The length and substance of the President speech reflected the importance and value he placed on our
conference and it is in this spirit that I express our
uttermost appreciation to H.E the President for the
help he extended both in moral and financial support in the realization of this historic conference.
The President’s commitment to a partnership with
community associations for development as he indicated and promised in the 2004 UNAA Convention
came to be. I must also applaud his commitment to
the development of the Educational Resource Center. The challenge to us is to lead towards the challenges of development in the Elgon sub region and
Uganda.
The Umukuuka does not stand to address his subjects
L -R: Bob Musikori, James Mutende, the Umukuuka and Dr. Mallinga
The Guest of honor speech read by the representative for two and half hours was long, substantative
and revealed President Museveni we all know as a
revolutionary, a soldier, scholar and intellectual.
Hopefully all will have a chance to read the entire
speech. The speech touched on the culture, politics
and the economy.
Following the Guest of honor speech, after a break,
was the Key Note address by the invited speaker Mr.
Nimrod Waniala.
Mr. Nimrod Waniala addressing the Press at an earlier function
The Key Note speech did address the theme of the
conference namely Empowerment, Development
and Transformation. During the planning of the conference, the plan was to have a conference driven
by well researched data. The question was how the
Bugisu-Elgon sub region compares to other parts of
Uganda in key areas of Education, Health, and the
Economy.
A Substantive Speech from the Guest of Honor
The speech’s anthropological thrust on the cultural
and linguistic similarities speaks to African nations
that are closer than apart. The close affinity, ought
to inform our nationalism and pan-africanism as opposed to the promotion of tribal chauvinism.
This was a comparative study that would show statistics using key indicators such as student enrollment
in both Primary and Secondary education, Teacher/
student ratio, passing levels and admission to Universities. In Health the concern was accessibility, care
and numbers of health facilities. The Economy was
to focus on poverty levels and state of the coffee
industry and Bugisu Cooperative Union. A study was
commissioned in Uganda.
The President acknowledged and saluted our conference theme of empowerment, development and
transformation as being in tandem to the government of Uganda’s broader goals and aspirations. The
President speaks on the strategic bottle necks that
need to be tackled for Uganda to be transformed
into a middle and developed society.
He also addressed the size, growth, potential of the
Uganda economy and the need for right leadership
and direction.
The study though not exhaustive at the time of conference, did show trends that greatly helped to put
5