Quest For Better Service Delivery Forcing Advocate Madira To contest For Upper Madi Parliamentary Seat
Jimmy Madira, the Upper Madi County MP Hopeful. Photo Credit_Andrew Cohen Amvesi
MADI-OKOLLO. After 20 years of legal practice, Jimmy Madira of Madira and Company Advocates, is now considering to contest as the Upper Madi County Member of Parliament (MP) in pursuit for better service delivery for the people of Madi Okollo district.
Madira, who intends to contest on the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party ticket come 2026 general elections, wants to use the opportunity to lobby resources from the government to address the common social challenges in Upper Madi County as well as fixing the leadership gap in the area.
Once elected, Madira would have unseated Isaac Etuka (NRM), the incumbent Upper Madi County MP who is currently serving his second term in office.
“If you go to Upper Madi, you will not find any resemblance of leadership, the place is as if there is no leader; everything is in shambles! For example, there is nobody accountable to the people, even receiving basic government services, you don’t know who is to deliver them and where and at what time, whom do you ask and so on,” Madira said during an exclusive interview in his office on Tuesday, January 14, 2025.
He added that: “Many of the areas in Upper Madi are not benefiting from the government services. There is poor service delivery; people are not getting the services they are entitled to get from the government, and this is a very serious hindrance to the development of Upper Madi which has been marginalized for a very long time.”
Madira observed that there are currently no proper roads in Upper Madi County, stressing that the roads that existed five to ten years ago have deteriorated to the extent that you can’t even walk on foot.
“Trees have grown where there were roads especially on the Uleppi – Ofaka road which is completely closed among others. Bridges have collapsed, there are no proper health centers, the whole county has only a health center III which doesn’t have a medical doctor and they are poorly staffed. People are still in Upper Madi drinking water with animals. People share the same well with Baboons; children can’t fetch water because they are scared by animals and animals like cows and baboons at times dirten water before people fetch it,” Madira narrated.
If given the opportunity, Madira promised to ensure that there is accountability for all funds meant for service delivery in the district and Upper Madi in particular.
He said as a district, they must have their priorities set right from the beginning by generating service demands from the grassroot as opposed to the top bottom approach.
“Development doesn’t just come from up and it is imposed on people. We want to sit with LCIs and ask what they want in their villages; is it a well, a school, a health center or a market? We generate this discussion with the LCIs, we document it and follow it to LCII up to the Parliament for allocation of resources. So, we are for a bottom to top approach because the top to bottom approach has failed,” Madira emphasized.
“We want to encourage the participation of the common people; we want them to identify their problems and my role as an MP will then be to lobby the government to allocate resources to meet the demands that have been generated from the villages. I will play my role and also encourage my people to support me,” Madira remarked.
He noted that in delivery of services, there is a lot of corruption which he intends to fight so as to allow the common person to benefit from the national cake.
“So, there is a big gap in delivery of services which we intend to follow and also encourage the local governments to perform their roles. We intend to empower councilors, teach them about their roles and make sure that they debate ideas that can help the ordinary people,” Madira promised.
Thank you very much for the observations, it’s true Upper Madi is not shinning like other counties; I am personally suggesting:-
* You to gear up consultation meetings with immediate effect
* Form functional structures from s/ty level to village level and let it be people who have good records (some people may be in the structure for different reasons.
* We are praying for you and God will make the way.