Janet to youth: Don’t be tempted to leave Uganda

The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Mrs Janet Kataha Museveni has cautioned youths not to be tempted to leave Uganda and spend their early years in other countries looking for employment.

“Please do not be tempted to leave the country, to spend your early years of strength and productivity, developing other countries, at the expense of Uganda’s socio-economic progress and your very lives,” Ms Museveni said during the seventh National Youth Convention in Kyankwanzi on September 24.

She added, “You are all aware that Uganda including many other African Nations, has experienced several cases of young people, who have faced immense abuse and trauma, sometimes resulting in losing their lives, while working as immigrant labourers in different nations.”

The First Lady emphasized that admired countries were built by their citizens through hard work and sacrifice

  “We must understand that those countries we admire and would give and would give anything to live there we built by their citizens. They were willing to do everything to build their countries one brick at a time. It took them years of hard work and sacrifice to get them to where they are. Our own homeland deserves no less determination.”  She said.

At least 120,459 workers left Uganda between January 2022 and December 2023 in search of employment, according to statistics from the Ministry of Gender, Labour, and Social Development.

The report titled Labour Externalisation Statistics for the Period 2022 to 2024, however, only captures migrant workers cleared through the External Employment Management Information System.

It indicates that women dominated the search for employment out of Uganda, forming 77.5 percent or 109,773 compared to 10,686 males.

The First Lady said that many youths in Africa including Ugandans have experienced several injuries in the country they go seek green pasture

Adding on “This is very distressing, and we must all work together as leaders of this nation and God-fearing people, to encourage the youth to understand that, while we have challenges like any other country, running away to what we perceive as “greener pastures”, is not the best way of handling or addressing these problems,”

It’s from that background the First Lady has urged youths to have a love for their country and develop it saying that there is no other country better than home.

In an interview with Ms Janet Kayesu, a participant in the NALI training, shared her harrowing experience as a maid in Jordan.

“I went to Jordan on a two-year contract, but after working for one year, I requested my employer to allow me to return home. However, they refused. Towards the end of my contract, my employer accused me of stealing her gold necklace,” Ms  Kayesu said

 Adding: “I was falsely accused of theft upon completing my contract. All the money I had saved was taken from me.”

Ms Kayesu revealed that she was then confined to a room, subjected to torture, including scalding with hot water and milk, and starved for three months, surviving solely on water.

“I spent three months in solitude, fed only water. Eventually, I was taken to the police, charged, and sentenced to two years in prison,” she said.

Ms Kayesu is one of many maids who have suffered abuse abroad.

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