OMORO– Voters have outlined key social services they want delivered by any of the candidates that will win the Omoro County Parliamentary by-election on May 26, 2022.
Some of the key issues so far identified by the voters are; the poor condition of access roads and markets, and few schools as well as health facilities in the county.
The Omoro County Constituency Parliamentary seat fell vacant following the death of the former Member of Parliament and former Speaker of Parliament, Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah on March 20, 2022.
In Akidi Subcounty for example, learners are forced to trek an average of 4km to access learning centers coupled with the poor road conditions, especially during dry seasons.
The Sub-county currently has only Awor Health Center II which is undergoing upgrades to a Health Center III Facility as the only government health facility.
Alex Oyugi, the Secretary for publicity for Omoro District Youth Council says that the whole Subcounty has only four government-aided schools which he says has greatly affected the education of learners in lower classes. Coupled with few schools, Oyugi says the area has few teachers yet the number of learners is high.
Oyugi notes that poor road conditions have curtailed some of the income-generating activities, including markets. He said school-going children and patients find it difficult to reach schools and health facilities, respectively.
Some of the roads characterised by broken culverts, and potholes include; Opit to Awor road, Wii-Gweng to Bale market, Abura to Dog Onek-Gwok among others
Roseline Achiro, a voter and resident of Wii-Gweng Village, Tegot Parish in Akidi Subcounty says several of her colleagues have given birth on the road due to the poor road conditions.
Achiro says they are forced to buy drugs from clinics expensively, adding that even when people go to the health facility, most of the essential drugs, especially for malaria which has a high prevalence rate are not there.
In his second day of the campaign on Tuesday, Andrew Ojok Oulanyah, re-echoed the same demands being made by the voters. He told this reporter that some of these challenges the community is facing are like debts his late father left behind and he is hopeful of addressing them if elected.
Ojok says that the voters and other people in the community want electricity in the area in order to boost their industrialisation dreams.
“The key concerns are majorly around infrastructure and health and some of them are local and central tasks. The issue of electricity has also come around where there`s a transformer without electricity and as a result, insecurity issues have started cropping in,” Ojok says.
Independent Candidate, Terence Odonga, says his key manifesto is around improving road access to markets, more so to ensure that the farmers’ produce is bought as fast quickly.
Odonga says that most of the MPs after being elected tend to focus mostly on legislation without understanding the key challenges affecting the electorate. This, he says, is the major cause of some of the challenges which could have been addressed by oversight roles and financial support to the community members.
“Parliamentary seats in Uganda have changed form, it is no longer legislation, Go and legislate and come back to fight poverty. That is where our predecessors failed. I want to bridge the gap. With the Parish Development Module, I want to strengthen the module with sufficient funds but only for farmers and not any other people” Terence Odonga,” says.
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