The mention of the word ‘ghetto’ conjures an image of squalor, congestion, and breakdown in social order; a place for the wretched of the earth. ‘Ghettos’ date back to the 16th Century Italy, where they were settlements mainly for Jews. Today, even first-class cities have a cusp where the good part of town turns bad. In Uganda, ghettos gained a reputation in Bobi Wine and Nubian Lee’s song, Ghetto, in the run-up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2007. The song took a swipe at the government for its pre-CHOGM preparations targeting slums around Kampala, and politicians habitually looking down upon certain classes of people, only thinking about them around election time.
Four-time presidential candidate Dr Kizza Besigye, currently in prison on treason charges, won over Kampala in all the elections in 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016, and in the urban parts of several other districts, ostensibly due to the high level of disillusionment among urban dwellers. Long before pondering politics, Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, conducted most of his business in Kamwokya, one of the largest ghettos in the Central Kampala Division.
Then came his entry into politics in 2017 when he threw his hat into the Kyaddondo County East by-elections ring, and ultimately declared to run for the presidency in August 2020, starting a stampede for the soul of the ghettos around Greater Kampala. At his swearing-in as an MP in 2017, Mr Kyagulanyi even remarked that the ghetto had now come to Parliament. The truism is largely true as the once-coveted August House has been reduced largely in quality, but Mr Kyagulanyi, who polled 3.6 million votes in the 2021 presidential polls against the incumbent’s six million votes, remains a thorn in the foot of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) base when it comes to ghetto dwellers and the youth population.
He has sway over the youth electorate and ghetto dwellers, while the NRM has learnt to employ the carrot and stick method; money or tormenting them using the military. Initially, regime acolytes, and pundits generally, wrote Mr Kyagulanyi off as merely an embodiment of Buganda ethno-nationalism. After the 2021 National Unity Platform (NUP) wave, which saw the NRM losing massively in the central region, the stage was set again to woo the two voting blocs.
Since the blood-stained 2021 presidential polls, the government has been on a charm offensive with different programmes not limited to Emyooga, Parish Development Model (PDM), and skilling through the Presidential Initiative Skilling programmes, as an antidote for unemployment and disillusionment. The plans involve the penetration and the invasion of the inner circles of youth/ghetto groups allied to particularly NUP. Kyagulanyi’s close associates and supporters have ditched his vase for the other camp.
The sweeteners
In 2023, President Museveni began the fight for the youth groups, along poverty alleviation lines by launching Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (Saccos) within the Kampala Metropolitan area and injecting Shs1.2 billion in 12 ghetto Saccos. The President then appointed Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP) Maj Gen Christopher Ddamurila, the director of Crime Intelligence, to mobilise the ghetto and form Saccos. For about four years, AIGP Ddamulira has been attempting to convert hardcore criminal groups and organising ghetto youth for socio-economic development. This approach has not only yielded significant results in reducing crime rates but also empowered countless young people to break free from the cycle of poverty and violence.
AIGP Ddamulira’s initiative, backed by President Museveni, aims to mobilise and transform the lives of ghetto youth, boda boda riders, and taxi operators who are often exploited by politicians and criminal syndicates. What followed was the formation of a community taskforce designed to address crime proactively rather than a top-down approach, the strategy that has embraced cooperation and shared responsibility in many Kampala divisions that were known to be hubs of hardcore criminals like Kawempe, Rubaga, and Kampala Central Divisions.
‘We appeal to the government to prioritise more funding to ghetto youth and boda boda Saccos, among others, in order to stimulate employment and household incomes as a way of living,’ Ddamulira said. All was going well with the youth anti-poverty campaign until Ms Hadijah Namyalo, the head of the office of the NRM National Chairman, appeared on local television and questioned the operations of the ghetto Saccos structure and how the Shs1.2 billion that the President advanced to them had so far been used.
‘There are people in the police who claim to be under the State House, they were given money to get the ghetto youth out of poverty. My question is, did those children get that money? But still, the boys kept on grabbing people’s property, if it is true that these children actually got the money, what else are they looking for if they are well off?’ Ms Namyalo wondered.
Money talks
AIGP Ddamulira, however, told Sunday Monitor that Shs1.2 billion was advanced to the 12 ghetto Saccos in the Kampala Metropolitan Area. ‘Each of the Saccos got Shs100 million, which was remitted directly to their bank accounts from the Bank of Uganda. Unlike what was the case in the past when people would lobby the government on behalf of the ghetto youth, get resources, but never remit the same to the intended recipients, the ghetto youth were trained and helped to elect leaders at all levels,’ he said.
Fast track to 2025, as he concluded his PDM tours around Greater Kampala in Kampala, Mukono, and Wakiso, President Museveni and the different NRM structures continued to throw more money at youth and ghetto groups. In July, 150 entrepreneurs in Kamwokya were gifted with startup equipment under President Museveni’s Youth Wealth Creation Programme.
In the same month, the President announced a financial donation of Shs1b to each of the five divisions in Kampala to support ghetto groups. On July 18, while in Kawempe, he donated Shs20m to a ‘ghetto youth’ who painted his portrait. On July 20, he revealed that Kampala had received nearly Shs40b in the last three years.
On July 30, State House Comptroller Jane Barekye gave Shs200m to 2,000 Kampala fruit vendors, each receiving Shs100,000 to boost their capital as she allayed their fears of being driven off the streets by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). For his 81st birthday in September at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds, the President threw the first-ever boda boda union festival and Expo during which he highlighted the government’s efforts to protect boda boda riders from exploitative boda loans and moneylenders.
‘My agreement with the boda bodas is that it is criminal for someone to give you a rabbit and then demand a cow in return. Moneylenders give you Shs5 million and expect Shs15 million back, that is robbery,’ he said. In an effort to improve the welfare of boda bodas, he contributed Shs10.2 billion to 102 boda boda Saccos in the Kampala Metropolitan area, each Sacco taking Shs100m.
Money vs sway
Mr Shafik Kalyango, a leader of a ghetto youth group, however, told this newspaper in a phone interview that many of the youth are yet to benefit from the Shs1.2 billion but argued that it is because of the stringent rules and preconditions that have been set before one gets to access the funds. ‘Saccos are member-managed, member-financed, and member-owned. Every ghetto youth who wishes to be a member is free to join the Saccos and become part of the ghetto structures. Those to benefit must first open up accounts with the Saccos and also in the bank because if you are to borrow, the money goes directly to the applicant’s bank account. No one receives cash,’ Mr Kalyango said.
For what is worth, the ghettos have lately turned into the go-to places for politicians, including President Museveni. Politicians now attest that the once neglected ghettos have slowly uplifted their status to attract attention by turning into territories where the political ambitions of politicians in urban areas are made or destroyed.
The Democratic Party spokesperson, Okoler Opio Lo Amanu, said the ghettos largely comprise the youth. ‘We are a country with over 70 percent of the population as youth. So if we are going into an election you have to go to them, to mimic them,’ he said. With the next general election barely three months away, both the NUP, currently the main opposition party, and the NRM are in fierce competition to outshine each other.
On October 26, another oblique campaign dubbed ‘Unstoppable UG for Museveni’s re-election’ was flagged off by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa and featuring local musicians including Bebe Cool (Moses Ssali) going around the country throwing money at the youth in several towns. Throughout his engagements, Mr Kyagulanyi mostly draws crowds of youth who are seemingly enchanted by his persona and rags-to-riches story, not necessarily the message. Without a doubt, he has also opened their political consciousness to national problems.
The NUP secretary-general, Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, explained that their political party paved the way for the other players into the ghettos.
‘We came on the scene and said it is wrong to have a big section of the population to be overlooked. That is our continuous message,’ Mr Rubongoya.