By Eye Media Uganda | Rwenzori | August 20, 2026
Local government and security leaders in the Rwenzori sub-region have credited President Yoweri Museveni’s Presidential Industrial Skilling Hubs with helping curb insecurity by keeping vulnerable and unemployed youths away from criminal and subversive activities.
The leaders said the hubs are providing young people with vocational skills, mindset-change training and access to start-up capital, reducing their vulnerability to recruitment by groups involved in violent activities.
They made the remarks during stakeholders’ meetings chaired by State House Comptroller Jane Barekye at the Rwenzori Sub-region Zonal Presidential Industrial Skilling Hub in Ntoroko and the Rwenzori Zonal Presidential Industrial Skilling Hub in Kasese.
Kasese District Internal Security Officer (DISO) Ikaaba Mohammad said unemployed youths have previously been targeted for recruitment into subversive groups, including a group known as Kirumira Mutima.
He linked the group to attacks on government installations in Kasese, Fort Portal and Bundibugyo on November 1, 2025.
According to Ikaaba, graduates of the hubs have become productive members of their communities, with some providing security agencies with information about suspected subversive activities.
The Commander of the 222 Mountain Brigade, Lt Col Emmanuel Kafureka, said the hubs had become an important security intervention beyond their primary role of vocational training.
“You don’t know how this hub is helping us really,” Kafureka said, explaining that unemployed youths vulnerable to recruitment by subversive groups were now being absorbed into training and productive work.
He urged State House to introduce President Museveni’s Four-Acre Model at the Kasese hub and expand training to mechanical engineering, plumbing and other trades.
Kafureka also called for consideration of unemployed adults outside the current beneficiary age bracket.
Deputy Resident District Commissioner for Kasese-Busongora Joshua Katunda said Kasese had suffered instability for years, with unemployed and school dropout youths sometimes exploited by people engaged in criminal and subversive activities.
“I therefore want to thank the President for this initiative and I pray that it is supported further because it has worked on the insecurity in the region,” Katunda said.
Kasese District LC5 Chairperson Eliphaz Muhindi Bukombi said vocational training and mindset change were turning previously unemployed young people into productive and responsible citizens.
State House Comptroller Jane Barekye said additional trades, including mechanics, plumbing and electrical installation, would soon be introduced at the hubs.
She also said State House would engage Uganda Prisons leadership over land proposed for establishing the Four-Acre Model at the Kasese hub.
Director of Presidential Projects and Presidential Industrial Hubs at State House, Eng. Raymond Kamugisha, praised Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere for mobilising his subjects to embrace the programme.
At the Ntoroko hub, Fort Portal City RCC Asumin Nasike said the programme was performing well and had maintained integrity in its implementation.
She revealed that some graduates had subsequently been recruited into the Uganda People’s Defence Forces, with their hub certificates helping demonstrate their training credentials.
Local leaders also asked government to consider allowing parents to privately sponsor their children at the hubs because demand exceeds available government-sponsored places.
Barekye rejected the proposal for now, saying the programme was deliberately established to provide free vocational training to underprivileged youths.
“Private sponsorship is not available, not because government doesn’t want money, but because this skilling programme is for the underprivileged. If funds allow, we can only expand,” Barekye said.
The Ntoroko hub serves Ntoroko, Bundibugyo and Fort Portal City, while the Kasese hub serves Kasese District and Kasese Municipality.
