Africa-Press – Uganda. Your Excellency,
On 23rd April 2025, Nile Post broke the news under the headline: “Three New Districts Carved Out of Tororo.”
The development followed a high-level meeting with the Jopadhola and Iteso delegations from Tororo District.
Originating from the 2009 Tororo district council resolution, this position is proof of how the Government remains committed to fostering peaceful co-existence in multi-ethnic districts.
The Tororo example offers valuable lessons, particularly in how longstanding grievances around identity, service delivery, and historical claims to tribal territories can be mitigated through dialogue and decentralization.
Mr President, allow me to draw parallels to Kasese District, Uganda’s second biggest.
Kasese comprises two counties and five constituencies—Busongora (Busongora North, Busongora South, and Kasese Municipality) and Bukonjo (Bukonjo East and Bukonjo West). It is home to the Basongora, Banyabindi, Bakonjo, and other communities. However, unlike the coexistence in Tororo, Kasese continues to grapple with denial, discrimination, and exclusion of Basongora and Banyabindi, who are often dismissed by the dominant group as non-indigenous, despite documented presence and cultural heritage.
In October 2010, the Kasese District Council passed a resolution to split the district into three: Kasese, Bwera, and Rwenzori. Under this plan, a new constituency (Bukonjo North) was to be created from Bukonjo West and the two would constitute Bwera District, while the name “Busongora”, sadly, would cease to exist after the county’s subdivision into four constituencies: Katwe, Kilembe, Kuruhe and Mubuku constituencies under the proposed Kasese and Rwenzori districts.
Yet this proposal, rather than recognizing indigenous diversity, effectively partitioned and diluted the presence of the Basongora, dividing them across multiple districts. This was not merely administrative; it was symbolic of ethnic exclusion.
It is deeply troubling that while the Bakonjo majority continues to demand a district split, they resist the idea of a district for the lowland communities. This undermines the very essence of equitable development and inclusive governance.
Busongora, as the name suggests, is the cradle of the Basongora people and the old name for Kasese and surrounding districts. To deny them and all native ethnicities in the lowland a district—while fragmenting their historical homeland to serve the convenience of others—is an affront to justice and a violation of their constitutional rights as indigenous Ugandans.
Currently, of the 40+ sub-counties and town councils in Kasese District, the lowland communities seek fewer than ten. This modest demand is rooted not in ambition, but in a desire for dignity, visibility, and fair representation in service delivery.
Mr President, in 2016, you wisely encouraged dialogue between the Dr. Crispus Kiyonga-led Kasese District NRM leadership and lowlanders regarding the creation of the Katwe District. This dialogue did not bear fruit for two reasons: the NRM leadership lacked the political will and the FDC, which was in charge of the district administration, was opposed to other communities leaving Kasese.
However, the current political reality is different. Kasese’s elected leadership is dominated by NRM and wants the split, and in the lowland area, Your Excellency secured over 95% of the vote—an unmatched loyalty, even when compared to your home district of Kiruhura.
It is within this context that we renew our humble request for the: Creation of Katwe District for a united community with a population of approximately 100,000 in the lowlands of Kasese, drawn from Nyakatonzi, Lake Katwe, Karusandara, and (lower) Kicwamba sub-counties, and town councils of Katwe-Kabatooro and Muhokya. Lower Kicwamba (Ibuga area) holds significance for the Basongora, as 12 of their own were massacred there on 5th July 2012 by extremists in the district, partly for demanding a new district, in what the government described as a modern-day genocide of Basongora.
Kasese District is too big and its size has given space for extremist elements to entrench themselves and perpetuate evil. In land-related conflict, the Basongora pastoral lands are targeted and Basongora has become the very object of job exclusion and deployments—so central to the narrative that, without them, the politics of marginalization in Kasese would have no fuel. The lowland communities continue to suffer under a system that treats them as intruders in their ancestral home.
Your Excellency, please facilitate this cause and you will not only have advanced justice and inclusive governance but also reinforce your legacy as the liberator of marginalized voices. The time to act is now.
Yours sincerely,
Festo Nkwatsibwe Kajura
NRM Member and Ethnic Minority Rights Activist
[email protected]
Source: Nilepost News
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