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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
MARACHA: Tuesday, October 14, 2025
President Yoweri Museveni has ordered a probe into the implementation of the Parish Development Model (PDM) in Maracha district.
He assigned one of his aids, Capt. Babra Birungi to lead the investigations and arrest any thieves of the PDM funds.
It follows questionable accountability by district officials and raucous nooo! in disapproval from the crowd during Museveni’s campaign rally at the Boma grounds in Maracha Town council on Tuesday.
This was day four of Museveni’s campaigns in the West Nile sub-region.
Official records show that Maracha district has received a total of sh27.8b and supported 30,200 beneficiaries under PDM, the government’s flagship poverty eradication program.
But implementation of the program in Maracha district has been blighted by allegations of fraud and impropriety.
The main complaints were that the money remitted to the beneficiaries was less than the sh1,000,000 thresh-hold the government set per beneficiary.
There are allegations that local leaders were collecting sh10,000 per applicant and yet they remain frustrated that they are not given the money.
Speaking in a separate interview, Delima Waru, a resident of Godia ward in Oluvu sub county lamented in an interview that she has since paid the sh10,000 two times and still not got the PDM funds.
“I do casual labour (lejaleja) and I am paid sh4000 for a day’s work. At first they said we casuals do not qualify because they doubt that we will repay the money to the parish SACCO,” she said.
“Our President is telling us that the PDM money is for poor people, so, why are the people in Maracha sideling us. I would have used that money business,” Waru disclosed.
Museveni said he likes the vigilance of the people and assured that there exists a solution to the problem.
“The thieves are wasting our time. The thieves must run away before our next government,” Museveni told the people.
He sounded a wake-up call to West Nile to get out of poverty, taking advantage of the money that the government channels through the different wealth creation funds.
“When you remain in poverty, you cheat your family but you also cheat your country because every development project we do is done with taxes,” said President Museveni.
“If you don’t buy anything, then we cannot get taxes. If you don’t built a permanent house that means you cannot buy cement and you cannot contribute to the nation building,” he added.
Museveni also said people must stop confusing development for wealth, emphasizing that while development that includes economic and social infrastructure is universally shared, wealth is personal.
The president reminded the people to adopt the four acre model for households and use modern methods of farming to come out of poverty.
Making reference to his presidential model farm in Lango sub-region, Museveni said he gets sh100m annually from a 25 metre by 50 metres fish pond from which he raises 10,000 fish every year.
A 25m x 50m fish pond is an equivalent of a quarter of a football pitch.
Museveni received a loud approval from the crowd when he spoke about the presidential skilling hubs that target school dropouts.
Maracha district has so far sent 82 young people for training at the center in Zombo district, many of whom have put their skills into productive use.
Boniface Adukule of Oluvu sub county is one graduate of the skilling hub in Zombo who learnt wielding and is perfecting it in a workshop in Maracha.
Also tom Erejo of Okokoro in Kijomoro sub county learnt footwear craft and is striving towards self-sufficiency.
The trainees spend six months at the hub where they are trained free of charge and provided with accommodation and food.
Museveni called the testimonies his vindication against the head teachers and school administrators who have distorted the universal primary education program by introducing charges on school children.
To ensure access to capital for the graduates from the presidential skilling hubs, the office of the president has created savings and credit cooperatives at every district which has been capitalized with sh50m seed fund.
Denis Hamson Obua, the NRM vice chairman for Northern Uganda confirmed the availability of the funds for Maracha district, held in an account in post bank on the orders of Museveni to clear a cloud of doubt hanging over the money.
Museveni said when the petroleum production kicks off next year (2026), the government will have money to do more things and it will be easy to uplift the development of Uganda.
”Our oil money shall be for roads, railways, science innovation and other very useful things,” Museveni assured the nation.
Under social infrastructure, Museveni acknowledged that there were 62 government primary schools in Maracha where there are 91 parishes.
He said 34 parishes were without a primary school, which is a miss on the target to establish at least one primary school in every parish.
The president pledged to address the shortfall in the next government when Maracha mandates him. Other key pledges are to establish 12 secondary schools to the seven in the district, upgrade the Maracha Health Center IV to a district hospital and upgrade Ekaligo HCIII in Kijomoro to health center IV as well as construct HCIII in Oluvu, Ajira, Nyadri, Alikua and Oleba sub counties
