PHOTOS: Residents Take Over District Headquarters, Demand District Service Commission

Scores of residents in the western Uganda district of Bushenyi have held a protest demanding that a district service commission be put in place.

A protester holds a placard in a protest to demand a district service commission. ALL PHOTOS/KANSIIME TAREMWA

They are led by activists including Apollo Kakonge of Western Ankole Civil Society Forum (WACSOF).

There is confusion on which of the two ‘commissions’ – the current legally constituted commission of three or the other of nominated members – should be allowed to operate.

According to a letter written by Public service ministry permanent secretary Catherine Bitarakwate Musingwire, the former should continue working.

Musingwire’s letter

“There is no plausible reason as to why the three members of the District Service Commission as approved by the Public Service Commission in line with Section 54(2) of the Local Government Act Cap 243

cannot commence work,” Musinwire wrote in a letter dated May 26, 2017.

In the same letter addressed to the Chief Administrative Officer and copied to the local government ministry and district chairperson, Musingwire adds: “the members nominated by the current district executive committee with a view of constituting the district service commission are inconsequential given the fact that there is no approval minute by the Public Service Commission.”

The permanent secretary ruled that the current district commission members keep working and that the nominated be approved at the earliest opportunity.

Now the locals have marched to the district headquarters in protest. They held placards demanding a district service commission.

 

Charity Mbabazi