Minority groups demand equal opportunities in public offices

Indigenous minority groups in West Nile have petitioned the government over what they termed as inequality and unfavourable policies that discriminate them.

They said they have been denied access to jobs, freedom of worship and associations due to historical stereotypes. 

Speaking at Arua City Hall recently, the minister of culture for Kebu Chiefdom, Mr Amos Alio, said: “When it comes to recruitments in public offices, no priority is given to the minority groups. It is sad that these days, people look at your name first and are inclined to a certain tribe before they can give you a job. It is absurd.”

Ms Alio suggested that there was a need for the government to allocate a slot for regional parliamentary representation for the minority groups.

“If we cannot have a Member of Parliament for indigenous groups in each district, we could have one per region. This will be important in fronting our issues,” he said. 

While concurring with the issues tabled by the Kebu community, the representative of Lendu (Ndruja) Kingdom, Mr Patrick Andama, said: “This is the time we need to peacefully rise up against any form of injustices. We need to reclaim our land that has been taken, and find ways of preserving our language.”

He added that the government needs to incorporate languages of the indigenous groups in the thematic curriculum. 

Already, the Kebu and Lendu communities living in Zombo District are translating the Bible and the 1995 Constitution in their languages. 

In response, the principal education officer at the Equal Opportunities Communities, Ms Patua Babirye, said: “We want to ensure that the issues raised are followed and actions are taken.”

The 2014 statistics indicates that the Kebu were about 60,000 and the Lendu were estimated to be about 10,000 people in Uganda. The majority are in the Democratic Republic of Congo, totalling about 1,495,000 people. 

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