Lira, Uganda | A total of 137 youth leaders from Northern Uganda who were trained at Kyankwanzi in 2021 to spearhead President Yoweri Museveni’s re-election campaign say the majority have not benefited from the pledges made to them.
The leaders, drawn from Lango, Karamoja, Acholi, and West Nile subregions, were promised scholarships, jobs, and business capital after their mobilisation work during the 2021 elections.
However, only those from Acholi are reported to have received any tangible support.
According to Atyang Rebecca, who led the team in Lango, the commitments were clearly documented after training, but nearly four years later, nothing had been delivered for Lango, Karamoja and West Nile.
She explained that out of the 137 team leaders, more than 90 were from Acholi, and they were the only ones who had benefited.
The group further alleged that UGX 1.6 billion, which was allocated to facilitate their activities, had been mismanaged.
They accused the Presidential Coordinator for Northern Uganda, Bosco Olak Odoch, of failing to account for the funds and avoiding communication with them.
On 16 June 2025, the mobilisers submitted a petition to President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, demanding his direct intervention.
In their letter, they stressed that they had mobilised for the NRM at a critical moment when opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi (Bobi Wine) was gaining ground in the region.
They outlined three key promises they said remained unfulfilled:
• Business empowerment – Youth entrepreneurs in the Greater North continued to struggle to access capital despite proposals submitted to State House.
• Scholarships – Ten scholarships per district had been pledged but had not been allocated.
• Political appointments – Several mobilisers who had been promised government positions were still waiting to be appointed.
The leaders reported that the broken promises had left them vulnerable in their communities, where they were accused of pocketing money meant for grassroots support.
Some, including Atyang, said they had faced attacks and vandalism of their property.
She added that they had made several attempts to engage officials, but calls were no longer being answered.
The mobilisers warned that unless the matter was addressed, it could erode support for the ruling party in Northern Uganda ahead of the next elections.
They argued that failure to resolve the issue would only confirm what some senior government leaders had previously said, that the NRM used people and then discarded them.
