Elizabeth Kakwanzi, the newly nominated National Resistance Movement (NRM) candidate for Youth Member of Parliament (Western Region), has placed the fight against youth unemployment at the heart of her campaign, pledging to push for practical, skills-based solutions if elected.
Kakwanzi received her official nomination on Monday, setting the stage for her bid in the NRM primaries ahead of the national Youth MP elections. Her campaign message is clear: the youth unemployment crisis requires urgent, grounded, and sustained action.
“As youth, we have a problem of unemployment,” Kakwanzi said during her nomination speech. “As much as our president has put up socioeconomic transformation programs for us—from the grassroots down—he needs us to help him. And how do we help him as the youth? We get into the structures and develop from the grassroots.”
She highlighted a major driver of youth unemployment: a lack of practical skills. To address this, Kakwanzi is advocating for expanded access to vocational training through existing presidential skilling hubs.
“There are presidential skilling hubs. How do we help them add vocational skills? How do we help the presidential skilling hubs increase their intake? This is why I want to get into Parliament—to reduce youth unemployment and ensure young people can get jobs,” she said.
Her candidacy comes amid rising criticism of youth MPs, with many Ugandans—especially young voters—questioning the visibility and effectiveness of youth representation in Parliament. Detractors argue that youth MPs have failed to strongly advocate for policies that tackle core issues like joblessness and access to economic opportunities.
Kakwanzi says she intends to change that narrative. A key focus of her platform is ensuring that young Ugandans can fully access the Parish Development Model (PDM), a government initiative aimed at moving communities from subsistence to commercial production. The PDM sets aside a 30% allocation for youth, but Kakwanzi claims that many are still being left out.
“We as the youth have 30% [of PDM], but unfortunately, most of us do not get it,” she said. “So, how do we have a voice that helps us? My motto is ‘your voice, our future.’ I want to be a voice for the youth—to help us access this money.”
She also pointed to untapped scholarship opportunities available through the Youth MPs’ office and vowed to connect more young people, particularly from underserved regions, to these resources.
“How do I help people from Kasese? From Bundibugyo? From Hoima and Buliisa?” she asked. “Bunyoro is the oil region. How do we give them skills to benefit from the wealth that God gave them in their region?”
As the NRM primaries draw closer, Kakwanzi’s message is resonating with some who feel disillusioned by the status quo. Whether she can translate this into electoral success—and ultimately policy change—remains to be seen. But for now, she is positioning herself as a candidate focused less on politics as usual and more on results for Uganda’s young generation.
