The LCIII chairperson of Ddyango Town Council, Elias Wangi Ssemanda, revealed that he has already handed in a petition through the office of Rakai Resident District Commissioner (RDC) to President Museveni revealing the intentions of the secessionists.
Kooki seeks to break off from Buganda due to poor service delivery
Chairpersons in the different sub-counties of Rakai District have announced that they seek to secede from Buganda region citing the alleged poor service delivery that their people are supposedly subjected to.
However, the Rakai RDC Sarah Kiyimba neither confirmed nor denied the petition.
“I will not say no or yes. I just have no comment,” she said.
The petition comes from the sub-counties that make up the greater part of Kooki chiefdom, and the secessionists are moving forward with conviction arising from their grievances.
“We have realised that when it comes to service delivery, we always lag behind, especially when it comes to infrastructure like roads, schools, health centres and water services. We have therefore made a move to have our own region and we hope we shall achieve it,” Ssemanda said.
Richard Mbaziira, chairperson Lwamaggwa Town Council in Rakai District, who is also supporting the secession, said that as an independent and bigger structure, they will be able to ask for more resources.
“We all know that a municipality and a city have higher budgets with better service delivery depending on even the employees unlike our normal district local governments. We need such better services if our people are to grow and improve their standards of living,” Mbaziira said.
Despite the cultural tensions that have been brewing between the chiefdom and Buganda kingdom, the secessionists maintain that their cause is not political.
“We don’t mind whether we are under the Kamuswaga or the Kabaka, but we instead need better service delivery. People have misquoted us and connected our struggle with culture, which is not true,” he said, referring to the long-standing Buganda-Kooki impasse.
The secession comes five months after the pre-Masaza (county) cup saw Kooki loyalists clashing with the Buganda loyalists during the launch of the football tournament at the Lwamaggwa playgrounds.
Last week, the possibility of a similar altercation was stopped when police halted Buganda kingdom from organising a match between Gomba and Kooki as a precautionary move.
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