By Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi
This is my land, this is your land, through Rwenzoori, to Karamoja, to the Victoria, trough Western border, this land is for you and me.
That was one of the patriotic songs we used to sing in early eighties at St. Victor’s Senior Secondary School, Kitaasa. Karamoja is an integral part of Uganda and it was the only sub region that was mentioned in the song, others only geographical features mentioned.
The song was contrary to the then President, Apollo Milton Obote’s phrase; Uganda shall not wait for Karamoja to develop.
Poor Obote may have been misunderstood. He is also quoted as saying: A good Muganda is a dead one. According to Maama Miria Kalule Obote, her husband, after hearing tribute paid to a dead Muganda with only praises, he said: A good Muganda is dead one, meaning that when a Muganda dies, nothing bad is talked about him.
At the peak of 1966 Uganda Crisis when he ordered Amin to send troops to Mmengo palace to flush out Sir Edward Muteesa ll dead or alive, Baganda changed the phrase to mean that Obote hated Baganda so much and wanted all of them dead.
Likewise, Obote is said to have cautioned Karamajong, that if they run where others walk to catch up with the rest of the country, Uganda will not wait for their region to develop and then it develops other areas.
But the simple minds took it that Obote told off Karamajong, that they would remain backward as the rest of Uganda develops.
Yet his President, though ceremonial, Sir Edward Muteesa ll, had appreciated the Karamoja question and donated his full year salary to the then district, where they built some health centers.
According to Minister of State for Works and Transport, Musa Ecweru, who then was Resident District Commissioner Soroti, Semei Lwakarenzi Kakungulu, a Muganda general who was a colonial agent in Busoga, Bugisu, Kumam and Teso in eastern and north eastern Uganda, where Kakungulu stopped, is where civilization stopped. “Had he reached that part across (Karamoja), things would have been better,” Ecweru was quoted as saying by CBS FM radio whiole welcoming the then Katikkiro (Prime Minister) of Buganda Joseph Mulwanyammuli Ssemogerere who had gone to launch Baganda Nkobazambogo Students Association (BANKOSA) in Teso.
The colonial set up deliberately left Karamoja backward which served their tourism interests including sighting naked men and women, which Obote l Government also inherited and Amin’s attempt to force the Karamajong wear cloth by force, was too brutal and some lost their lives.
According to President Yoweri Museveni, after independence, Karamajong’s rival cousins, the Turkana acquired guns from Ethiopia (where there was a civil war) and started raiding the Karamajong stealing cattle. However after the fall of Idi Amin regime to Tanzanian forces on April 11th 1979, 43 years ago, defunct Uganda Army soldiers left the armory at Moroto barracks intact and the Karamajong raided it looted guns and started havoc on their neighbors. Obote ll government did not do much other than recruiting militia in neighboring sub regions like Teso, under the then Minister of State for Internal Affairs Col. William Omaria, who committed a lot of atrocities in Karamoja.
When Tito and Bazilio Okello took over in July 1985, they hired Karamajong warriors as mercenaries to fight National Resistance Movement/Army rebels in Southern and Western Uganda with a promise of looting all Ankole cattle to Karamoja. The poor warriors failed miserably and are said to have walked from Kampala to Moroto on foot.
Yet Karamoja, though semi-arid area, is full of fertile soils and minerals including oil, and while gambling for a national home for Jews after the Second World war, before the option of Palestine, Kenya Crown Colony and Uganda Protectorate were considered and the areas of Interest for the Israelis and their British colonial masters, were Karamoja in Uganda and Turkana in Kenya. Initially Turkana, Rift Valley and Western province and Nyanza, were parts of Uganda Protectorate.
The NRM Government appreciated the Karamoja problem and it is part of the 10 point now 16 point program and a Ministry for Karamoja was set up early which had Karamoja Development Agency, and the first line minister was Anthony Butere, who was accused of turning KDA into Karamoja Develop Arua, in terms of employment.
The disarmament program pacified Karamoja for the first time in history. However, since an ambitious program lacked in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan, the Karamajong have also become victims of the Turkana and Pokot. President Uhuru Kenyatta came to Uganda over the matter and protocols were signed but they seem to be still on paper.
Cattle rustlers are said to have come as far as Somalia, and some of the looted cattle were sighted in Horn of Africa. Small arms used in the raids were also traced from stateless Somalia, hence Uganda’s steadfast in leading an AMISOM contingent for the pacification of Somalia, which has yielded results.
Other than a military solution, NRM Government has applied all other methods to develop Karamoja though agriculture using irrigation and the First Lady, is commended for the noble job she did as Minister for Karamoja, her fist calling in cabinet.
In addition to sub regional specific programs, poverty alleviation programs like Emyoga and Parish Development Model will not leave Karamoja the same. Stakeholders including political leaders, traditional and religious leaders in North Eastern Uganda including Karamoja, Teso, Acholi, Lango, Sebei and Bugisu, as it has been the case, should be involved more in peace and conflict resolution in this integrated part of Uganda.
The author is a veteran journalist and Deputy Resident City Commissioner for Masaka City in charge of Kimeenya Kabonera Division.
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