There are two rain seasons every year coming between April-June and August-November.

Before, in 1970, Kaberamaido had been granted a sub-district status in 1970, by the then president, Idi Amin. But some elders in the area rejected the offer and chose to stay under the mother district (Soroti)
But later, they realized the development importance and advantages of a district status to their area and in July 2001, it was granted by the government of Uganda.

NEIGHBOURING DISTRICTS

The district is bordered by; Lira in the west, Katakwi district in the north- east, Soroti to east and shares part of the water of Lake Kyoga to the south.

POPULATION

Kaberamaido district is one of the districts with the fast growing population in the country. It has a projected population of 133,186 of which 51.5 per cent are female and 48.5 per cent are male.

The district is basically rural with 99 people per Sq km of land and has many up-coming trading centres scattered all over the district.

LANGUAGES SPOKEN

The majority of the residents are Kumam speaking flock constituting 65% of the total district population and Ateso.
There are also other small groups of people from different ethnic backgrounds like the Acholi, Lugbara, and lango in Lira.

INFRASTRUCTRAL DEVELOPMENTS

Communication is among the major factors the district has tried to improve. Although the district has not yet been connected with to the national grid, there are many plans set to improve the sector.

At the moment the main source of energy for lighting is fire wood and solar power. However, there are high hopes that under the government Rural Electricity Program, the district will be connected.

Also there are ongoing pans by the major telephone companies to connect the district the modern telecommunication network.

Already, MTN and UTL have started to develop the necessary infrastructures aimed at extending there services in the district.

The district however, has an excellent all terrain marrum road network. It can also be accessed by air transport at Soroti air training school via Soroti district to Katene-kalaki and Bululu.

The district however, has a potential for water transport owing to the navigability of Lake Kyoga that borders much of the district to the south. In the 1960’s and 1970s, water transport thrived and enabled booming trade with Busoga and Buganda Administration.

The lake also provides a great opportunity for tourism, spot canoeing and fishing.

EDUCATION

The district has received improved and increased number of primary school enrollment especially in primary schools. Year 2001 figures indicated that Primary school enrollment in the district is at 43,835 pupils.

Much emphasis has been put on education of the girl child and improvement of the basic subjects like Mathematics and English language.

The district has 78 government-aided primary schools, 8 community primary schools and 3 nursery schools.

It also has 5 government-aided secondary schools and nine privately owned secondary schools.

All the 8 sub-counties have at least a secondary school with the exception of Kobulubulu sub-county that has only a technical institute.

Achievements have been realized in construction of more classrooms using the School Facilitation Gants (SFG) and Local Government Development Program (LGDP)

By 2001, 482 classrooms had been built and accommodated 43,835 pupils. Formerly, the situation was bad and most schools operated under tree shades.
Also 1458 desks were distributed to primary schools and 81 classrooms are under construction.
Other achievements were realized in the improvement of water and sanitation in most schools.

But Education still faces shortage of teachers particularly in remote schools, accommodation for staff members and inadequate learning aids.

There is also the challenge of the future education of the UPE products. The government Universal Secondary Education (USE) is yet to come and the district is facing high levels of school drop out.

HEALTH

Kaberamaido district does not have a government hospital, but has five government aided mini-hospitals located at Kaberamaido, Otuboi, Bululu, Kobulubulu and Alwa.

These mini-hospitals have minor surgical theatres, laboratories, resident medical officers.

The district faces many challenges in the health sector but it has hopes to improve by strategically constructing 10 more health centres at parishes.

It also intends to recruit 30 health workers to strengthen the human resource in the sector.
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

The people of Kaberamaido are basically peasant farmers. The district still uses rudimentary methods of farming in production.

They use animal traction (oxen) to plough the land while hand hoe is the basic tool for cultivation.

The district is among the largest producer of cassava, sorghum, millet, potatoes, maize, Rice, simsim, beans citrus and groundnuts.

Most of these products find their markets in the neighboring districts and sometimes in the capital city (Kampala).

WEATHER

The district is characterized by the Mt. Elgon rainfall zone which is a westward extension of the conditions prevailing on the plateau and mountains of neighboring Kenya. The district’s climate is also affected by altitude.

There are two wet seasons in the district and their duration varies from area to area depending on the altitude and topography. The annual rainfall ranges between 920mm to 1,650mm. Areas in the north tend to have drier and sometimes erratic conditions while it is wetter in the south-western areas.

HEALTH

Kapchorwa district has one hospital (Kapchorwa Hospital has a total of 64 beds), 27 health units, two health centers grade IV, 11 health centers grade III and 17 health centre grade II. The district has 598 villages, therefore it is still very under-developed in terms of health unit coverage.

According to the district health inspector Mr Ekau Oluga, malaria remains top in the district disease burden. Others are respiratory tract infections, intestinal worms, malnutrition, eye diseases, trauma, ear diseases, diarrhea and sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS.

POPULATION

With the population of 193,000 people, housing is improving year by year from grass thatched houses to corrugated iron sheets. The housing coverage is at 50%.

The improvement of housing has been attributed to the improvement on feeder roads. People are now building along feeder roads and many are securing plots along the main roads.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Agriculture is the main economic activity with emphasis on food crops like maize, wheat, beans, sunflower, groundnuts, yams, peas, Irish potatoes and finger millet. The cash crops include cotton, coffee and wheat. There are also vegetables like tomatoes, onions, cabbages as well as passion fruit.

Land shortage, however, makes it hard to open large-scale commercial farms in most parts of Kapchorwa. Further, the mountainous terrain makes agricultural mechanization harder.

Live stock farming is another economic activity with Cattle population of 64,738, 73,493 Goats, and 39,534 Sheep.

TOURISM POTENTIAL IN KAPCHORWA

Sipi water falls still stands as the main tourist attraction in the district besides at geographical attractions like its mountainous landscape that makes Kapchorwa a Switzerland of Uganda.

Sipi water falls, scenery beyond reproach. Kapchorwa is endowed with numerous streams rising out of Mount Elgon. It also has the Mise cave where early man used to stay.

FACILITIES

Kapchorwa is linked to the rest of the country by road. There is ample electricity to support industrial development. The district has a hospital and 25 health units.

Kanungu district has a tropical type of climate, receiving moderate and fairly well distributed annual rainfall of about 1,200mm. The district receives a bimodal type of rainfall from February to May and September to December; while the rest of the months are dry. Temperatures range from 15oC to 20 degrees C on average.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The district has a fairly distributed feeder road network and community access roads that facilitate transport within the district and beyond. There are two small airstrips at Kayonza Tea Factory and Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Hotels include Savanna Resort situated in Kihihi, a number of tourist camps in Bwindi and many smaller ones in Kanungu Town, Kihihi and Butogota trading centres.
AGRICULTURE

Agriculture provides the livelihood for the vast majority of Kanungu residents, with major staple food crops being bananas, sweet and Irish potatoes, rice, sorghum, beans and millet. The district also produces a number of cash crops including tobacco and tea.

There is a tea factory in Kayonza sub-county that produces tea for local, national and international markets. The tobacco grown in the district is primarily sold to British American Tobacco Uganda (BATU) which trains and facilitates farmers that grow the crop.

Silk production was only recently introduced. Mulberry has also been found to grow well but shortage of market has hampered expansion in production.

EDUCATION

Kanungu district also intends to reduce the illiteracy rate by encouraging functional Adult Literacy and support Universal Primary Education; provide improved hybrid seeds and animal; and safe drinking water.

Among the priorities to be addressed are Universal Primary Education (UPE), Primary Health Care, Provision of office accommodation, Maintenance of Feeder Roads, Agriculture Extension and Water and Sanitation.

Others are Adult Literacy Programmes, Promotion of Programmes for the Youth, Women and people with disabilities; widening the revenue base; Accountability and Transparency.
HEALTH

The district aims to deliver health services to all the people of Kanungu in affordable distances; link all commercial centres by road net to enable farmers sell their produce in order to raise household income.

The escarpments host a variety of flora and fauna such as the sycad birds, collubus monkeys, phoenix reclinata and kayanyasika tree species which are good for tourism.

POPULATION

The district has a population of 267,364 people i.e. 136,896 females and 130,468 males. District Population growth rate 3.3% per annum compared to the National average of 3.4% p.a.95% of the population is rural based, and 55% of this population is females.80% of the district economy is agro-based.

EDUCATION

The district has 140 government aided primary schools and seven government secondary schools. 11 secondary schools are private schools.

The enrolment in primary school stands at 69,318 while the number of teachers is 1,205. The teacher pupil ratio for Kamwenge is 1:57 and where as the classroom pupil ratio for Kamwenge is 1:74, the desk pupil ratio is 1:7

HEALTH

Kamwenge has two health sub-districts, each health centre IV now has a medical officer while other health units have staff ranging from clinical officers, nurses, and midwives.

INFRASTRUCTURE

The district road network is quite small but 14 roads have been upgraded to feeder roads status.

Facility/Service No
Total kilometres of feeder road 157
Total kilometres of main road (Trunk road) 45

Telephone Providers
• MTN Uganda
• Uganda Telecom

AGRICULTURE

Most of the people in Kamwenge engage in subsistence agriculture. A cross-section of people in the district is engaged in sizeable cultivation of maize crop beyond subsistence level.

Other food crops grown are bananas, beans finger millet, cassava, groundnuts, sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes. The cash crops include coffee in Kitagwenda and parts of Kibale County and cotton in Mahyoro sub-county.

There is a lot of cattle rearing in the sub-counties of Nkoma and Bwizi and Kitagwenda County too. The latter also accounts for a large proportion of improved livestock rearing and fish farming.

The Byabasambu seed multiplication centre carries out multiplication of high yielding crop seeds and animals at the moment. Demonstration in animal traction is also undertaken here. The centre’s training and hostel facilities are nearing completion.

New crops and technologies successfully introduced from Byabasambu in the district include among others: Upland rice in areas of Mahyoro
Improved banana species in areas of Kahunge, Kamwenge, Kicheche and Ntara, Mosaic andResistant cassava and demonstration in animal traction now popular in areas of Kamwenge, Kahunge and parts of Nkoma and Nyabbani.

The district now has over 200 animal traction units and maize production in those areas has greatly increased. There is a lot of indigenous cattle rearing in the sub-counties of Nkoma and Bwizi while Kitagwenda County accounts for a large proportion of improved livestock rearing. Generally, animals kept in the district are mainly indigenous. These include cattle, goats, sheep, pigs and chicken. For commercial value, cattle are a viable enterprise, followed by goats and pigs.

They are kept more or less on free-range basis. In order to improve on the current breeds, provision of better breeds such as boran bulls, Boer goats is essential.

Apiary
This is a new enterprise that is gaining popularity among peasant farmers. However, great potential exists in Kicheche, Kahunge Bwizi and Nkoma sub-counties where the lush vegetation provides enough nectar for honey production.

POPULATION

The total population is 712, 079{2002 census} projected to be 856,563 by 2005; 346,847 males and 365,232 females.
The annual growth rate is 5.1%. Kamuli has a population density of 236 persons per Km2.

Kamuli district is a multi cultural society (owing to its history of various decentralized communities) that breeds with a fast developing district. This is a multi-ethnic community, with the predominant ethnic group being the Basoga with 76% followed by the Itesot at 3.9% and the Banyoro-Bagungu with 1.8%.The Basoga people who inhabit it are warm and welcoming with a success record in trade and farming. The district is covered with a mixture of forest remnant and Savannah wood land. The predominantly language spoken in Kamuli is Lusoga, a little Luganda and English. Kamuli’s peace and serene has favoured social and economic development.

CLIMATE AND VEGETATION

The predominant vegetation cover in the district is the forest/ savannah type of mosaic consisting of a mixture of forest remnants and savannah trees with grass and shrubs. Much of it is secondary vegetation that has succeeded the original forest cover as a result of farming, fuel harvesting and other forms of land use.

The district experiences a bimodal type of rainfall with peaks in March – June as well as August – November. The annual average rainfall is 1350 mm, while the monthly mean is 75 mm to 100 mm.
Kamuli is a warm district with average annual temperature range in most areas of 190 C – 250C. Temperatures are a little higher in the south.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES AND INVESTMENTS

The major form of trade in the district is retail. The major centers of trade are Kamuli Town Council and Kaliro Town Board, which is also to be upgraded to a town council status.

Fishing is a major economic activity in the waters of L. Kyoga and River Nile. This would be a big potential for revenue area for the district but there is still a lot of mismanagement. The fishermen entirely depend on fishing with no alternative income generation projects. This has caused temptations and use of unscrupulous methods of fishing such as use of undersized nets and smuggling accelerating the depletion of the fish resource. This is a threat to tomorrow.

Most livestock kept in the district are the local breeds. There are very few cross breeds on some of the fenced farms. There have been annual sporadic out breaks of livestock and crop diseases. These could not fully be contained due to under funding of the disease control programmes. Livestock Statistics can be seen below;
Cattle are 160,000 heads, Goats total to 148,000, fenced farms are up to 140, Zero grazing units number to 150.

Upland rice has been selected as the strategic enterprise for development in the whole district under the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) programme. Production is predominantly small scale and subsistence with the hand hoe as the dominant tool and no modern farming skills/ technology used such as irrigation.
The commercial aspect of farming has only been introduced through the NAADS programme which is one year old now in the district.

INFRUSTRUCTURE

Railway and water transport are not significant in the district. The main railway line was the one popularly known as the Namasagali line linking Bugogo to Kampala and Mombassa port but, it is no longer in use following the decline in cotton production.

WATER SUPPLY
Kamuli largely depends on boreholes as the main source of reliable water. The areas around Lake Kyoga in the North and Northeast fetch from those sources. These include parts of the sub-counties of Kagulu, Kidera, Nkondo, Namwiwa and Buyende. The district currently has water supply coverage of approximately 49.6%. Kamuli Town Council is supplied with piped water from the valley tank at Namalemba, 4 kms from town and 3 production boreholes just outside the council boundaries. The district currently has water supply coverage of approximately 49.6%.

The Government of Uganda has been the main actor in the sub-sector through conditional grants or Poverty Action Fund, though some NGOs such as Plan International and Christian Children Fund (CCF) supplied some sources.

Kamuli Town Council is supplied with piped water from the valley tank at Namalemba, 4 kms from town and 3 production boreholes just outside the council boundaries.
The Eastern Centers Water and Sanitation project finalized the piped water network for Kamuli Town Council and Kaliro Town Council. 94.5% of the water points installed are functional.
A mechanism of sustaining the operation and maintenance of the water sources in Kamuli has been put in place with water committees in charge.

The district is ably serviced by MTN, Celtel Uganda and Uganda telecom telephone companies which have improved communication.

Postal services are also available by Posta Uganda and private courier companies in the towns of Kalilo and Kamuli.

Kamuli district is served with a 24 hour hydro electricity supply all year round.

HEALTH

Immunization coverage stands at 82.4% of all the children in the district. Rehabilitative Health – Provision of wheel chairs and clutches to people with disability has been done support by the Norwegian Government (NORAD) through the Ministry of Health.

Immunization coverage stands at 82.4% of all the children in the district…
Rehabilitative Health – Provision of wheel chairs and clutches to people with disability has been done support by the Norwegian Government (NORAD) through the Ministry of Health

1 Government Hospital of (100 beds)
3 Health Centre IVs of Kidera, Bumanya and Namwendwa plus Nankandulo
10 Health Centre IIIs (at Sub County

Nankandulo Health Centre IV has been completed With Local Government Development Plan (LGDP). Nawankofu Health Centre II in Namasagali Sub County is complete and has structures and equipped under the Spanish Loan programme.

Programmes are in place to prevent the spread and in order to minimize the negative effects HIV/AIDS has had on the people of Iganga. These include;

Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) for HIV/AIDS
Health Education especially for adolescents in and out of school.
Treatment of STDs and other HIV Opportunistic infections.
Community Led HIV/Aids Initiative CHAIs programme – 127 sub projects funded.
Another 279 projects are to be funded soon.