The Director of Crime Intelligence, Brig. Gen. Christopher Ddamulira has assured the ghetto youths in Busoga that President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is ever ready and willing to support them in order to transform their lives.
“Through the Ghetto structure, you are supposed to form SACCOs and Mzee will inject money into them. That money will help to transform your lives,” he said.
Gen. Ddamulira who is on a Ghetto empowerment tour in Busoga, made the remarks today while meeting the ghetto youths from Jinja City, Jinja District and Kamuli District. The meeting took place at Soweto-Masese, Jinja city.
According to Gen. Ddamulira, criminality will be no more if all ghetto youths get involved in any income generating activity and be able to earn a living.
“This ghetto SACCO fund has a 5 percent interest rate. They give you that money, you go and work, then you return it with a small interest. You can use this money to invest in any venture you are comfortable with,” he noted.
“When you get something to do, it will also be difficult to be diverted by some selfish individuals who excite you and in turn you make wrong decisions which have repercussions.”
Gen. Ddamulira, who is the ghetto structure project coordinator further revealed that police initiatives such as the ghetto empowerment program have been able to reduce the crime rate in the country.
“According to the 2024 police crime report, crime reduced by 4.1 percent due to the impact of the ghetto empowerment program among other police initiatives,” he urged.
“In Kampala, we are in the third year of operation. We have been to Kampala, Mukono, Wakiso, Mbale and recently, we were in Luweero and now Jinja. We plan to traverse all major towns and cities in the country.”
Gen. Ddamulira also disclosed that the ghetto empowerment program is meant to transform the ghetto youths and save them from prison.
“We want to fight criminality in the ghetto. We want the ghetto youths to stop going to prison because of crime. Now it’s upon you to listen and work with us to deal with crime. This program is meant to save you from prison,” he stated.
“Actually, we should know that a person can live without being a criminal and can spend his entire life without being taken to the police.”
Gen. Ddamulira also advised the youths to embrace free government skilling programs like the Presidential Industrial Hub to further deal with the challenge of unemployment.
“The initiative doesn’t need academic qualifications; you just register and after six months of training you get a certificate that is equivalent to that of Senior Four.”
Haji Faruk Kirunda, the Special Presidential Assistant on Press and Mobilisation/ Deputy Spokesperson and the head of the project aimed at re-organizing the ghettos in Busoga, informed the youths that on 23rd January, 2025, while in Kityerera, Mayuge district, President Museveni affirmed that he will support the ghetto youths in the sub region.
“The President will support you but you should organize yourselves from cell to district levels and get leaders. After the reorganization, the President will launch the ghetto structure in Busoga sub region,” he added.
Haji Kirunda also noted that apart from empowerment, the project also aims at rehabilitating the ghetto youths.
“Some politicians have been using an advantage that the real ghetto people are being isolated, to form some pseudo groups claiming that they are ghetto youths and use them to their advantage. In this reorganization process, we are going to traverse the whole region and we are going to know and have the real ghetto youths,” he expounded.
The Jinja City Resident City Commissioner (RCC), Mr. Richard Gulume revealed that police engagements with the ghettos have highly helped to reduce the crime rate in Jinja and Busoga region as a whole.
He also commended President Museveni for initiating a special program aimed at transforming the ghettos.
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