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BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
PARLIAMENT: SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 2026
Eradicating poverty in Madi Okollo district has remained at the top of the list of priorities for Martin Drito, the Member of Parliament for Upper Madi-Okollo constituency.
Once tackled successfully, said Drito in an interview, all other parameters of human development would kick into gear.
“I had a manifesto which spelt out urgent need for economic revival in Madi Okollo because it is the driving factor for all other sectors like education, access to healthcare and so on,” he said.
He attributes this to the multiplier effect of poverty over what he termed “every fabric of society.”
“Poor people cannot send their children to school, poor people cannot afford healthcare. Last year in primary leaving examination, Madi-okollo district was the worst performing in the whole of Uganda. This has got to change,” he asserted.
To achieve this, Drito said his focus will be on introduction and promotion of new cash crops like coffee, cashew nuts and macadamia, improve mango production by increasing the acreage and promote livestock farming with emphasis on goats, piggery and cattle keeping.
However he also emphasized the pursuit of President Yoweri Museveni’s campaign pledge to turn the river Nile belt in West Nile into a fish farming bulwark.
“I am going to look at the budget and together with my colleague MPs from West Nile we will engage the ministry of agriculture animal industry and fisheries,” he said.
Drito said whereas the president was aiming to develop fish farming along the banks of the river, cage fish farming on the river itself and other smaller rivers like Ora and swampy areas would be an added boon to not only increase production but also provide jobs.
Covering an area of 2,019 square kilometers of which at least 101.1 square kilometers is rivers and swamps, the MP said Madi Okollo district is well place to take on fish farming as an economic driver.
He called on development partners and embassies of countries with which Uganda has good diplomatic relations to consider funding the fish farming initiative.
He challenged church institutions to engage in commercial farming and set learning examples for the people.
“Can we start to have churches that have an acre of coffee or a cattle farm so that they can generate their own income and also provide learning avenues for their members,” Drito suggested.
He also identified tourism as another avenue to improve earnings, especially from the Ajai wildlife reserve where the coveted White Rhinos have recently been restocked.
The MP asserted that once incomes improve, the people would be triggered to embrace environmental protection and stop destructive practices like staking their livelihoods on charcoal burning.
“When we were growing up, there was no charcoal burning because people were not as poor as they are now. We need to help the people to fight poverty and also put in place ordinances to control charcoal burning, and plant more trees to blunt the effects of environmental degradation,” Drito emphasised.
He took notice of the scarcity of water in the constituency and the district especially during dry season where many boreholes run dry and communities endure hard times searching for clean water.
He called on the ministry of water and environment to pay special attention to address clean water problems in the area.
