Museveni preaches patience over compensation in ‘difficult’ Teso

For Simon Peter Okalebo, life has been bleak since 1998 when rebels of the Uganda People’s Army attacked his home in Toroma, Katakwi District, and herded off 68 cows that were the bread and butter of the family.

Though his parents were able to toil and see him through school, his other siblings were unable to finish school, and are now part of the ugly statistics of a generation in the Teso-sub-region that embodies the scars of the insurgency the sub-region endured in the 1980s.

So when Okalebo braved the sweltering sun and bothersome security checks to flock to Toroma headquarters grounds to listen to President Museveni plea for a fifth term, he was confident the President would make a grand announcement regarding the matter of compensation for the people who lost property and livestock.

Mentioned in passing
But Mr Okalebo was mistaken; the President only mentioned the issue of compensation in passing, at the end of his address, urging patience and arguing that government works “step-by-step”.

With rough estimates putting the number of cattle lost in Teso sub-region at more than 500,000, the matter of compensation is at the heart and soul of life in the area. Rebel attacks were followed by Karimojong raids -that involved razing down of stores of grain and flour, leaving a previously prosperous community on the ropes.

“It is as if Teso is not represented at national level and no one cares about the plight of the people here. Our cattle were taken but we have waited in vain to be compensated,” Okalebo says ahead of Museveni’s address.

But the President, who surely has got a briefing about how critical the matter of compensation is, chooses the easy option of giving promises and chiding Opposition politicians who have been pointing it out.

“I hear some people saying you have not compensated cattle, you have not done this and that. You cannot do everything at the same time. We do something today [and] tomorrow, we do something else,” Museveni says. That has been his message from Kumi to Serere to Kaberamaido to Soroti.

“My father had 68 cattle. We grew up drinking milk but now it’s no more,” Okalebo says in response to Museveni.

With such misgivings, Museveni’s handlers in Teso sub-region, despite publicly brimming with confidence, will privately warn that improving, or even maintaining the 75 per cent vote he secured in the region will be “difficult”.

The FDC flag bearer dwelled on the matter of compensation when he campaigned in Teso sub-region on December 10, four days after Museveni had blown hot and cold over the issue.
And the infighting among local NRM politicians has not helped matters.

After eating his words on the promise to give a shot at the presidency, Capt Mike Mukula, the NRM’s go-to-man in the region, is now seen as Mr Inconsistent.

Local politicians were not amused with Mukula’s stunts at the President’s rallies where he would travel around in a chopper before giving an address. Local NRM handlers were concerned that Mukula was pre-empting the President’s message.

Education minister Jessica Alupo and the Eastern Youth MP Peter Ogwang do not see eye to eye. Alupo accuses Ogwang, who is now gunning for the Usuk County seat, of being behind her loss in the NRM primaries for the Katakwi Woman MP seat.

At the Usuk rally in Katakwi District, Mr Museveni was thrust in the uncomfortable position of inviting the NRM flag bearer for the Katakwi Woman MP seat Violet Akurut, alongside Jessica Alupo and Ogwang to the podium.

Ms Akurut’s supporters were not amused by Museveni’s stunts. Usuk highlighted Mr Museveni’s position on independents; it is neither here nor there.

In Amuria, Museveni dropped a hint on how he is resolving the spat between NRM stalwarts Jeje Odong and Musa Ecweru –who were previously fighting for the Amuria NRM flag. Mr Museveni said he decided to carve out Orungo County for Jeje, leaving Ecweru with Amuria.

But no one knows if the two soldiers have definitively buried the hatchet.

Leadership vacuum
Museveni tried to tackle the leadership vacuum in Teso sub-region by naming Bukedea Woman MP Rose Akol as Internal Affairs minister, but the 51 year old seems not to be the typical NRM politician who will pull all the stops to secure a vote for Museveni.

Mr Museveni’s trump card in the region has been the restoration of sanity after years of instability orchestrated by disparate rebel groups and Karimojong warriors.

Alive to the fact that the scars of war are still fresh in Teso sub-region, the President did not tire to emphasise how the government first concentrated on programmes like disarmament in Karamoja.

Museveni has argued that with peace, even problems such as cattle compensation can be solved; severally saying the NRM believes in prioritisation. His other bargaining chip has been the success of rural electrification and construction of major roads in the area.

It remains to be seen whether the novelty of peace that helped him secure victory here in 2011 will do the magic again or if it is now a sell-out.