Mbabazi promises special Acholi plan
Independent presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi addresses a rally in Gulu Town yesterday. PHOTO by Julius Ocungi
What you need to know:
Pledges. The independent presidential candidate says once elected president, he will stop land grabbing, restock cattle and compensate LRA victims in Acholi sub-region
Amuru.
Independent presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi has promised to stop land grabbing in Acholi Sub–region so that the local people don’t lose their land.
Mr Mbabazi said Acholi is more vulnerable to land grabbing because of the traditional land tenure system. “My government will wipe out land grabbing once I am president,” Mr Mbabazi said during a campaign rally in Amuru Sub-county, Amuru District, yesterday.
He said his administration would not issue any land titles in those areas.
The former prime minister also promised to compensate the people who lost their cattle during the 20–year LRA insurgency, which ended in 2005.
“We still have the problem of compensation for those who suffered during the war,” Mr Mbabazi said.
“There is also the question of restocking cattle lost in the region. My promise is that once elected president, these will be priorities – to see that those who lost property are compensated.” He estimated the cost of compensating people who lost cattle in the sub-region to be Shs78 billion.
The government, on the other hand, put it at Shs20 billion and has so far paid out Shs10 billion.
During the insurgency, the government relocated many people from their ancestral homes into Internally Displaced Persons camps, leaving their homes unattended.
And while they were still in the camps, some people occupied their land.
Yet others made off with whatever animals the people then in the IDP camps had.
Many people have since returned to their homes, from the camps but as they pick up the pieces, and try to establish their home boundaries, the government has been vouching for foreign investors to get land free of charge in the sub-region.
Also, some soldiers have also been accused of being behind land grabbing in the area.
Mr Mbabazi also promised to revive cooperative societies as well as build banks in every sub-county in the region. He said if the people want their problems solved, they should vote for him, not the NRM presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni.
