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By Kakonge Lee
In or around 2005, the Bushenyi District Local Government embarked on upgrading the Bushenyi playground into a district stadium. The contract, worth an estimated UGX 906 million, was awarded to HABA Group. What that amount would equate to today is anyone’s guess, but it was an enormous sum at the time.
By 2009, instead of a modern stadium, the playground lay in ruins—reduced to heaps of murram and pools of stagnant water. The once functional space had been destroyed. Citizens began to demand accountability from district leadership after learning that over UGX 770 million had been spent, yet there was no tangible work to show for it.
Court action was initiated against the government. However, before a ruling could be delivered, Mr. Willis Bashaasha was elected District Chairman. He negotiated with the petitioners to settle the matter out of court and committed an additional UGX 144 million to complete the stadium. The new contract was awarded to Rose ST. But before work resumed, the previous contractor, HABA Group, demanded UGX 50 million as compensation to exit the contract—another loss to the public purse. In the end, Bashaasha managed to complete the stadium to the state in which it stands today.
It is important to note that the individual behind HABA Group, the company that failed to deliver despite receiving UGX 906 million, was also a key financier of the then Woman Member of Parliament during her election campaigns.
It is against this background that I strongly oppose naming the stadium after someone who had ties to an individual implicated in mismanaging funds meant for the very same project. This council resolution is, in my view, made in bad faith and without regard to historical realities.
Even the late Makaru (RIP), who oversaw the construction of Nyaruju—Bushenyi District Headquarters—had only a 100-metre walkway named after him. Why didn’t the same council name the district headquarters in his honour? As is often the case, politics seems to have taken precedence over principle.
In today’s council meeting, I watched in disbelief as the same councillors who, in 2020, pushed the late MP out of office claiming she had achieved nothing, now sang her praises. Such inconsistency makes it difficult to know when our leaders are acting in good faith—or at all.
Speaker leading the council that named the stadium after fallen politician Karooro
I dislike pretence. It is a dangerous distraction from serious governance. Bushenyi must get serious about accountability, historical truth, and the principles that guide how we honour public figures.
The writer is Executive Director, West Ankole Civil Society Forum (WACSOF)
