The National Resistance Movement (NRM) Director for Mobilisation, Cadre Identification, Recruitment and Placement, Rosemary Nansubuga Seninde has urged parents and youth in Kampala to express gratitude to President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for his initiative aimed at equipping ghetto youth with practical skills.
“Kampala residents should be wise and vote for NRM and President Museveni in 2026. As a mobiliser of NRM, I am here to remind you all that we should be grateful to President Museveni for skilling the youth of this nation,” Seninde said.
She also lauded President Museveni for restoring peace in the country, which she believes is a vital ingredient in building a great economy.
She made these remarks at Mulago Skilling Centre during the showcasing of students’ work achieved during the last six months of vocational training.
The Mulago Skilling Centre is one of the centres spread in the five divisions of Kampala under the State House-sponsored project of the Presidential Initiative on Skilling the Girl / Boy Child (PISGBC).
“I thank President Museveni; he has been a gift to us. He gave us peace and freedom of choice, for which we should be very grateful. He has also provided a solution to unemployment through skilling the youth.”
Seninde, used the opportunity to campaign for her fellow party members, such as Faridah Nambi, NRM’s flag bearer, who is vying for the Kawempe North Parliamentary seat.
“I expect each of you to bring at least 20 others to vote. This is a mock election for President Museveni in the Buganda region and will prove your loyalty towards him and the NRM party ahead of the 2026 elections,” she emphasized.
The Special Presidential Assistant on Skilling and Education and Head of PISGBC project, Dr. Faith Mirembe Katana said Ugandans should take advantage of the huge population to tap into it as a vast market for their products.
She said they should also create world-class products that can compete on the global market and export them to as far as China instead of just importing Chinese products.
Dr. Katana commended President Museveni and Ms. Jane Barekye, the State House Comptroller
for their great support in ensuring the skilling project is given adequate materials and financing to keep it afloat since its inception.
“However, we have a challenge of LCs who endorse non-residents at the expense of genuine residents who live in those areas; this is not proper,” Dr. Katana cautioned.
Dr Katana revealed that Mulago Skilling Centre is the most populated of all the nine centres. It has 783 students who have registered for exams due in March but initially enrolled 890 students at the start of the six- month semester that commenced in August last year.
The event was also attended by other leaders, such as Amina Lukanga, the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for Mbarara District.
The event’s music playlist also featured lots of inspirational and gospel songs that portrayed the spiritual growth of the transformed youth who have had a bitter start in life; from being criminals such as thieves,
prostitutes as well as drug addicts who have in less than a year, reformed into God-fearing and skilled craftsmen and women.
Some of these include 32-year-old Dan Muhire, a Mulago resident who is studying electronic and phone repair, with a speciality in satellite dish installation.
“Before I joined skilling, I had completed Senior four but was idle and with no hope at all, but ever since I joined here I can repair a phone and ably install a dish, I can easily earn about shs30,000 from phone repairs,” he said with a glimmer of hope in his baritone voice.
Two of his youthful course mates, namely 19-year-old Patricia Sylvia, who had dropped out of senior three in 2023 due to financial challenges at home, alongside 20-year-old Prossy Nakuti, are both transformed young women.
The duo is part of a team that made a fridge from plywood, which even has a deep freezer section.
Patricia says the fridge was made as a prototype and was completed within a fortnight (two weeks).
“We use unwanted materials; it has cooling tubes made from copper and a compressor that heats the gas and sends it to the dryer filter,” Nakuti explained the refrigeration process.
The duo of budding electronics engineers said such a product can cost sh200,000 and can be painted any colour that suits the clients’ preferences.
Martha Atuhaire, a 24-year-old embroidery student, said, “I chose to join the skilling centre after completing my university degree in Industrial Fine Art at Makerere University.”
Despite the long distance she has to endure on a daily basis from Gayaza Nakwero to the Mulago-based Skilling Centre, Atuhaire believes this is a step in the right direction for her career.
“We work with embroidery machines to make African shirts, bridal wear and gowns that cost sh1m, changing dresses that cost sh500,000 and duvets that range between sh100,000 to sh500,000,” she explained.
She said among the challenges she faces is the daily traffic jam, which delays her by 30 minutes. Despite her waking up at 6:00 am daily, she always arrives at the centre by 7:30 am, yet classes commence at 7:00 am sharp.
The Mulago centre guild president, Michael Bamwine, exhibited a smart electric switch which can be activated using the mere touch of a finger or activated by phone using an app.
The trainer of Recycling and Value Addition, Ms. Norah Namanya, nicknamed “Queen of Tyres”, said this skill comprises turning old tyres into usable items such as wall clocks, interior decorations, tyre sofa sets, and children’s seats, among other items.
According to Ms. Namanya, the 2024/25 intake in recycling skills enrolled 148 students from three centres: Mulago, Kikoni and Wabigalo.
“The main purpose of this skill is to manage inorganic waste, create jobs for ghetto youth by utilising limited resources and transforming their mindset by solving the problem of destroying expensive roads when these tyres are burnt,” she said.
She believes that recycling tyres as a new skill has changed the community’s perception of waste / old tyres, which are now viewed as “gold”.
