President Yoweri Museveni has urged newly elected National Resistance Movement MPs to cut back on foreign travel and spend more time with the people they represent if Uganda is to achieve faster rural transformation.
Speaking during a campfire session at the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi on Monday evening, Museveni said leaders must understand the daily realities of households in their constituencies and help move more families into income-generating activities.
“You need to go household by household and know your people, how many are in the money economy and how many are still outside,” Museveni said.
He warned MPs against becoming too absorbed in parliamentary committees and overseas benchmarking trips, saying this can distance them from the communities that elected them.
“If you benchmark too much outside, you disconnect yourself from your constituents,” he said.
Museveni advised legislators to devote several days each week to field work and mobilisation instead of relying on personal money to respond to community needs. He cautioned them against taking on debts in the name of helping voters, saying development should be driven through government programmes.
“Do not use your money or go into debts. What I am telling you is what I did,” he said, while reflecting on his early political work in the 1960s.
The President said practical economic activities such as coffee growing, fruit farming, dairy, poultry, piggery and fish farming can help lift smallholder households into the money economy when backed by regular guidance. He said sustained mobilisation in his home area had helped about 1,700 of 2,300 households shift into income-generating work.
Museveni also called for targeted interventions such as dams in cattle-keeping areas like Karamoja, saying water infrastructure remains vital for livelihoods.
Vice President Jessica Alupo praised Museveni’s continued guidance on socio-economic transformation, while Deputy Speaker Thomas Tayebwa called on MPs to work with the executive instead of equating performance with constant confrontation. Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja also urged legislators to back government policies in Parliament.
Museveni ended by urging unity and people-centred leadership, saying Uganda would succeed if leaders remained focused on transforming rural communities.
