Dancers perform during the launch of NSSF Livelihoods Support Project at Amunga Primary School, Otuke District, on October 4. Key sectors in the district such as production, education and healthcare are crippled due to climate variability, inadequate resource envelope and its geographical location. PHOTO/BILL OKETCH
Otuke District was carved out of Lira District in 2010 to bring services closer to the people, but it has now become a shadow of its former self.
The district, which covers an area of approximately 1,549.8 square kilometres, is evidently more vulnerable than the population it is supposed to serve.
Key sectors such as production, education and healthcare are crippled due to climate variability, inadequate resource envelope and its geographical location.
Data from the office of the area Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) shows that the district’s service delivery centres are suffering from numerous challenges.
There is no hospital in Otuke. People transport their sick relatives on hired motorcycles (boda bodas) or public vehicles to Lira Regional Referral Hospital, approximately 70 kilometres away.
However, the district has 15 health centres, including Orum Health Centre IV; nine health centre IIIs and five health centre IIs.
Education crisis
Lack of schools, inadequate teachers and facilities have hugely affected education in Otuke.
Mr Joseph Lomongin, the CAO, says nine of the 54 parishes in Otuke have no government primary schools.
“Schoolgoing children in those parishes walk long distances to access education in other parishes. Names of 16 community schools were submitted to the Ministry of Education and Sports for coding, to date no response,” he says.
Three sub-counties and two town councils have no secondary schools as required by the government policy.
Mr Tom Felix Odongo, the head teacher of Amunga Primary School in Okwang Sub-county, says some of his teaching staff are accommodating themselves in classrooms.
“This school and Amunga Health Centre also lack an incinerator to dispose of waste materials that are harmful to the environment,” he says.
“There are 360 classrooms constructed at schools spread across Otuke. We have a shortfall of 485 classrooms,” Mr Lomongin adds.
The situation is the same at secondary level. Teacher-student ratio is 1:26, with a shortfall of 130 secondary school teachers.
Nonetheless, enrolment in the secondary level is also increasing every year. In 2022, a total of 2,451 students enrolled in five secondary schools. In 2023 and 2024 respectively, a total of 2,612 and 3,047 students enrolled in secondary schools in the district.
Road damages
The vulnerable district also experienced a number of damages on critical roads and swamp crossings in the months of May, June, July, August and September 2024 due to heavy rainfall and floods, the CAO adds.
“Some roads are cut off preventing learners from going to school, affecting trading within the district and other important services to the community,” he says.
The affected roads are Ogwette in Ogwette Sub-county, Oluro in Ogor Sub-county, and the damaged swamp crossings are Okee and Anapa in Okwang Sub-county, and Akorokodoi in Ogwette.
The district needs more than Shs340m to repair its bad roads and destroyed swamp crossings, according to the area accounting officer.
Food failure
More than 90 percent of the population in Otuke engages in agriculture, with very few people in the formal sector.
The signature crops are oilseeds: sesame (simsim), soybeans, groundnuts and sunflowers) but the crops that are mainly produced for sale have failed to get people out of poverty.
Dr Thomas Anyuru, the district production and marketing officer, says the majority of the people in Otuke are poor because the area has very poor soil.
Otuke is also found in a semi-arid area at the border with Karamoja Sub-region. “So, we should actually be doing mainly livestock production because the soil here doesn’t support crop production,” he says.
“We are losing out both in terms of food quality and quantity. We are not having the required three meals that we traditionally used to have,” he adds.
Mr Gasper Okello, the Otuke LC5 councilor and also the former secretary for finance and administration, says young people who should have supported their families in food production have abandoned home and mored to urban centres.
“As a result, there is a problem of food insecurity because the working population has left the vulnerable older persons to struggle with food production,’’ Mr Okello says, adding that the challenge cuts across northern Uganda.
“The youth are engaging in criminality, especially in town areas because they don’t want to engage in productive yet they want to eat, drink, and marry,” he says.
District offices
Mr Lomongin, however, applauds the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development for the great support towards the construction of the Otuke District administration block.
The project, which started in 2017 and will run up to 2028, is being done in a phased manner.
So far, the work done is from phase one to phase seven. The CAO says for the successful completion of the project, the district still needs additional Shs2 billion under Transitional Grant arrangement.
Ms Beatrice Odongo, a resident of Orum Sub-county, asked the government to urgently bridge service delivery gaps.
“There are no adequate drugs in our health centres and children move long distances to access education,” says Ms Betty Okello from Barjobi Sub-county.
Mr Francis Abola, the district chairman, says his administration will continue lobbying for services from the central government and development partners.
The district, with a population of 144,700 people, has a growth rate of 3.39 percent per year, according to the National Population and Housing Census 2024 (NPHC 2024). It has two constituencies: Otuke and Otuke East, and eight sub-counties: Adwari, Alango, Barjobi, Ogor, Ogwete, Olilim, Okwang and Orum. The district also has six town councils, which include Adwari, Barjobi, Okwang, Okwongo, Olilim and Otuke.
