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THE presidency minister Kirunda Kivejinja yesterday asked Parliament for US$77m (over sh150b) to redevelop the dilapidated State House Entebbe, reports Milton Olupot.
Kivejinja, while leading three Parliament committees on an on-the-spot assessment of the State House facilities, said he needed about $20m to start off the redevelopment work.
Kivejinja, flanked by the President’s Principal Assistant Secretary, Lucy Mbonye, said the plan would be executed in three phases and that the State House would be ready for occupation in 2007.
Presidential and foreign affairs committee chairperson Salaamu Musumba (Bugabula South) led the MPs.
The other committees were for local government and works, housing and communication.
The MPs wondered whether it was not more economic to raze the building and build a new modern one.
The legislators toured Entebbe State House, Makindye State Lodge and Okello House near Nakasero State House. MPs w
ere shocked at the state of the Entebbe State House with bare rain-socked walls, damaged wooden floors, a gaping ceiling and bare electric wires.
There was near disaster when one MP entered a gaping hole on the wooden floor doubling as the ceiling for the ground level. He lay flat on his back as his colleagues helped to pull him out.
Kivejinja said three million Pound sterling was spent on renovating the State House in 1993. He told MPs that the redevelopment cost was first estimated at $50m and it rose to $65m.
Local government committee chairman Anthony Yiga (Kalungu West), Sammy Ogwel Lotee (Moroto Municipality), Aggrey Awori (Samia Bugwe North), John Arimadri (Madi Okolo), Mindra Joyo (Moyo) and Peter Mutuluza (Mawokota North) agreed with Kivejinja that the Makindye State Lodge be developed to house the vice-President.
The two-acre facility, located on a hill in Makindye, is currently occupied by army men. It has two dilapidated main house
s, servants quarters and an ammunition store. It is protected by a perimeter wall and has two gates.
The Government rents a house in Ntinda for the vice-president, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, but he recently said with effect from June, the Government would not rent the house.
The MPs said the matter of the VP’s house should be handled with urgency for security and economic considerations.
Kivejinja said the Okello House is hired at $23,500 monthly for 15 years, running till 2011.
Ends
Published on: Tuesday, 2nd March, 2004 |
