M7 Champions Economic Integration as Solution to Youth Uprisings

President Museveni has attributed the growing wave of youth uprisings to the absence of a wealth creation strategy. 

Museveni made the remarks while delivering a Lecture to senior military officers from across the region at the senior command and staff college, Kimaka in Jinja City. 

His remarks were in response to a question raised by Major Natasha Loho from Kenya, who inquired about how best Uganda and East Africa were prepared to handle the growing wave of protests among the young people commonly known as Gen Z. 

Loho cited the youth in Kenya who took to the streets on Tuesday to honour those killed during last year’s anti-government protests. She noted that, much as GenZ protests are mostly prevalent in Kenya, they could spread to other countries in the region, just like the Arab Spring. 

Museveni noted that such challenges can be handled through an extensive analysis of the causes and impacts. He, however, said that Africa is well endowed with resources, which are key in fostering landmark economic transformations geared towards youth-led empowerment drives, but such efforts are often derailed by indecisiveness on how to approach such ventures. 

Museveni said that young people need to get busy with productive wealth creation ventures, and opportunities for achieving the same are better created through well-thought-out economic integration as one block.

Museveni says that, rather than involving themselves in fruitless riots, GenZs should instead channel their peaceful demonstrations towards rallying East African community leaders on the urgency for economic integration.

This, he says, is more profitable as it creates a clear pathway for diverse markets and knowledge sharing on how best they can boost their daily incomes. 

The one-year regional course attracted military officers from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the United Republic of Tanzania, Kenya, South Sudan, and Malawi.