He had worked in the Office of the President since 1986. He then headed the district tender board of Rakai, and was eventually elected LC-III chairman for Kakuuto sub-county. President Museveni would appoint him an RDC for Lwengo, from where he was elected to parliament.

In July, Kalemba was kicked out of parliament after court ruled he lacked the requisite academic qualifications. But he remains a honourable MP, having appealed. Josephine Namuloki asked Kalemba about his impressions of parliament and issues in his constituency.

What are some of the national issues you feel the 10th parliament needs to urgently attend to?

There are some policies I feel that affect service delivery like in the local government. If you look into our structures like the awarding of contracts at the district, the technical team is involved; [it] verifies, makes the BOQ [bill of quantities], supervises, and recommends payment. You find there is a gap.

We cannot monitor these projects because it is done by the same people at each level. You find that the councils are not empowered; like at the sub-county level the chief is the accounting officer and you find that the councilor at the sub-county is paid Shs 20,000.

How do you feel that you would fight corruption, improve service delivery? The council that has powers to decide on policies, monitor and supervise the activities at the sub-county are not facilitated which encourages corruption even at the district level.

So, the performance is not good. You find even other departments where we need the extension workers like at sub-county, missing. You cannot fight poverty when you don’t have extension workers. There is a ban that they are not recruiting more extension workers, you find the sub-county has only one. So, that is a very big challenge I think the government should come in to rectify.


What have you found most interesting in the 10th parliament so far?

The interaction I have had with different people from the East, North, West and sharing experiences. We have different backgrounds that [combine] experiences and this could help me as a person and my people because even recently I took the committee in charge of East African affairs to meet with leaders of Kakuuto. So, I am lobbying for many more things.

What do you feel is not going well in the 10th parliament so far?

How the information is disseminated is not really good because you find things in the press which we are not aware of and our electorates are not happy.

Really I feel the dissemination of information is not good at parliament here. We need to revisit how we disseminate information, I always appeal to some MPs not to comment where it is not necessary, and you are not supposed to have answers to every question.

Are you blaming the media for asking MPs?

The gap is with parliament. The media has no problem; that is how I see it because the custodian of the information is parliament headed by the clerk, the office of the speaker and the technical staff.

I think they are the people responsible. I think it is these people who talk about the money for cars but have not given [it]  to MPs. But you find some staff saying: ‘we have released the money, we have started paying yet it is not true. They release information knowing that it is not true but they just release it; I don’t know why.

Which MP or MPs inspire you in the 10th parliament?

I cannot specify but many MPs have inspired me and I have learnt a lot how they do things, how they manage. They are many.

What are the major issues in your constituency?

As a border constituency, it has a lot of issues. We are at the border of Mutukula. Security issues are pertinent in the area because people use this border area to steal motorcycles, cows and cross them to Tanzania.

Then another one is that people from across use Lake Victoria to attack our fishermen and steal their fishnets. Our schools are not performing well; we have one health centre IV which is not well-equipped; so, we need government’s support.

You mention insecurity as an issue at the border and Kakuuto has always experienced tension between the residents and the immigrants from Tanzania: how do you intend to handle that?

Recently, we had some refugees at Lukoma airstrip near Sango Bay. Tanzania always dumps their people. They screen people and return them to Uganda, which is a challenge because we don’t know how they do it. But we are grateful to government that those who were put there were transferred to Kitagwenda.

Recently, your constituency was hit by an earthquake. How are your voters coping?

We were hit and 995 houses collapsed while 3,186 developed big cracks. Over 20 institutions, including health centers and schools, were affected. As I talk there are many schools that don’t have toilets.

Toilets and classrooms collapsed and also operations in our health center IV [Kakuuto] theater were suspended due to very big cracks on the ceiling; it is risky to operate there.
 
What other problems have you encountered in your constituency?

Another problem is politics. After elections, people are still divided and you know this affects service delivery because when we bring good programs people do not want to attend to them. Some even avoid meetings; for example, if an MP or chairman calls a meeting and he didn’t support you, people refuse to come or to give you support if he is holding an office.

What are you doing to help your people out of poverty?

I did this some years ago since we had a big Sacco in the constituency where I participated in its establishment. I have asked the youth to form groups so we can assist them through these groups. We are also looking for funding from other sources.

For the women, we have UWESO group where they save money on every Tuesday. I am lobbying the ministry of microfinance to give our people some support in their own groups.

Anything you would like to add?

I want to appeal to government to bridge this gap, to continue sensitizing the communities to respect their leaders. What is happening on the side of MPs will happen also in the local governments.

Now in Uganda you find people don’t trust their leaders at all levels; we cannot serve our people if we are not trusted. If there is a problem, let’s work together everyone needs the other.

I really don’t know now because there is a big gap between the leaders and the electorates. Our communities have a lot of problems and we are failing to serve them because we are handling non-issues. For me, I feel that is a every big gap the government must work on with us leaders.   
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