The Member of Parliament for Bukoto Central Masaka city Hon. Richard Sebamala has urged youth leaders to be aggressive and push for what belongs to them.
Sebamala made these remarks yesterday the 30th June 2026 while attending a fire place conversation on Youth perspectives on the FY 23/24 national budget organized by civil society actors at Grand Global Hotel in Kikoni.
Sebamala encouraged youth leaders from the National Youth Council (NYC), Youth MPs, and civil society to petition parliament and engage all stakeholders on youth concerns.
“I have never seen you petition parliament or engage parliament committees during planning and budgeting.” said Sebamala.
“I want to see you putting parliament on pressure, we need to be inside that parliament and hear that outside parliament there is a group of youths demonstrating for more inclusion and youth-focused programming,” he said.
Sebamala also advised youth to apply for PDM, Emyooga, Capital venture fund, and other government programmes for all ages.
Sebamala told young people to struggle for resources, learn about the government, and stop complaining.
The NYC budget was slashed from 4 bn last FY to 800 m this FY 23/24. NYC Mondo supporters swarmed parliament this week to petition the speaker for greater financing. Francis Kyateka, the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development’s assistant commissioner for youth, advised youth to get involved in budgeting from the start if they want their issues included in the budget and funded.
The MP for Mawogola south in Sembabule district, Hon. Goreth Namuga, criticized Parliament for taxing the weak and exempting the wealthy.
“Why tax social media but not gold?” asked Namuga.
Namuga noted that this year’s budget relies on PDM to boost Ugandans’ buying power and earnings, so if it fails, the government would fail to bring people into the money economy.
The meeting was organized by West Minster foundation for democracy, Seatini, Akina Mama Wa Africa, she leads, Uganda cares and the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Youth Affairs.