Mukolo ward councilor . caring for communities
AS a medical scientist by profession, her job involves taking care of people. She extended her drive to taking care of the community and this made her vie for political office by standing as a civic leader during the 2016 general elections. Meet Mukolo ward councilor in Kayama constituency, Mulenga Bupe.
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF
My name is Mulenga Bupe. Am a family woman, married with two children? Am a medical scientist by profession, currently am Mukolo ward councilor in Kayama constituency under the ruling Patriotic Front.
FOR HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN POLITICS?
I was elected in the 2016 general polls. Before that I was just a member of the party and working as a health personnel but leadership has been in because I have been working with the community in the health sector so I thought I should extend my passion for the community by being a civic leader.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ACHIEVEMENT YOU HAVE SCORED IN YOUR WARD
I must say I have achieved some of the things that I promised the people before I was elected me.I Promised to build a water system in Linda, because there was water blues in Linda compound.
Now at least people have water in the area though we still have a problem. Most water kiosk are not working.
But I can say we have completed part of the big problem so we still need the water kiosks. So the Lusaka water and sewerage need to maintain these kiosk by unblocking them.
Secondly we had talked about provision of schools in the ward during our campaigns, community schools are using pit latrine when these schools are right in the capital city. So we are working on an abolition block at Mukolo School so that it have flushable toilets.
We didn’t have enough speed humps on Linda road which is a new road, so this caused danger to the communities around the compound. With the help of J and J we provided the speed humps and two bus stations.
However we need more humps because there is a sharp curve along the road which is not safe for road users and school going children and we still experience high number of accidents on this new road.
We have an issue of recreation center in our ward, but we have a bare land in the middle of a residential place, so instead of young people engaging in bad vices such as beer drinking, we have decided to turn this land into a football and netball pitch.
A contract has been awarded to a certain company which will soon start with the first phase being the planting of grass then the second phase will be putting up a perimeter fence. Sports bring people together so in that way youth can be kept busy and stay away from bad vices that can ruin their lives.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU ARE FACING IN TERMS OF DEVELOPING YOUR WARD?
As I mentioned earlier the issue of water is still a challenge in the ward, most kiosk are not working and are in bad state which need maintained so that they meet the high water demand in the ward.
We also have a challenge in terms of how we can empower our youths but we are looking at how we can best empower these youths in the ward.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT YOU INTEND TO BRING IN THE WARD?
Empowering youths and women is what am looking at now, if we can empower the community they will be able to help themselves.
In Linda there is a lot of space so if we can pick a number of women and empower them in chicken rearing. We have a certain lady who can teach our women how to make sausages she is based in Lusaka West. So these are some of the plans that I have.
WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS?
I want to stand in the deputy mayoral elections so I have submitted my candidatures and I believe this office should be an office that support gender. Am a gender activist so even if I don’t win I would like to see a fellow female to take up the position.
Am happy that for the first time in our history we have a female vice president. Fifty per cent law makers must be female. Sometimes we are discouraged by our husband and other we need to be able to counter these things and rise up to the occasion.
Am still young and I would like to be part of the fifty percent of women who are in governance and any other leadership position.
