President Museveni & First Lady Janet hosts 80th birthday at Kawumu, Luwero on 15.09.2024

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has cautioned leaders against using money in politics, saying that it's against the National Resistance Movement (NRM)’s 4th principle of democracy.
“With Principle No.4 (democracy), we must remove the pollution of using money in politics. Let all leaders of NRM concentrate on implementing the mass line and leading our people in using government programs to join the 4 sectors of Commercial Agriculture, Manufacturing, Services and ICT,” he said.
The President who was accompanied by the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni, made the remarks on Sunday 15th September, 2024 as he hosted his guests for his 80th birthday celebrations special luncheon at the Presidential Demonstration Farm in Kawumu.
According to President Museveni, the NRM has already brought a lot of developments in the area of the Luwero Triangle- former war zone of Abdul Nasser, Mondlane, Lutta, Kabalega, Nkurumah, Ngoma unit and are now active commercial agriculture areas.
“And some are studded with Clusters of industries (factories) - look at the Kawanda-Matuga- Miggade-Sanga area, Kapeeka, the Lukoola, Ngoma, etc. Kapeeka Industrial Park now employs 3,828 people and when fully developed, it will employ 20,000 people. Our supporters, staying nearby, even if they are not working in these factories, they have a ready market if they have what to sell - vegetables, food, fruits, shop goods etc,” he noted.
“The Ngoma area has now got 68 coolers of milk handling 2.5 million litres of milk per day. Those who agreed to grow coffee are benefitting.”
The President therefore called upon the NRM cadres to expose charlatans that confuse Ugandans to keep away from development.
The President also thanked Ugandans for joining his family to celebrate his 80th birthday.
“First and foremost, I thank God for giving me life and all the blessings He has showered on me, my family, the NRM comrades, the Ugandans and the Africans over these 80 years, numerous challenges notwithstanding,” he said.
On the other hand, the President thanked God for giving him a good family.
“I strongly believed in having a family, now that I was an adolescent whatever situation I was in - whether in peace or war. The idea of obucwheekye (being childless was most disturbing). I am, therefore, most grateful to God and Maama Janet for enabling me to have children that have now given me grand-children in the midst of turbulence, initially. They are a wonderful and productive group of Ugandans.”
He further revealed that he is a strong believer and in whatever he does, he tries to avoid evil and it's one of the reasons God has been helping the NRM to succeed.
“Although I disagreed with the Scripture Union in 1965, I keep my belief in God and it has helped our movement and I believe that that is the reason God has continued to bless the NRA /UPDF /NRM /Uganda. In sowing the Mustard seed, I quoted some examples of God’s intervention in our struggles. It is these attitudes that I brought into our struggles when we had to deal with the disorientation that actors had imposed on Uganda - politics of identity, under- development, the elite line to the detriment of the mass-line, neo-colonialism and dependency, etc.”
Additionally, President Museveni disclosed that the reason for bringing this function to Kawumu and Kijaguzo is to salute the heroism of the masses and the freedom fighters that used this area to defeat the mistake makers in the past governments.
“Kijaguzo Parish headquarters is where I would retreat to write some documents but also to get some sunshine for vitamin D because the Kitemu-Masanga Forest in the valley was always cold and the sun was blocked by the foliage,” said President Museveni who led the protracted war of 1981-1986 that brought NRM government to power.
“Kawumu camps helped us to adopt the code of conduct (Segirinya’s camp); rescue the guns dropped by Kayiira near Ddambwe before the Obote’s took them; start addressing the mistake by Magara of killing Kashaanku; the interview with William Pike that exposed the NRA to the World; and above all, the place at which I ordered General Saleh and Haji Kigongo to, finally start the Western Front in the Rwenzori before I left on the 12th of March, 1985, having confirmed that Obote was about to collapse, to look for more guns to ensure that we had enough armed soldiers to stop chaos in the country on account of a vacuum consequent to that collapse. There are many other landmark points in this area. Kawumu and Kijaguzo happen to be some of them.”