PDM HAS SOME SUCCESS STORIES AFTER ALL

By David Balilete

The Parish Development Model (PDM) has on several occasions been portrayed in the media as an unsuccessful initiative (albeit with a couple of success stories from a few lucky beneficiaries from time to time) whereby the some of the beneficiaries have been cheated in one way or another, a number of times!

It’s either the parish chiefs swindling half of the one million shillings assigned to the beneficiaries, the unfair screening of beneficiaries, or choosing their friends to benefit, yet they do not meet the criteria.

Therefore, I was so happy to see His Excellency, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, going on a fact-finding mission on his own! When the president decided to launch his PDM performance assessment tours in Wakiso district (July 7-13 2025) and in Kampala district which started on the 14th July 2025 more specifically; to unravel the truth about corruption in PDM, which started in 2022. It was more than reassuring that the president indeed truly cares for the basic interests of the people he leads!

While I scrolled through my X (formerly Twitter) account, I was pleased to see that a group of seven women and two gentlemen had a real one-on-one conversation, across a road, with the president while on one of his PDM assessment tours in Wakiso district on the 9th July, 2025, telling him the actual PDM atmosphere on ground!

This included some of the unjust practices mentioned above. One lady was seen trying to stop another lady from revealing the fact that the District Internal Security Officer (DISO) asked the beneficiaries for between UGX. 50,000 – 100,000 to attach their signature to the application forms, who in turn asked her not to deny her the only chance she had of telling her president about her pain, the bravery of this woman!

In another very interesting scenario in a video posted on X on 13th July, 2025 an overly excited Lillian Nagawa, another PDM beneficiary, showcased extreme delightment upon receiving the president’s visit in her home when she knelt and praised him in high exaltation saying in Luganda, “Mmanyi nti kotuuse taata buli kimu ekyange kiwedde! Nfunye Yesu mu mmaka gange.

Mukama, tusanyuse okulaba taata!” which translates in English to, “I know now that you have come father, all my issues are solved! I’ve got Jesus (Museveni) in my home. God, I am so happy to see you father!”

One of the success stories registered from the initiative include that in Tooro sub-region; Deo Katuramu, a resident of Bunyabugabu District, who was one of the 10,131 PDM beneficiaries in the region, formerly a taxi driver, utilized PDM funds to buy three pigs and an acre of banana plantations, as well as maize for feeding his pigs, that produced several piglets, which he successfully sold to invest into buying a cow, building a cow pen, and covering for his children’s school fees as revealed to the president when he visited him (Deo) on the 15th May 2025.

Additionally, @KagutaMuseveni posted on 25th February, 2025 that in Ankole sub-region, Rubirizi district’s 64-year-old Denzirata Tumusiime, another PDM beneficiary, told the president that she used the one million shillings she received in 2023 to invest in goat rearing and piggery and her farm surpassed a five million shillings net worth by February 2025!

In his 9th July, 2025 tweet on his @KagutaMuseveni X account, the president said, ‘Finally, my advice to all PDM beneficiaries, remember that this money is yours. Therefore, defend the funds from thieves because it is your safe haven from exploitative moneylenders.’

Furthermore, while he engaged with journalists from Wakiso District, on 13th July, 2025 at State Lodge Nakasero, Museveni mentioned the critical role the media plays in protecting PDM from corruption, theft and inefficiency saying that journalists should help him fight corruption in PDM by providing the necessary information through their media stories..

Therefore, not only have the presidential PDM performance assessment tours revealed inspiring success stories of PDM beneficiaries, improving the quality of their lives, from subsistence farming to the money economy; they have also exposed the diabolical, inefficient, unfair and corrupt nature in which the PDM committees have been conducting the programme since 2022.

Now that UGX. 1.59 trillion has been allocated for PDM this FY2025/2026, an increment from UGX. 1.096 trillion that was appropriated for PDM in previous FY 2024/2025, hopefully more beneficiaries will receive the funds in full, now that the president has intervened and is closely monitoring this poverty alleviation programme.

The Writer is a Journalism and Mass Communication Student at St. Lawrence University