Lwengo – President Yoweri Museveni has rallied residents of Lwengo District to focus on wealth creation as the most sustainable way of fighting poverty, urging them to move from subsistence living to income-generating activities.

While addressing supporters during an NRM campaign rally in Lwengo on Friday, Museveni said Uganda’s stability over the last four decades had laid a strong foundation for development and economic transformation.

He attributed the stability to the abandonment of sectarian politics and the strengthening of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), which he said has promoted inclusion of women, youth and other special interest groups.

The President highlighted infrastructure development as a key pillar of government intervention, noting that several roads in the region were either under rehabilitation or planned for construction.

He cited the Masaka–Lyantonde road, which he said was in poor condition when the NRM took power in 1986, and assured residents that other roads, including Mutukula, Sembabule–Mbirizi and Kyabakuza–Kiwanga, would be worked on to improve connectivity and trade.

Museveni, however, emphasized that infrastructure alone cannot eliminate poverty. “You cannot sleep on roads,” he said, stressing the need for households to engage in productive activities that generate income.

He pointed to government programs promoting commercial agriculture, particularly coffee growing, saying that in Lwengo alone more than one million coffee seedlings and 280,000 orange seedlings had been distributed.

On job creation, Museveni said government’s role was to create an enabling environment, noting that the private sector provides most jobs in developed economies.

He cited the example of a farmer from Busoga who abandoned the search for a government job to venture into commercial farming and now employs over 300 people.Speaker of Parliament and NRM Second National Vice Chairperson (Female), Anita Annet Among, called for increased funding to the Land Fund to enable compensation of absentee landlords so that sitting tenants can acquire land titles. She also said coffee farmers in Lwengo needed a coffee grading machine to support value addition and urged local leaders to work together to implement NRM programs.

NRM Vice Chairperson for Buganda Region, Haruna Kasolo, praised the government for empowering women and youth, saying the party’s manifesto offers clear opportunities for young people. He commended Lwengo voters for electing NRM-leaning Members of Parliament and reaffirmed the party’s commitment to transforming livelihoods in the district.