Despite of the abundant natural resources in Kasese, hundreds of people are still swimming in poverty, the District Chairperson retired Lt.Col Mawa Muhindo has said.
"The District is endowed with fertile soils, fresh water, good weather and roads, electricity, salt lakes, national parks and the Geo-economic proximity", Muhindo said.
He was presenting a status of the District report to the seating of the council chambers on Friday.
"If God came to Kasese today, he would punish the leaders for not guiding our people to harness this God and Government given wealth", Muhindo said.
He urged leaders to entice residents of Kasese, currently estimated at 721,000 to tap the huge market in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which he said has about six million people.
Muhindo asked the leaders to work on reducing the gap between the existing resources and poverty in the District.
He also urged the leaders to work on the negative attitudes of the people by discarding the dependency syndrome.
"I therefore urge this council to positively provoke the people into wealth creation," Muhindo said.
The District speaker Zephanus Mubingwa, blamed the development challenges in the district on poor co-ordination among the various organs of the council.
Mawa hailed the Central Government for the financial support, noting that the district had so far received sh 1.72b of the 2011/2012 budget out of the required 35.51b.
He said while the central Government had injected over 10.9b, an additional sh612m had come from the Belgium Technical Cooperation.
Adopted from New vision 12/12.2011 pg 9
