Katakwi in 15-year wait for school in memory of massacre victims

The promise:
In October 2003, President Museveni visited Katakwi to cool tensions between the Karamojong and Iteso communities.
The tension arose out of raids carried out by marauding groups of unknown armed people who had made incursions into Katakwi, raiding Ngariam and Apeduraudot sub-counties on the nights of September 20 and September 21, 2003, leaving death and destruction in their wake in what has since turned out to be the darkest and most terrifying moments for the people of the district.
Whereas it was not possible to establish the extent of the damage in terms of property, 41 people were killed and buried in a mass grave in Ngariam.

The dead included five babies. The identities of the killers have remained unknown.
While there are those who claim it was a group of Karimojong rustlers, there are those that insist that the raids were the handiwork of Local Defence Unit (LDU) personnel from Karamoja who had earlier been recruited by government to try and pacify the area.

A push by some MPs from the region led by Mr Elijah Okupa to have a fully-fledged inquest into the killings came to nothing.
Despite the lack of clarity on who had carried out the killings, the communities here pointed the accusing finger at members of the Karamojong community and threatened reprisal attacks.
A war between the two neighbouring tribes loomed large as residents of Ngariam staged roadblocks at Ocorinmongin to intercept travelling Karimojong and kill them in retaliation for the attack on Iteso.

Efforts by the then district council chairman of Katakwi, Mr Stephen Ilemukorit, to calm down the communities pending an inquest into the killings fell on deaf ears, forcing him to seek the President’s help.
The President dispatched several emissaries, but they too failed to cool down the communities, prompting the President to visit the area and commiserate with the families of the dead.

Mr Moses Aupal, one of the victims, said Mr Museveni while speaking at Ngariam Sub-county headquarters, promised that a technical school and a monument would be erected in memory of those that had been killed.
“Government will within the shortest time possible construct a technical school here in honour of the 35 elders and five babies who were killed,” the President is quoted to have told those who showed up.
Mr Museveni is also said to have promised financial assistance to the bereaved families. He said each family would receive Shs5 million.

The President also promised a probe would be conducted to establish who had carried out the killings and that the perpetrators would be tracked down and punished for their crimes.
Now, a little more than 15 years since the promises were made, only one of the promises has been fulfilled, but not fully.
“What we received was Shs500,000 for burial expenses and another Shs500,000 as compensation. What could have happened to the rest of the money or the pledge he made to build a technical school here is not known,” Mr Moses Aupal says.
So far, there is no indication that the school or monument will ever be built.

Official position
The Minister of State for Teso Affairs, Ms Agnes Jaff Akiror, acknowledges that there have been delays in fulfilling the pledge to construct a technical school in Ngariam, but hastened to add that there are so many presidential pledges for Teso region.
She, however, said they have since been submitted to the office of the President and line ministries for consideration.
“The President is very much aware of his pledge to the people of Ngariam and he is committed to fulfilling it. I am grateful that some of such pledges have been fulfilled. One of them was the creation of the Ministry (of Teso Affairs) itself, which is now tracking the pledges,” Ms Akiror said.
She said some of the pledges that have been fulfilled include a pledge to give iron sheets to several communities and ox-ploughs to youth and women groups.

Impact
Katakwi, which according to the last housing and population census had a population of 166,231 people, has 71 government-aided primary schools and two private.
The district has at least 12 secondary schools, half of which are privately owned. It has no teacher training college, no vocational and technical college.

And whereas Business, Technical, Vocational Education and Training (BTVET) is meant to be an integral part of Post-Primary Education and Training (PPET) in Uganda, Katakwi has only one technical school which is ill-equipped and offers only four courses, including Motor Vehicle Mechanics (MVM), Brick laying and Concrete Practice (BCP) and Carpentry and Joinery (CJ).

Opening of another, perhaps government aided vocational or technical school, which would perhaps be better equipped and bigger in terms of courses on offer would perhaps help to not only give children here more options as far as post-primary and post-secondary education is concerned, but also open them up to the possibility of obtaining more skills than they are doing.
Most members of the families of those who were slain are disappointed that the pledge has not been fulfilled because they had thought that they would be direct beneficiaries.

That feeling is echoed by Ms Florence Acen, a mother of six who was widowed as a result of those killings.
“Had the President lived by his word, our children would have done courses in say carpentry and masonry and help us. We are poverty-ridden. The situation is not helped by the constant cattle thefts,” Ms Acen says.
She also echoes the sentiments of those who are disappointed that only Shs1 million of the Shs5 million that the President promised was delivered.
They suspect that some people in either the Office of the President or that of the Resident District Commissioner swindled some of it.

“Shs5 million pledged to our families which lost their relatives in the killings only Shs500,000 was received, the balances are not seen,” she explained.
The biggest impact that the massacres had on the community is that they are still living in fear.
Despite the fact that government has been implementing the Karamoja Integrated Disarmament and Development Programme since 2008, which had led to a sharp decrease in the number of guns in the hands of the Karimojong, the people are still worried that the warriors could return and attack at any time.
The mass grave and occasional cattle thefts serve as a constant reminder that they might after all not yet be out of danger.

Voices

“We are grateful that some of the pledges like the ferry on Lake Bisina, which is operational have been fulfilled, but the one on the school and the monument is long overdue. I petitioned the Minister for the Presidency about it in March last year, but I am yet to get a response,”
– Mr Walter Okiring Elakas, Katakwi LC5 CHAIRMAN

“The President is very much aware of his pledge to the people of Ngariam and he is committed to fulfilling it. I am grateful that some of such pledges have been fulfilled. One of them was the creation of the Ministry (of Teso Affairs) itself, which is now tracking the pledges,” – Ms Agnes Jaff Akiror, The Minister of State for Teso Affairs

“The locals here keep visiting the sub-county headquarters demanding to know the development, but we have nothing to tell them. In 2016 and 2017 families of the victims sent petitions to the district asking them to remind the president of the pledge, but there has been no response,” – Mr John Otude, LCIII Chairman Ngariam Sub County

Daily Monitor position
It is very important that President Museveni moves to fulfill the pledge to construct a technical school and erect a monument in memory of the 41 people who were killed.
Failure to fulfill promises usually has an effect of undermining public confidence in leaders across the board, which would be most unfortunate as no one would take them seriously.
As a country, we need to document and formally acknowledge all the massacres that took place in Teso region both during the insurgency and at the height of the cattle rustlering.

We also need to document massacres which took place elsewhere. The Nam-Okora massacre, which took place in Kitgum District in August 1986; the Atiak Massacres which took place in Amuru District on December 18, 1993, and on April 20, 1995; the Abia massacre, which took place in Lira on February 6, 2004; and the Barlonyo massacre which took also took place in Lira on February 21, 2004, and others that took place in the Rwenzori region must be documented.
And we should not stop at documenting them and erecting monuments complete with their names.
We should investigate all those massacres with a view to bringing the perpetrators of those heinous crimes to book.

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