As the NRM celebrates 37 years of leading Uganda,  Ugandans are  looking back at what the NRM government under the able leadership of President Yoweri Museveni has been able to do. 

Some say nothing has been done but all Ugandans including those in opposition  know that something has been done and all what has been done in all these years are visible to the public and I think that’s the reason as to why the NRM still enjoys a lot of support in all parts of the country. 

The achievement of the National Resistance Movement among many includes building good roads. It is now possible to move from border to border on a good tarmac road. This wasn’t the case before. Ugandans struggled to  transport their agricultural produce. Now the biggest issue is on the community access roads which are supposed to be maintained frequently by districts but  because of the weather and economic situations sometimes these are not maintained but a number of them remain motorable. 

Different measures have been put in place by the government to bring services closer to the people. 

The NRM has remained focused on solving the issues that affect the most common person based on its manifestos.  

One of the wisest decisions that the President ever made was to appoint the Resident District Commissioners and their deputies. 

RDCs have helped the central  government to keep the local governments in check, especially on the issues of accountability and making sure that there’s value for money in all the projects that the central government and the local governments funds. 

If the office of the RDC  didn’t exist in the districts, there is no telling how public funds would be lost in embezzlement hindering the development of the country. Most of these errant people end up in prison while others lose their jobs.

The office of the Resident District Commissioners exists under article 203 of the constitution of the Republic of Uganda, appointed by the President. 

They’re mandated to monitor all government programs and also be the Chairpersons of the district security committees whose membership include the police, UPDF and the intelligence organisations. 

The RDCs have done a tremendous job in keeping peace and stability which one is of the biggest achievements of the National Resistance Movement. 

They coordinate the activities of the security organisations to make sure that there’s peace in their areas of jurisdiction. In instances where the local people are being mistreated by the rich and the powerful, it is usually the RDC who comes up to help and make sure that the common  person gets justice. 

Corruption has been the biggest challenge of government.  Unpatriotic government officials in charge of billions of shillings of public money continue to misuse or steal some of these funds.  The communities which are vigilant have always reported shoddy work to the office of the RDC and the RDC usually intervenes by stopping construction until the contractors do what they’re supposed to do. 

In some cases, however, these cartels write false reports to their supervisors about these RDCs, hoping they will be transferred and let them continue with their thieving schemes. This is why it has become difficult for government to stop corruption because whoever boldly stands to fight corruption is also fought in turn. 

There was a time when land had become a serious problem in Uganda with evictions happening almost every day and big numbers of people being evicted from their land.

People had lost hope and they were attacking each other. This was mostly brought by courts which were delaying cases for reasons  best known to them and others were releasing eviction orders without visiting the locals and understanding the issues about that particular land that people are  fighting for. 

The RDC’s have since carried the burden of solving some of these land cases with local leaders and clan leaders. 

These land issues can ably be solved by negotiations and mediations using a win-win strategy.  The courts should surely change their strategy or maybe the judiciary should think about creating a court that is solely meant to hear cases of land and those  courts should be put in all regions in the country so that they schedule the land cases that have remained in courts for many years as people conflict while others choose to kill  each other. 

After every general elections, the District NRM  party offices usually closes and the officials of the party usually can’t be traced. It is the office of the Resident District Commissioners that answer most queries from the party members given the fact the RDC represents the President who is the National Chairman of the National Resistance Movement. Even the mobilisation is easy with the support from the committed Resident District Commissioners. 

So as the NRM celebrates thirty seven years of existence, I thank the Resident District Commissioners who have done tremendous work in aiding in this journey.  

I pray that RDCs in the near future receive the respect they deserve for the hard work they do on behalf of the government and president.  Being senior civil servants and considering the decisions they make while in office,  the way they are dropped  leaves many of them embarrassed and cursing the day they were appointed to that office. 

In some districts, the people they serve  no longer respect them because they know that an RDC can even be dismissed on phone or on social media.  

Most of them work and live under fear and some have  lost confidence in making critical decisions because they can be dropped anytime. If this can be sorted and the RDCs are reassured of job security, it would be easier for them to execute their duties and also fill in the gaps that exist as of now.