The National Resistance Movement party presidential candidate, Yoweri Kaguta Museven, is today in Bushenyi District, Ankole sub-region for his scientific campaigns. Museveni will meet and address a select team of NRM leaders and flag bearers from Greater Bushenyi districts of Mitooma, Rubirizi, Sheema and Bunyaruguru.
The president will lay bare key achievements the NRM has registered and other development strategies for the area he intends to achieve once re-elected. He will also task the area party leaders to mobilize for him for support ahead of January 2021 polls.
The government enumerates several achievements in Bushenyi District. Comboni Hospital in Kyamuhunga, a government run hospital is one of the largest health centres in Bushenyi district with 100 bed capacity. The district also has 36 government health centres including health centre IVs, health centre IIIs and health centre IIs.
There are 127 government-aided primary schools and 56 private owned ones. The district has seven government-aided secondary schools and 31 private secondary schools.
Bushenyi has relatively low poverty levels among its residents. The economy of the district depends mainly on agriculture making the district food secure. Agriculture is a source of income for most families and provides direct employment to 86.7% of the district population. However, many people in Bushenyi district are still involved in subsistence agriculture with a few engaged in commercial production of crops including: coffee, tea, sweet bananas and matooke.
Dairy farming for milk production is widely practiced on both subsistence and commercial scales in Bushenyi District with many farmers raising Hybrid cattle. The hybrids produce more milk per animal and yield more beef per carcass and therefore are more profitable than the local breeds.
Bushenyi district has been declared as one of the best performing districts in the implementation of the Youth Livelihood Programme which the government of Uganda rolled out in 2014 to reduce poverty levels among the youth.
A total of Shs710 million has been disbursed to Bushenyi District in the past three years, benefiting 136 youth groups who have engaged in agribusiness, trade, services among others.
Kakone Youth Tea Hiring project and Nyamirama Youth Hand Craft are some of the latest groups to receive the funds earlier this year.
The water access rates in Bushenyi vary from 78 % in Ruhumuro Sub-County to 95 % in Bumbaire Sub-County. Bushenyi has 1,344 domestic water points which serve a total of 211,461 people – 176,774 in rural areas. Bushenyi has 2 piped schemes.
The district has four tea factories that help in processing the tea and currently Uganda enjoys ready processed tea leaves from these factories. These include Global quality tea factory, Igara grower’s tea factory, Butare Igara tea factory and Kyamuhunga Tea Factory. These factories have also employed a number of people
Bushenyi district’s, wetland conservation project is in the works to restore the natural habitat while pumping water to nearby farmers for year-round cultivation. This is part of sh163 billion government project funded by the Green Climate Fund, which aims to restore 24 degraded wetlands in eastern and southwestern Uganda by 2025.