This model of citizens engagement with leaders has given CEW-IT and its partners an advantage of promoting a citizen led problem solving other than pointing fingers to the leaders that they have not delivered on their promises.

CEW- IT and its partners is therefore set to roll forward the CM to the Citizens of Uganda. With the achievements so far registered, the CM has proved to be a citizen driven engagement tool with their leaders. It’s no doubt the leaders have embraced and are using the CM tool to realign government priorities in the local government budgets.

By Celestine Mugisha
Program Officer-CEWIT