On Wednesday October 9, 2024 all roads led to Busikho Teachers Demonstration Primary School grounds in Busia district in Eastern Uganda to celebrate the 62nd independence year from British colonial rule.
MUBS staff and students were not left-out. The celebrations were held under the theme: “Independence Day: A Recommitment to Secure and Fortify Our Destiny”. The colorful event was attended by notable guests who included; the President of the Central African Republic, H.E. Faustin-Archange Touadera and a special delegation from the United Arab Emirates led by their Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, among others.
President Yoweri Museveni congratulated Ugandans upon celebrating the 62nd anniversary of Uganda’s independence and assured the public that Uganda is on track to advance in many fields. He emphasized government’s commitment to uplifting Ugandans from poverty.
The President once again explained that at the time Uganda got her independence, the economy was a typical colonial one, characterized by being an enclave economy of three Cs , that is coffee, cotton and copper and the three Ts: tobacco, tea and tourism, as it was described by the colonialist. These formed a small Island of modernity and money economy surrounded by a sea of no money, subsistence economic
activities, underdevelopment and poverty.
By 1962, only 9% homesteads were in the money economy, which means that a whole 91% were outside the money economy, being outside money economy meant poor housing, no education for children, no clean water, poor nutrition, poor health and poverty . On account of the wrong ideology of the politics of identity(tribes, religion, and gender-chauvinism),the country was divided and unstable, and when the NRM came to power, the small colonial enclave of the 3Cs and 3Ts,had collapsed.
The President explained that, “We have entered the knowledge economy, focusing on automobiles, vaccines, pharmaceuticals and computer assembling and manufacturing. Uganda now produces cars under the brand Kiira Motors. “With our petroleum resources, we are going to fund all construction of the railways.
The importance of the railway is to lower transport costs making it easy for businesses to make profits. He called upon Ugandans to embrace government programs aimed at poverty alleviation, such as the Parish Development Model (PDM), Emyooga, and Operation Wealth Creation.