Frank Nyakairu
18 January 2006
Kampala — TWENTY years after his bush war, President Yoweri Museveni has gone back to his roots and is building two primary schools in northern Tanzania.
The schools, according to reliable sources in northern Tanzania, are still under construction in the villages of Mhutwe in Muleba District and Nyamiyaga in Karagwe District, bordering Uganda from the south.
The Citizen Newspaper in Tanzania was the first to report about the schools - and last week the BBC on its morning programme Network Africa relayed interviews with locals near the schools who sounded quite elated by the project.
Presidential Press Secretary, Onapito Ekomoloit could neither deny nor confirm this development when Daily Monitor contacted him yesterday.
"President Museveni has lived in Tanzania and has since been in touch with the people there, he could have done this as a personal decision or in joint partnership with other people." Onapito said yesterday.
The cost of the project is not yet known and if the President is using his personal money or taxpayers'. The schools are expected to be completed in months and will be commissioned by President Museveni, who expects to be re-elected in office in the February 23 presidential polls.
One of Museveni's achievements during his tenure is the free Universal Primary Education programme. But it been criticised for churning out poor quality pupils due to poor study facilities like low teacher motivation and lack of teaching aid materials.
Museveni launched his political career in Tanzania as a student and politician.
In 1971, from exile in Tanzania, he formed the Front for National Salvation to fight the late Idi Amin. In 1979, Museveni's group supported Tanzania's military invasion of Uganda, which overthrew Amin.
In the 1980 elections, he led the Uganda Patriotic Movement, which challenged the late Milton Obote. Unhappy with Obote's autocratic leadership, he formed the National Resistance Army (NRA), which spearheaded a rural-based guerrilla rebellion.
After Tanzanian troops withdrew, Museveni and the NRA fought to remove Obote from power, which was achieved in 1985. Museveni entered into a brief power-sharing agreement with Tito Okello before taking over as President of Uganda in 1986.
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