Bugweri youths concerned with poor monitoring of govt programs, threaten to vote out leaders

Bugweri, (UG):- A section of youth leaders in Bugweri District are displeased with the leadership in their area saying they have not been prioritized in government programs, something they have attributed to poor monitoring of the programs intended for youths.

Led by Mr Musirimu Katwala, the parish youth leader of Bukoteka Parish in Ibulanku Sub County, the youths say their leaders including the LC5 chairperson and their members of parliament have failed to fulfil the promises which they made to the youths during the campaign season of 2021.

The youths showed their dissatisfaction during a press conference held on Sunday at Butende village, Busesa town council in Bugweri district where they pointed out the concern of high rate of unemployment in youths stressing that their leaders promised to introduce them to technical schools to train youths in skills but they have since failed to realize the promising, putting the youths’ expectations at stake.

“Currently you cannot identify any government program that is running and it is beneficial to the entire district. We don’t have community schools leaving alone the seed schools which were lobbied by late Kirunda Kivejinja but our leaders especially the Members of Parliament have not prioritized these developments,” Mr Katwala said.

The youth leaders pledged to support leaders who will support them in return especially those who are community-oriented, citing that they need the technical education to take shape in their district, especially by introducing a technical institute which can cater for students who cannot continue with academic education.

Mr Kakaire Nasser, one of the youth leaders in the district blamed one of the leaders in Bugweri, without mentioning his/her name who has reigned for close to 25 years but all the years have been full of empty promises and he pledged to mobilize his people to abandon such leaders and move on with those who are ready to support development projects in the district with consideration of youths.

“We were given empty promises in 2021 during campaigns and one of them was to boost the welfare of youths by creating possible ways of employing educated youths. Another one is introducing for us a technical institute in the area, so we cannot continue being in a line where unfulfilled promises are continuously being made to us by the same people who promised in 2021 and again planning to come in 2026 to do the same,” Mr. Nasser Kakaire said.

They also stressed the poor nature of their road and the locals have since failed to transport their agricultural produce to get ready markets given the fact that most of them are peasants. The youths noted the concern of health facilities which lack capacity to handle the health needs of the people given the continued lack of drugs in the facilities and they attributed it to poor representation and monitoring by their members of parliament. 

Mr. Katwala said their programs meant to help the youths, are being benefited by people who are beyond the age of youths and said the Youths Livelihood Program (YLP) has not worked out and the current Parish Development Model (PDM) program with a certain percentage (30%) strictly for youths has also been mismanaged, something which has left the youths in questions on how they can improve their wellbeing with help of their leaders.

“There is no monitoring of youth programs in Bugweri district. The youth program which is meant to benefit youths from age of 18 to 35 is being benefited by persons who also have their own funds from the government like the elderly funds. We want a program that is monitored by the members of parliament; we want them on ground once in a while to come monitor these programs. It will be difficult to establish that Emyooga, PDM or YLP were implemented to 30% in the district if you happen to find out,” Mr. Katwala said.

This comes after Bugweri district was cut off from Iganga seven years ago with the major objective of ensuring good service delivery to the people as well as bringing the services nearer to the people but challenges continue to exist in sectors like transport, health, education, among others.

Even though the youths didn’t mention anyone in their comments, the district is represented by Hon. Abdul Katuntu, the county Member of Parliament who has reigned for close to 25 years and Hon. Racheal Magoola alias Obangaina, the district Woman representative who has just entered the house in the current term.

However, speaking to the RDC Bugweri district Ms. Billy Janet Mulindwa, she confirmed that the government has got a skilling program which is benefitting youths in Busoga including some from Bugweri. She confirmed that the youths’ money is being handled in the right way, urging youths to involve in a number of groups targeting funds from government programs.

“Gov’t introduced a skilling program at Nakabango in Jinja and we also have youths there from Bugweri district and others already finished their courses in tailoring, baking and others. Even those who did not go to Nakabango, we have a percentage in PDM which goes to the youths in addition to other government programs,” RDC Mulindwa said before urging youths to involve themselves in skilled labour and to always consult the office of the RDC whenever need arises.