Leaders should Encourage Household Income generation for the people they lead – President Museveni
By Fred Siminyu
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has urged local leaders to prioritize the improvement of house hold incomes of the people they lead by mobilizing and encourage them to fully embrace income generating government programs.
The President emphasized that once the leaders prioritize household income generation for households, the rest of other development concerns will follow with ease.
“The roads, electricity, and other infrastructure are not the medicine for poverty. The medicine for poverty is household income or a good salary,” he said.
The president was meeting district leaders of Gomba and Sembabule districts at his Kisozi farm to assess progress of the project he initiated in the area far back in 2011. He wanted to see how other districts can be brought on board to benefit from the same.
He assured them that Government is ready to provide necessary support in the improvement of the livelihood of the people through current poverty alleviation programmes such as Parish Development Model and Emyooga.
“For the sole purpose of fighting poverty at the grassroots, my government is going to provide more support to ensure success of income generating programmes to benefit wanaichi. We are going to continue adding more resources,” he said and went ahead to pledge the addition of more money in this particular project.
In 2011, President Museveni donated cows, goats, coffee seedlings, pigs, money, among others to households in nine villages in Gomba and Sembabule with the aim of generating incomes to improve their livelihoods. The villages which benefitted include Kirasi, Kisozi A, Kisozi B, Obutugu, Lutunku A, Lutunku B, Kajumilo, Kasozi and Kikuumadungu.
President Museveni said that from the 1960s, he has been fighting poverty, starting with Ankole region where he advised cattle keepers to stop nomadism, settle down, fence their lands and graze friesian cows for dairy farming. He added that the Ankole people embraced his message of wealth creation and therefore he wants the people of Gomba and Sembabule people to embrace it as well.
“When I came here in the 1990s, I found all people here democratically poor; their only job during that time was to wait for me along the way and beg for money from me. They had no source of income,” the President said.
“I called the parents here and told them that I don’t want to be neighbours with poor people. We gave them entandikwa in the form of cows, coffee, pigs etc. We moved slowly until when these Nalwangas finished school. I told those of Nalwangas that all households should benefit,” he added.
President Museveni further informed the leaders that the project in the nine villages, was a pilot study and since it has been successful, it should now be taken to the rest of the villages in Gomba and Sembabule Districts.
The Gomba West Member of Parliament, Hon. Robina Rwakoojo thanked the President for his visionary leadership and will to change the lives of the people he leads. She added that as leaders, they are already preaching the President’s message of increasing household income to the people through several government initiatives like PDM.
Hon. Shartsi Musherure, the Member of Parliament for Mawogola North, thanked President Museveni for bringing forth the projects that are causing development in Gomba, Sembabule, and the whole country. She assured the President that the people of Sembabule have embraced the PDM project and that the money is being well utilised for the right cause.
President Museveni meets Gomba District Local Leaders at Kisozi Farm
Gomba District Woman Member of Parliament, Hon. Sylvia Nayebale also commended President Museveni for being an exemplary leader who works towards improving the welfare of Ugandans. She also appreciated the President for the project that has improved the livelihoods of the people of Gomba and Sembabule.
These views were also echoed by Sembabule District Woman Member of Parliament, Hon. Mary Begumisa.
The Project Coordinator Ms. Sarah Nalwanga, told the President that his entandikwa scheme has done tremendous work in changing the lives of people in the nine villages. She added that people who started with one cow now have like 8 cows and those who started with an acre of coffee have also been able to expand and now they are harvesting a lot, hence transforming their lives.
“So far 2035 households have benefited,” she revealed.
