Govt imposed iron sheets on us - Karamoja leaders
Karimojong women during a community meeting in Nakwalet Village, Longaroe Sub-county in Kotido District. PHOTO/TOBBIAS JOLLY OWINY
What you need to know:
- Area leaders say no consultations were done by the government to ascertain whether goats and iron sheets were a priority to the Karimojong.
The government did not carry out a comprehensive needs assessment to ascertain whether the distribution of goats and iron sheets would lift Karamoja Sub-region out of poverty, area leaders have said.
During engagements with local leaders, specifically in Kotido District, the most poverty and hunger-stricken district last week, it was revealed that no consultations were done by both the Office of the Prime Minister or central government ministries to ascertain whether goats and iron sheets were a priority to the Karimojong.
“The goats and iron sheets projects were not a demand-driven intervention. These top-down approaches are failing here because what is delivered is imposed onto the people without seeking to know what works for them,” Mr David Moding, the Longaroe Sub-county chairperson, said.
In an interview, Mr Moding said: “How I wished the people here were consulted! They would have resorted to something else that would have helped them better. The goats and iron sheets’ project was imposed on the people. Leaders were only asked to go and identify the beneficiaries.”
According to him, the money spent on goats and the stolen iron sheets would have been given to groups to open large farms.
Ms Nuria Ashraf Teko, the Kotido District vice chairperson, advised that the government should have prioritised modernisation of agriculture by securing tractors for the communities to maximise production within the short planting seasons to address hunger, a perennial dilemma of the Karimojong.
“Besides agricultural modernisation, they needed to consider addressing insecurity at the porous border to block guns from being smuggled into the sub-region. This would enable peace and stability, which in turn would lead to prosperity,” she said.
Appeal
Mr Peter Abrahams Irar, the Kotido Municipality Mayor, said: “For those sub-counties that missed out on the supplies, leaders need to be consulted and the money put into something else so that the people can benefit.”
Both Kotido district and Kotido municipality were to get a total of 14,014 iron sheets, according to Mr Irar.
Meanwhile, each goat beneficiary in the district has received one instead of the planned 16 goats.
According to Mr Irar, the government came up with the goat and iron sheets’ projects as a package to resettle disarmed cattle-raiding communities.
“In each parish, we identified seven people to benefit where each person was meant to get 26 iron sheets. The President told us that someone can use 22 iron sheets to put up a house and use four to erect a toilet structure,” he said.
In Kotido Sub-county, for example, Lologoka, Nagirigirioi and Nangelekek parishes were supposed to receive a total of 720 goats and also receive up to 546 iron sheets to benefit 66 selected people spread across the three sub-counties.
Beneficiaries
Unlike Longaroe Sub-county where 105 goats were distributed to the 105 beneficiaries registered from the seven parishes, each goat beneficiary in Kotido Sub-county received only one out of the 16 goats.
Throughout the 19 sub-counties and 77 parishes across the district, a total of 14,014 iron sheets were to be distributed to beneficiaries.
Mr Ambrose Onoria, the Kotido RDC, said in a separate interview that “the iron sheets are not a priority for the people of Karamoja.”
“And I don’t think it will change anything because what the people want is different, now that they (communities) lost all animals, including oxen for farming to the rustlers, they need tractors (mechanisation),” he said.
Background
The iron sheet distribution for the vulnerable in Karamoja turned controversial recently when the State House Anti-Corruption Unit arrested family members of Karamoja Affairs Minister Goretti Kitutu after they were allegedly caught selling the branded roofing materials.
Thousands are said to have already been given out to individuals, including Vice President Jesca Alupo, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, first deputy Prime Minister Rebecca Kadaga, third deputy Prime Minister Rukia Nakadama and Finance Minister Matia Kasaija.
