How family of blind lost home to land wrangles

With a gentle voice, while offering part of her mat, she inquires about the guests.

A man in his 50s comes out of a nearby grass-thatched hut to join the guests and introduces himself as Mr Bosco Ocitti, Ms Ajok’s husband.

The couple have been married for 14 years and have six children, three of whom are visually impaired. 

Since July 3, a grass-thatched hut offered by a neighbour, Ms Harriet Ayot, has sheltered the couple and their six children after a tragic incident left them homeless. Ms Ajok alleges that her brother-in-law, Mr Simon Obowya, set fire to their huts and destroyed their property, a claim Mr Obowya denies.

She says on June 20 at about 2pm, Mr Obwoya, her husband’s brother, arrived at their home visibly angry and carrying a spear.

“When he arrived at our home, he began destroying a solar panel in the compound, which charges the battery. He then asked for the whereabouts of his brother who at the time had taken one of our visually impaired daughters to school,” Ms Ajok says.

She adds:“Obwoya has always attacked me over my condition and the fact that three of our six children are blind, a condition he alleges resulted because of acts of witchcraft. He says I am a witch and that it is because of my witchcraft that three of my children are also blind.” 

Ms Ajok alleges that Mr Obwoya took a matchbox from his pocket and threatened to set everything in their home on fire. 

She says he then gathered 12 goats, 40 chickens, 22 chicks, a sheep and five mattresses among other household items of the family, locked them in one of the huts and set it ablaze. He also allegedly burnt two other huts in the family’s compound.

Ms Ajok adds that she rushed into one of the burning huts to rescue her three-year-old blind son, who was asleep inside, and, together with her other children, fled into the bush.

“As I was running, he threw the spear at me but I fell and the spear flew over my head and fell right in front of me. Our home is surrounded by bushes and it took him a while to find the spear, which gave me a chance to flee,” she says.

Ms Ajok adds that she sought refuge at the home of another brother of her husband, Mr Odong Atere, who advised her to report the matter to the LC1 chairperson immediately. 

“The LC1 issued me a letter and I went and reported the matter at Unyama Police Post the same afternoon. Considering my condition, Mr Odong accompanied me to the police station where a case of arson was filed against Obwoya,” she says.

However, Mr Obwoya denies any involvement in the incident, claiming that the arson was related to a family land conflict.

“I am being framed in the matter but previous community and clan meetings had resolved that the family leaves the place over their unbecoming acts relating to sorcery,” Mr Obwoya says.

While Mr Obwoya was consequently arrested, charged and remanded to Gulu Central Prison, Ms Ajok, and her family, have yet to return to their home.

“We haven’t yet had a moment to reconcile, or hold a family or clan meeting to resolve this problem before we can return,” Ms Ajok says.

The family’s troubles began five years ago when they decided to move back to Mr Ocitti’s home village, Coopil in Unyama Sub-county, Gulu District. He was raised by his maternal grandparents in Paboo Town Council, Amuru District, where he met and married Ajok.

“I first returned home without my wife and children and there were no issues and my brothers and I lived happily,” Mr Ocitti says.

He attributes the problem to a land conflict, noting that he not only returned with his family but also brought one of his brothers. He denies the allegation that his wife and children’s blindness is connected to her misdeeds.

“My brother is only using this as an excuse to chase me and my family away from home because our presence would cause a fragmentation of the family’s estate that we are beneficiaries of,” he says.

Mr Ocitti, 59, the eldest of six brothers, says the incident has left his family homeless and destitute.

“We have been staying here at Ms Ayot’s home from the day the incident happened. My brother has threatened to kill me, my wife and children in case we go back home and I am very afraid,” he says.

“I ask the government to help me. I need to be together with my children and take care of them. That is my humble appeal to the government. My home is not safe anymore. Moreover, I no longer even have a roof over my head,” he adds.

Mr Ocitti explains that three of his children attend Coopil Primary School in Unyama Sub-county, two are out of school because he cannot afford their fees, and one has a mental illness.

Efforts to get a comment from Mr Ocitti's extended family were futile by press time.

ISSUE

Leaders in Coopil Village say they are aware of the family’s issues and that several attempts to help resolve them have not yielded fruit. “We have full knowledge of what has been happening to Mr Ocitti and his family, and his brothers have been accusing him of being the source of all the problems the family has been experiencing,” Mr Michael Ocora, the LC1 chairperson of Coopil Village, says.

He adds that he once mediated a case in which Mr Obwoya battered his wife, who was six months pregnant at the time resulting in her getting a miscarriage which he blamed on Ms Ajok’s alleged acts of witchcraft. “Obwoya had fought his pregnant wife after a quarrel, and two days later she miscarried the pregnancy and went back to her village,” he says, adding, “This caused much anger and that is when he decided to go and wanted to kill his brother and wife but luckily enough by the time Mr Obwoya arrived, his brother was not home.”

“We have been struggling to make sure that we provide this family with some necessities. We went to the school where the children study and asked the head teacher to first allow these children to study and he accepted and also promised to assist,” he states.