The sounds oscillate between a sharp ‘Brap’ ‘Brap’ and a dull ‘Braaap, Braaap, Braaap’ each time Mr Joshua Muyirima brings down the welding gun and rod to join two perpendicular pieces of metal that he is welding into a window frame.
Sparks fly, and smoke rises further, obscuring a face whose features are hidden behind a set of welding goggles and a face mask. Behind him are his partners moving several of the products of the China Town Ghetto workshop in Kaliro Town’s Industrial Area. The workshop is one of the entities through which 5,000 youth in Busoga Sub-region have so far benefited from an initiative by President Museveni to empower the ghetto youth in Busoga, as part of a nationwide programme aimed at transforming lives by way of financial inclusion and job creation.
Shs500,000 may not be much for many urban folk, but with that amount, Mr Muyirima and his colleagues were able to transition from doing menial jobs for a living to becoming proprietors of a metal fabrication workshop. ‘I used to do odd jobs as I trained in welding. When we got the presidential support, it was very easy to mobilise my colleagues to start this workshop,’ he says. The group is now dreaming big. They are thinking of expansion.
‘We request the President to give us more funds to buy more machines and increase our production capacity,’ Mr Muyirima says. Mr Michael Kiyuka, the assistant Resident District Commissioner for Kaliro, agrees with Mr Muyirima on the need for more funding.
‘There is a need for additional funding so that more youth are involved. These youth at the workshop are, for example, keen on training other youth, but they do not have the capacity.’ Genesis Activities under the initiative commenced in November 2025, close to four years after the ghetto Saccos project was launched in Kampala by President Museveni. The coordinator of the Ghetto Project, which was launched in March 2022, is Brig Christopher Ddamulira, the director of crime intelligence of the Uganda Police. Mr Farouk Kirunda, the deputy press secretary to the President, who is also the Special Presidential Assistant on Political Affairs, is coordinating the project’s activities in Busoga.
Crime
The ghettos of Busoga are associated with the proliferation of crime. Indeed, the districts of Busoga stand out prominently in the Police’s Annual Crime Report for 2024. Out of the 62,252 cases of theft, for example, 680 were in Buyende; out of the 7,330 mobile phones that were stolen, 108 were stolen from Jinja, and out of the 7,222 cattle thefts, 120 occurred in Buyende. The report indicated that 680 out of the 29,580 cases of assault occurred in Buyende; 29 out of the 1,339 cases of murder as a result of assault occurred in Mayuge District, while Iganga and Bugiri each registered 17 cases of murder by mob action. It added that 210 out of the 8,240 cases of defilement occurred in Buyende, with another 131 in Mayuge. The 2024 report highlighted that 222 out of the 13,511 cases of break-ins that were reported nationwide occurred in Mayuge, with another 194 in Jinja.
A total of 6,447 burglaries were reported, of which 140 were reported in Mayuge and 123 in Jinja. Also, 13,132 economic crimes were reported out of 470 in Busoga, with 252 in Jinja alone. Those statistics were linked to some criminally-minded unemployed youth. Mr Kirunda says the situation warranted an intervention that would not only precipitate a mindset change but also get large sections of the sub-region’s unemployed youth occupied and earning money.
‘Our main aim is to cause a mindset change so that the youth in those communities desist from criminal activities. We are looking at a drastic reduction in the number of criminal cases. We are also looking at empowering the youth economically and equipping them with more skills,’ Mr Kirunda says.
Politics
However, other watchers of developments here say the extension of the project into Busoga was more about politics than economics. Busoga is home to a huge percentage of angry and despondent youth. The emergence of Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine and the People Power Movement, which later morphed into the Opposition National Uni ty Platform (NUP) party, served to turn those youth into a major force that is believed to have been responsible for the changes that occurred on Busoga’s political landscape. Mr Kyagulanyi beat Mr Museveni to the Busoga vote in 2021, taking 437,059 votes against Mr Museveni’s 404,862 in 2021. Mr Museveni won in only three out of the sub-region’s 11 districts, taking Buyende, Kaliro and Namutumba, but lost to Mr Kyagulanyi in Kamuli, Luuka, Bugiri, Iganga, Jinja, Bugweri, Namayingo and Mayuge districts.
It is against that background that it is believed the disbursement of funds, three months before the 2026 General Election, was meant to fix both the politics and the disbursement of funds. Mr Kiyuka prefers to talk about how the initiative has transformed the perceptions of the recipients. ‘Initially, these ghetto youth thought the government had abandoned them, but after the introduction of this project, they realised that they are being cared for,’ he says. Mr Kirunda, who insists the initiative goes beyond the politics, says it aims to inculcate a culture of saving, hard work, and managing funds. With loans ranging from Shs200,000 to a maximum of Shs5m, youth in Busoga have ventured into numerous projects, including metal fabrication, goat rearing, poultry farming, salons, bakeries and restaurants.
Others like the Mayuge-based Kawande Ghetto Youth, led by Ms Rehema Naikoba, have opened up a bar, one of the finest entertainment spots in Mayuge Town Council as of today. So far, a total of Shs1.2b has been distributed to 12 Saccos, one each in the 11 districts and one city in the sub-region, with each Sacco receiving Shs100m. Whereas there were 30,000 applicants, only 5,000 youth benefited from the initial phase of what is meant to be a revolving fund over five years. Funds are lent out to the youth with an annual interest rate of six percent. The funds should be paid back after one year. ‘We hope to start recovering the funds in October and to have a second disbursement in December,’ Mr Kirunda says.
Numbers
The amounts received in loans vary depending on the nature of economic activity. That too was a factor in determining the number of beneficiaries. The number of recipients was found to be high in districts where the economic projects were not capital intensive. There were 740 beneficiaries in Mayuge District compared to 620 in Kaliro. Has it solved the criminality? The statistics from the police are not yet in, but if what Mr Fahad Sempa, the chairperson of the Nakigo Ghetto, says is anything to go by, that has been partially solved.
‘We are now reformed Ugandans; we no longer steal or beat up people. The project has transformed our lives. We sell our crops like cabbages in markets and earn an honest living,’ Mr Sempa says. What about politics and economics? If the 2026 election results are anything to go by, the politics have been sorted. As for economics, it is still early days.