President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has issued a one-month ultimatum for audit and verification of all recipients of cattle compensation funds and pending claimants lists in Northern Uganda as the government moves to adopt a uniform rehabilitation plan for all pending claimants. “We give ourselves one month to study that,” he said.
The President made the remarks today while meeting leaders from Acholi sub region in Gulu District. The discussion mainly focused on the progress of the cattle compensation initiative in the sub-region.
President Museveni proposed that a list of those already paid be published in every sub-county for the public to see and if it’s fake, it will help the government to act. “But also publish the one with verified claimants. Let us all see the 4,000 who were paid in Acholi and how much they were paid and also the 12,000 who are not yet paid but approved so that we do mass verification, in that we know that these ones are not false claimants,” he noted.
“In the whole of the North; Teso, Acholi and Teso. That will help us to deal with the other issue of ensuring a flat empowerment for all families reaches everybody, which everybody seems to accept. We shall have a committee to see how we can move now.”
President Museveni’s directive follows a three-year compensation process to families in Northern Uganda that lost cattle during the 1970s insurgencies and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war that crippled economic development in Lango, Teso and Acholi subregions.
Government initiated a cattle compensation plan for the three Sub regions in 2022, a process through which over 28, 000 claimants have been paid from across the three sub regions and the payment to 16,000 beneficiaries is reported to be pending for the next budgetary allocation. However, during President Museveni’s interaction with leaders from Lango, Acholi and Teso sub regions, another 12,000 said claimants list was presented creating a cycle of endless cattle compensation claims which prompted the President’s guidance.
President Museveni noted that the initial approach to the matter by leaders and claimants was improper which exposed beneficiaries to opportunists. “But even with our method of sending in money directly to the beneficiaries, you have heard the corruption surrounding it. Some few people are receiving. We have already spent Shs150 billion which is supposed to have gone to 28,000 people. They now need another Shs500 billion. If we have that money, should we do it this way or another way?” he inquired.
President Museveni also ruled out the cattle compensation narrative and redefined it as a rehabilitation scheme because it resulted from the previous wars whose consequences were universally detrimental to all people and their effects are unquantifiable. “In other parts of the world, you cannot compensate for war or for natural disasters like earthquakes,” he said.
President Museveni also appealed to Ugandans to join the government efforts to fully implement free education in government schools. “The people blocking the future of our children are the ones refusing to implement UPE,” he said.
President Museveni further urged leaders to embrace the culture of budgeting by prioritization to spur development. “Please in the coming term, let’s concentrate on providing free education in government schools for the children. We should prioritize our budgeting.”
The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Hon. Norbert Mao revealed that Acholi was disorganized by messy politics in the past. “We are cultivators and cattle keepers but because of insecurity resulting from messy politics, we lost our livestock, so now instead of selling cows to solve our problems, we started selling food which we should be eating, then we faced food insecurity. That’s how we ended up having the World Food Programme coming to distribute food in the most fertile part of Uganda which was indeed a scandal.”
The Minister of State for Northern Uganda, Dr. Kenneth Omona hailed President Museveni for spreading the wealth creation message that has transformed the lives of the people of Acholi and Uganda at large.
If there’s anybody who has never heard your message, then he is underage, or he is in prison but I’m sure even those in prison have heard your message Your Excellency. What we now have to do, Your Excellency, is to continue working together to ensure that there’s peace and stability in this region and mobilise everybody in this effort.”
Kilak North Member of Parliament, Hon. Anthony Akol read the Memorandum of leaders of Acholi sub region. He thanked President Museveni for restoring peace and stability in the region. “Your Excellency, we also thank you for the Executive Orders on Charcoal business and the Balaalo. Since the start of the implementation, at least 19, 386 heads of cattle have been driven away and the implementation is still continuing,” he noted.
On the issue of rehabilitating war victims in Acholi, the leaders called for a holistic approach whereby even the people who were injured during the war get treatment, not only compensating only those who lost cattle during the insurgencies.
“Above all, there are other compensations we request that the government puts into consideration apart from the livestock,” he said.
The Paramount Chief of Acholi, Rwot David Onen Acana II informed the President that from the onset of the Northern Uganda rehabilitation program, about Shs3.8 trillion has been injected in the region but very limited impact on socio-economic transformation has been achieved.
“The reason for this limited success is anchored on factors such as corruption but actors in the implementation value chain, weak governance and leadership to facilitate absorption of funds in key plan sectors to trigger sustainable growth and development, among others,” he said.