President Museveni to deliver end of year address Sunday evening

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 END OF YEAR ADDRESS 

President Yoweri Museveni will deliver his end-of-year (2023) address to the nation this Sunday (December 31), his press team said Saturday.

The address will start at 8pm, the Presidential Press Unit (PPU) said in a statement.

It will "be broadcast live on all radio and TV stations, as well as online platforms," said the statement, urging everyone to "tune in".

The President spent his Christmas holiday with his family at his country home in Rwakitura in Uganda's western district of Kiruhura.

He departed Entebbe for Rwakitura along with the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni last Sunday (Christmas Eve).

During his stay in the countryside, Museveni welcomed Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the former deputy chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of Sudan.

"During the meeting, he briefed me on the current situation in Sudan," the President said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) along with a picture of him and his guest.

Three days after Christmas, Museveni revealed on X that the First Lady had contracted COVID-19 after feeling unwell during their stay in Rwakitura, but that "she is doing well".

He said his test returned negative.

▪️  First Lady recovering after contracting COVID-19

No mandatory COVID testing for NAM delegates

Relatedly, the President has said that during next month's 19th NAM Summit, which Uganda will host in Kampala along with the Third South Summit, there will not be compulsory testing for COVID-19.

"It is because after consultations with some of the NAM stakeholders, we found that some of the NAM delegates do not want their DNA exposed," he said on X.

Earlier, in the buildup to Christmas, Museveni's Christmas message that he delivered during an end of year engagement with the media at State House Entebbe 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.

▪️  President Museveni end of 2023 engagement with media

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".