Kigezi College Butobere in a dire state, enrollment drops from 1000 to 150 Students, only 5 in S1

Delayed funds previously promised by Government has been cited as a stumbling block in a struggle to restore sanity of the oldest and colonially established secondary school in Kigezi Region.

The planned rehabilitation activities will require comprehensive and money minting renovations to have the former regional academic powerhouse functional again.

Government and other stakeholders reportedly budgeted for Ugx5bn to cause the face lift of  a 65 year old school whose infrastructure is apparently in sorry state due to poor administrators whose management style persistently attracted serial violent and destructive reactions inform of never ending students strikes that for long ended up rendering the school dysfunctional with minimal capacity to attract quality teachers, students and revenues critical for smooth running of a school.

Mighty SINIYA as commonly called, formerly established to accommodate between 1,000 and 1,500 students, has apparently 150 students.

All four school flashing toilets within dormitories have been closed because they were vandalized during the lockdown as of now the school currently uses two pit latrines outside the dormitories whose doors were also vandalized.

In a bid to reverse Siniya’s the status quo, several strategies have been by drawn ranging from bursaries for both best performing teachers and students, arranged by Old Boys Associations headed by former Prime Minister of Uganda, Amama Patrick Mbabazi.

Additionally, these forces reportedly influenced government that later announced and reportedly released a renovation package of 1.19 billion out of 5bn required.

This has been followed by visitations by the technical team from Ministry of Education and the Sports that equally okayed the renovations required at the school.

There reportedly poor relationship between Kabale Municipal Council in which the school is located and officials in Ministry of Financial has however, had a stagnating effect on kick off of this high anticipated rehabilitation.

The bad blood between these government bodies has been cited in the refusal to give a letter of no objection by latter to the former crucially to facilitate access of the mentioned funds on Municipal accounts.

Amidst regressive forces towards rejuvenation of a Kigezi rural based school that pioneered and championed western education in Western Uganda whose products such Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde, Hon Amama Mbabazi , late Hon Prof Emmanuel Mutebile   have equally participated in revolutionizing Uganda politically, economically and socially, it remains our hope that all concerned and involved officials both at local and national level will found common ground and do the needful for the betterment of not Kigezi College Butobere, but also to the entire infrastructure of Public Secondary Schools both faith based and non-faith based especially ones outside Central Uganda.

Other prominent OBS  include: Dr Shaka Ssali Veteran Journalist and Former Host of Straight Talk Africa on Voice of America, Rt. Rev. Nathan Rusengo Byamukama the Bishop of Cyangugu Disocese in the Republic of Rwanda, Moses Turyomurugyendo Ntahobari – Director, Audit and Advisory Services at Shore Partners CPA now Current Chairman Board Of Governors.

Andrew Bakoraho

Writer, Researcher and Policy Analyst.