President Museveni to spend Christmas in Rwakitura

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President Yoweri will spend the Christmas holiday at his country home in Rwakitura in Uganda's western district of Kiruhura.

He will spend the annual religious celebration with the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Janet Museveni.

The First Couple departed for Rwakitura on Christmas Eve (Sunday) evening aboard a chopper.

(Credit: PPU)

On Friday, President Museveni delivered his Christmas message during an end of year engagement with the media at State House Entebbe.

His message was five-pronged.

First, he spoke of the mounting "pressure" from the West over Uganda's anti-homosexuality stance. He said that while some of the people may be worried, "I am not worried at all...because this is an opportunity to clarify one point: that Uganda can stand on its own".

"We have been active here, the Europeans came for a short period of time and went, our communities are very strong.

“I am confident that we shall manage, and you can see our economy is growing, our inflation is one of the lowest now. And I would advise those putting us on pressure to stop because it is not good for them, we shall prove our point that African countries can stand on their own," said the President.

Secondly, Museveni spoke about the residual terrorism as a result of the conflict in DR Congo.

“I want to thank His Excellency Felix Tshisekedi (DR Congo president) for allowing us to hunt ADF in Congo and we are doing it very well. We are going to wipe out those groups and their leaders who are in Congo who send these young people to come and die here," he said.

"In the meantime, even during this festive season, I would like you to be on alert because even the border is open; we don't close it. I discourage the idea of roadblocks because they are blind so somebody from Congo can enter Uganda. What is crucial is the intelligence, which we have.”

On wealth creation, the President tasked Ugandans with creating wealth through commercial agriculture, specifically, from the four-acre model type of farming.

He also addressed the issue of corruption, saying the fight against the vice requires the role of everyone.

“The corrupt are the few and the majority are the victims so it is easy to isolate the corrupt people and we shall definitely do it. I want everybody to take part in this fight against corruption because it is the one wasting our time," he said.

And then on regional integration, Museveni said "everybody must wake up and know that regional integration is the correct way and everybody should implement it fully; not in a selfish way, because that will make us fail".

At the end of this message, he wished "everybody a happy end to 2023 and a happy 2024".