The Teso Sub-Region has instituted a Rehabilitation Committee to spearhead consultations on President Yoweri Museveni’s proposed general animal compensation programme. The Rehabilitation committee has been officially commissioned on Monday by the Vice President Maj. (Rtd) Jessica Rose Alupo Epel at Eneku Village in Soroti City.
According to the vice President, the committee will begin its work on Wednesday, September 4th, and conclude consultations on September 11th, before submitting a final report to the President on September 15th for consideration and implementation. “The committee requests all stakeholders in the Teso sub-region to welcome this undertaking. We invite everybody, in the way they can, to support our work,” Alupo said.
She emphasized that while the consultations will not cover every individual in Teso home to over three million people the committee will meet representative groups, including community leaders and organized associations such as boda boda riders, to capture diverse views. “If this committee is to meet all the three million people in Teso, we shall not beat the deadline. So we want every person in Teso to know that the leaders we are meeting are expressing their opinions. We don’t expect complaints from people because we cannot meet everyone,” she added.
The Vice President called for cooperation and patience, urging residents not to antagonize the committee’s work if they are not directly consulted. Instead, she encouraged them to channel their views through organized leadership structures. “If we want to move as a region, the first thing we should learn to embrace is unity, and second is listening to each other,” Alupo noted, adding that the one-week exercise would lay the groundwork for uniform compensation and complement ongoing government projects aimed at poverty alleviation, wealth creation, and job generation.
The animal compensation programme is expected to provide relief to communities in Teso and other parts of northern Uganda that lost livestock during past insurgencies and cattle rustling.