Kamwokya Ghetto Waits for More Money from Museveni

Kamwokya ghetto residents will get more Uganda shilling 200 million from President Museveni if a second proposal for funding sent to State House is approved.

Dr Apollo Ahimbisibwe, the link between ghetto groups and State House told Uganda Radio Network that the second round of funding is meant to benefit about 37 groups.

President Yoweri Museveni donated 100 million Shillings to six groups within Kamwokya last month. The beneficiaries were; Chamuka Youth Development Association and New Kamwokya Taxi Drivers and Conductors Association, who received 30 million Shillings each and Kamwokya Women's Twezimbe Group, Kamwokya Youth Bodaboda Group, Kamwokya Twegatte Development Association and Kamwokya Washing Bay Youth Group, who received 10 million Shillings each. 

Ahimbisibwe, who owns a clinic in Kamwokya, says he has been working with ghetto residents for 15 years. He says anyone interested in improving living standards of the poorest of the poor who dwell in Kamwokya ghetto should approach him.

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Ahimbisibwe argues that people who want to help the people should not think for them.

“People in Kamwokya have different needs from people in Mulago, people in Kabale or people in any other area. We should always be humble enough to ask them. And we should use systems that are not corruptible,” he said.

For instance, Ahimbisibwe says when he took ghetto residents to meet President Museveni, they told him that the biggest challenge poor people face is government making decisions for them.

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The programme was broached when ghetto residents were taken to State House to meet the president. Ahimbisibwe says 27 youth were taken to State House on 10th September. He says everyone was surprised to see unkempt dirty slum boys in State House.

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Ahimbisibwe refuted arguments that the project is meant to pull the rag under the feet of Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine, who enjoys massive support in the ghetto. He says the project started long before Bobi Wine, the self-styled ghetto president, joined politics.

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President Museveni has been moving around Kampala and meeting different youth groups living in slums, in what some observers have interpreted as a move to counter the popular support enjoyed Kyagulanyi. The legislator's arrest and torture in August seemed to galvanise support especially among the urban youth.