By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
BUSHENYI
The incumbent Bushenyi District woman Member of Parliament, Annet Katusiime Mugisha, has pledged to prioritise job creation for youth and women if re-elected in the 2026–2031 term.
Katusiime, who is also the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) flag bearer, said skilling programmes in vocational, digital and entrepreneurial fields would be central to her agenda to tackle unemployment in the district.
Speaking during a live TikTok broadcast from her home in Bushenyi District on Sunday, the legislator said equipping young people and women with market-relevant skills would enable them to access productive jobs and create sustainable wealth.
She called for holistic empowerment through vocational training, digital skills and entrepreneurship, which she described as key drivers of economic growth.
Katusiime also dismissed claims by political rivals that maternal deaths increased in the district during her first term, saying the allegations were not supported by data.
“Someone went on a local radio claiming that many women died during labour in my term. That is not true,” she said urging voters to shun politics of propaganda. “Maternal mortality has reduced because health workers in public facilities are working, and I closely monitor their performance.”
On agriculture, the MP sought to reassure coffee and tea farmers, saying government had not signed any agreement to sell Uganda’s coffee to a single buyer, as alleged in some political circles.
“Your coffee is safe. Government has not sold it to anyone,” she said, adding that recent price fluctuations were driven by global demand, particularly for Brazilian coffee, and not government policy.
Katusiime further pledged to lobby for the renovation of Kyabugimbi HC IV, expansion of piped water and electricity to underserved areas, rehabilitation of Kabushaho Primary School, and the distribution of 10,000 chicks per month to households, as well as coffee seedlings to rural farmers, within her first 100 days in Parliament.
Bushenyi goes to the polls on January 15 to elect a woman MP and other leaders in the 2026–2031 general elections. Katusiime faces independent candidate Vain Kemigisha, also known as Nyamunyonyi.
The district has three counties; Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality, Igara East and Igara West, 17 sub-counties and town councils, 72 parishes and 571 villages. According to the Electoral Commission of Uganda, Bushenyi has 384 polling stations.
The 2024 national census put Bushenyi’s population at 283,392. In the last presidential election, the district had 140,415 registered voters, of whom 87,415 (62.3%) cast ballots.
By 2025, the number of registered voters had risen to 153,993, an increase of 13,578, while polling stations increased from 258 in 2021 to 384.
