The President of the Forum for Democratic Change-FDC, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, has criticized investors who exploit Uganda’s low wages, saying they cannot be considered genuine development partners.
Amuriat said while addressing a media briefing at the party headquarters in Kampala, that the kind of investor that only comes to Uganda because wages are low and workers cannot organise is not a development partner, but an exploiter.
He rejected the notion that Ugandan workers must remain poor to keep the country attractive to investors. He added that countries that have lifted their people out of poverty did so not by suppressing wages, but by investing in skills, infrastructure, and the productive capacity of their citizens.
Amuriat criticised this year’s Labour Day celebrations in Buikwe District, describing them as detached from workers’ realities. “What we witnessed was not a celebration of workers, but a routine political gathering. Officials praised each other while ordinary workers like boda-boda riders, factory workers, market vendors, nurses, teachers, and casual laborers, remained stuck in the same conditions, with a minimum wage still a distant dream,” he said.
He highlighted the growing unemployment crisis, noting that thousands of young Ugandans graduate annually into an economy that cannot absorb them. Many, he said, are forced into informal work such as street vending, selling goods on pavements to survive.
Amuriat condemned the government’s response to informal traders, accusing authorities of harassment. “Instead of providing alternatives, security forces and city authorities chase young people off the streets without relocation plans, compensation, or support,” he said.
He alleged that wealth accumulation is increasingly tied to proximity to government. “Civil servants often live beyond their known incomes, a sign of entrenched corruption under President Museveni’s long rule,” he claimed.
Amuriat criticised President Museveni’s remarks that jobs exist but Ugandans are unwilling to work, calling them out of touch and dismissive and also faulted the President for suggesting that higher wages could drive away investors.
