A grass field at Iringa Township Primary School filled with tents, drums and thousands of people on Wednesday, all gathered for one woman’s gratitude.
Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda, the Minister for the Presidency and Member of Parliament for Budiope West, had called her constituents home to Nkondo Sub-county in Buyende District for a Thanksgiving ceremony.
At the centre of it was a story she has told before but never tires of retelling: how a woman from humble beginnings in Busoga came to sit at the President’s Cabinet table.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni himself arrived as Chief Guest, giving the day the weight of a state occasion even as it doubled as a homecoming.
By the time the speeches ended, cows, motorcycles, mattresses and hand-tractors had all changed hands, and the Minister had used her moment at the podium to press the President on the region’s oldest unfulfilled promise: a tarmac road to Bukungu.
“You Lifted Me From Humble Beginnings”
Babalanda opened her address by giving thanks to God for life, for protection, and for what she called the opportunity to serve the country and the people of Budiope West.
“Your Excellency, today we gather with grateful hearts. This celebration is a public testimony that every achievement is built on God’s grace, the trust of the people and the contribution of many hands,” she said.
She told the crowd that the President’s decision to attend in person gave the occasion special meaning, and she welcomed him to Iringa and to Buyende District on behalf of her family, the organising committee and the wider constituency.
The timing was not lost on her either, coming as it did shortly after Museveni’s birthday, and she used the platform to wish him a happy belated birthday and to pray for his continued health, strength and wisdom.
Her gratitude then turned personal and direct, addressed to the man she credits with changing the course of her life.
“Your Excellency, you lifted me from humble beginnings, nurtured me, mentored me and patiently gave me opportunities to learn, grow and serve our country. By entrusting me with responsibilities in Government and supporting me along the journey, you transformed what others may have overlooked into a life of purposeful national service,” she said.
She said she remained humbled by that trust and pledged to repay it with loyalty, integrity, hard work and results, adding that her reappointment as Minister for the Presidency was a responsibility she received with humility rather than entitlement.
Tributes to the First Lady and the Presidency’s Top Bureaucrat
Babalanda reserved a special tribute for First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Kataaha Museveni, thanking God for her life and for what she described as the strength, wisdom and grace with which she supports both the President and the nation.
She called the First Lady’s life of faith, humility and devoted service an inspiration, and thanked her for what she described as motherly counsel over the years.
The Minister also singled out Hajji Yunus Kakande, the Secretary in the Office of the President, thanking him for his support and for what she called steadfast commitment to unity of purpose within the Presidency.
Kakande, who has served in the role since 2021 and doubles as the top administrative officer overseeing Resident District and City Commissioners across the country, was credited by Babalanda with helping safeguard the gains made in the Office and steering it with cohesion and discipline.
A Decade of Deliveries, Tallied One by One
Much of Babalanda’s address doubled as an account of what her office has channelled toward Budiope West since she first took up ministerial responsibilities.
She said she and her constituents had, together, supported initiatives spanning education, household production, water access, roads, health services, religious institutions and community groups, achieved by lobbying government through established channels and working with responsible institutions to ensure resources reached their intended beneficiaries.
Among the interventions she listed were 20,000 hoes secured through government support, school desks and sanitation facilities, additional hoes and maize seed for production, poultry and dairy support, boreholes and community roads, an ambulance and health referral support, tents and solar lighting, construction materials, and coffee seedlings.
She said the benefits had reached communities in different parts of the country, with what she described as special and sustained attention given to grassroots communities in Budiope West.
She thanked President Museveni for keeping the country focused on peace, security, wealth creation, value addition, employment and socio-economic transformation, and said her constituents were ready to deepen household production and embrace skills and enterprise in turn.
The Road That Won’t Go Away
If there was one thread in Babalanda’s speech that reached beyond thanksgiving into advocacy, it was the state of Buyende’s roads.
She thanked the President, Cabinet and Parliament for supporting construction of the Ambercoat–Mbulamuti–Kamuli–Bukungu Road, along with 10 kilometres of road works within Jinja City, which she said would strengthen access and connectivity for the communities she represents.
The pledge to tarmac that same corridor, however, is one of the oldest on record in Busoga politics, dating back to a campaign promise Museveni first made in Kamuli District in 2001.
For much of the past two decades the 127-kilometre route — split into the Jinja-Mbulamuti-Kamuli and Kamuli-Bukungu sections — has remained gravel, repeatedly reappearing in government budget speeches without construction beginning in earnest, according to Daily Monitor reporting on the project’s history.
Residents along the corridor told the newspaper as recently as this year that the delay had cost the pledge much of its credibility, even as local leaders continue to welcome each fresh assurance that funding has finally been secured.
Against that backdrop, Babalanda’s decision to raise the road again, in the President’s presence, reads less as routine gratitude and more as a reminder that the constituency is still waiting.
Water for the Dry Season
The Minister expressed deep gratitude for an irrigation system provided to her community, calling it a profoundly important intervention for a district whose families depend heavily on agriculture.
She said irrigation would reduce dependence on unpredictable rainfall, enable production through the dry season, improve food security and build a stronger foundation for household incomes, agro-processing and employment, particularly for women and young people.
She respectfully requested that the support be extended to other parts of Buyende District, so that more farming communities could produce throughout the year rather than only during the rains.
She paired that request with a renewed call for a technical institute to be established in Buyende, arguing that practical, marketable skills would let the district’s young people create employment for themselves and others while contributing to the socio-economic transformation of Busoga and the country as a whole.
A Message to NRM’s New Flag Bearers
Babalanda thanked the National Resistance Movement for its leadership and its stated commitment to peace, unity, patriotism and socio-economic transformation.
She congratulated the party’s flag bearers on being entrusted with carrying its message, urging them to remain humble, disciplined and united, to respect the people they serve, and to place service above personal interest.
She singled out several government programmes designed to move households from subsistence into the money economy, citing the Parish Development Model, Emyooga, Operation Wealth Creation, the Four-Acre Model, the Youth Livelihood Programme and the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme.
Under the Parish Development Model, each of the country’s 10,589 verified parish SACCOs is entitled to Shs100 million a year, released in two instalments of Shs50 million, with government reporting cumulative transfers of more than Shs3.2 trillion to parishes nationwide as of November 2025.
Babalanda urged her constituents to obtain accurate information from responsible officers, organise themselves properly, meet programme requirements, use funds and inputs for their intended purposes, and report any cases of extortion or misuse.
She encouraged families with small pieces of land to study and adapt the President’s Four-Acre Model to their own circumstances, combining high-value crops, fruits, pasture and dairy with food security crops and suitable backyard enterprises such as poultry, piggery or fish farming.
“No More Sleep, No More Corruption”
The Minister acknowledged that significant needs remain across her constituency in roads, clean water, health care, education quality, youth employment, markets and household incomes.
She committed to stronger follow-up, transparent selection of beneficiaries, proper documentation, equitable coverage and regular feedback to the people she represents.
Re-echoing President Museveni’s call for “no more sleep” and “no more corruption,” she said she understood the message as a demand for urgency, discipline, integrity and measurable performance from leaders and technical officers alike.
She urged leaders and technical officers to act, follow up and deliver, while calling on citizens to remain vigilant and protect government programmes from abuse.
She called on every household to participate in production and the money economy, every parent to keep children in school, every leader to reject corruption and division, every young person to pursue skills and discipline, and every citizen to protect public facilities, peace and the environment.
Cows for the President, Motorcycles for the Pastors
As a gesture of appreciation, Babalanda presented President Museveni with two cows.
After the President’s departure, she turned to the rest of the gathering, donating eight brand-new motorcycles to religious leaders — four to Seventh-day Adventist pastors and four to Born-Again pastors — to ease their movement while preaching across Budiope West Constituency.
She distributed hand-operated tractors to eight groups, one for each of the constituency’s eight sub-counties, to support agricultural production.
She also handed out 200 mattresses to elderly women and men across the constituency.
Babalanda closed by thanking Cabinet Ministers, political, religious and community leaders, technical teams, security agencies, organisers, volunteers, performers and partners who contributed to the day’s success, and above all, the people of Budiope West for their continued support, prayers and confidence.
The ceremony drew religious leaders, political leaders, government officials, Members of Parliament and thousands of residents from across Buyende District and the wider Busoga sub-region.
