Museveni meets Ghetto SACCO leaders, fulfills Shs 1.2bln pledge

ENTEBBE, August 3, 2024 – President Museveni has tasked the ghetto youths to advocate for the interests of the masses like free education for all and prosperity for all as well as embracing government poverty alleviation like the Parish Development Model [PDM] to uplift their livelihoods.

Museveni made the call days ago while meeting leaders of the ghetto SACCOs in Kampala Metropolitan Area at State House, Entebbe.

The group included 100 ghetto youth leaders who are also the heads of the 12 ghetto SACCOs in Kampala, Wakiso, and Mukono.

During the meeting, Museveni underscored the role of the ghetto people in the liberation of Uganda.

“What you call ghetto people, in the 1950s used to be called “Abawejere” and they were centred around Katwe. When Uganda was fighting for Independence, much of the activities were around Katwe and I think the first offices of the Uganda National Congress were located in Katwe and that is where I think Dr. I.K Musazi and Dr. Barnabas Kunuka and others operated from. Even Augustino Kamya who organised the boycott of Indian goods in 1958 was from Katwe,” said Museveni.

Museveni explained that when former President Idi Amin announced his coup on the 25th of January, 1971, the former students together with the help of the Abawejere decided to fight him because they believed in solving the problems of the people.

The President further assured the ghetto youths that the National Resistance Movement [NRM] government is pro-people that emphasises politics of interest and works for all Ugandans.

He also rallied the ghetto youths to hold their leaders accountable and demand what is meant for them.

According to Museveni, the problem of the ghetto people started when the educated people (elite) failed to deal with the uneducated although also the uneducated have had their weaknesses like the failure to hold their elected leaders accountable.

On the other hand, Museveni tasked the ghetto youths to advocate for the interests of the masses like free education for all and prosperity for all as well as embracing government poverty alleviation like the Paris Development Model [PDM]to uplift their livelihoods.

“It’s good now that we have the group of Ddamulira which has linked up with you again, then we will be able to guide you on how to defend the interests of the masses. This is your country and home, you should defend it, you shouldn’t get involved in criminality like illegal protests,” he said.

“In 1997, we launched UPE; education for all in government schools but the people you elect have paralyzed that effort on the ground by always putting charges and other excuses, but you don’t even talk about it. Now get moving, we are already sending all this money; the PDM, Emyooga and now we are adding on something else, and this is just the beginning.”

Furthermore, the President cautioned the ghetto youths against being used by politicians with selfish motives who always land them into criminality.

Museveni also fulfilled his Shs 1.2 billion pledge to the 12 ghetto SACCOs [Shs100 million each] in Kampala Metropolitan Area which he had promised to give them during a meeting at Kololo Independence Grounds last year.

“From the Shs 100 million you can do something for yourselves. In the villages, we’re encouraging people into commercial farming. It’s good that you have a base here in the town where you have small businesses, artisanship, services like salons and others. Those are areas you should participate in within your groups,” the President told the youth.

On her part, the Minister of Kampala Capital City and Metropolitan Affairs, Minsa Kabanda thanked Museveni for the support towards the ghetto people, a manifest that they are part and parcel of Uganda and contribute toward the development of Uganda.

“These people have been trained on how to manage their SACCOs and we are very sure that most of them are now transformed. Those who are yet to transform, will also be transformed,” Kabanda said.

The Director of Crime Intelligence and project coordinator, Brig Gen. Christopher Ddamulira said the ghetto project started under the guidance of President Museveni in March 2022 and he has been working on it with his team under the leadership of the Minister Kabanda and the State House Comptroller, Jane Barekye.

“Previously, these ghetto youth did not have leadership but one thing which we did was to create leadership from the youth themselves, so we conducted elections through which we got leaders at zone, parish and division level.”

He added that the structure was launched by the Minister of Internal Affairs in August 2022 at Lugogo Indoor Stadium and upon the launch, they started on the process of organising the youths into SACCOs because they noticed that previously a number of people would lobby from the government for the ghetto youths, get resources, which never reach the intended recipients.

“What we did was to form the SACCOs and started training the leaders of those SACCOs on how to manage them and then we carried out the mobilisation to ensure that the members themselves begin to save under those SACCOs. Your Excellency, after you launched them, we went into a super drive and as I speak now,  we are talking about 3,280 savers in the 12 SACCOs and before you make available resources that you are going to provide today, the youths on their own had reached Shs13.7m from their own savings. We thank you for fulfilling the pledge that you made to them in Kololo last year,” Brig. Gen. Ddamulira said.

Ddamulira further noted that the intervention has started yielding fruits by tremendously reducing criminality in Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono.

“Even if you look at the Police report that we issue every year, the last report clearly indicated that the crime level has gone down but also in political violence, these are the people that the politicians have always used to cause confusion in Kampala because they felt they didn’t have a stake in what’s happening in the country. All those crimes have reduced Your Excellency, even recently during the planned march to Parliament, we didn’t register a singer ghetto youth getting involved in those things,” he asserted.

“Your Excellency, we believe that this project is working very well, and your support will go a long way by making the resources they have been lacking available and we embark on so many projects that we couldn’t implement because of the limitation of funding.”

Shafik Kalyango, the leader of the ghetto youths, expressed gratitude to Museveni for empowering the ghetto people through financial and moral support.

He also thanked Museveni for fulfilling his promise of Shs 1.2bln contribution to their ghetto SACCOs.

“Your Excellency, we have evidence that the money reached our bank accounts,” he said.

https://thecooperator.news/museveni-fires-embattled-ssali-as-trade-ministry-ps/

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