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5,700 Acholi war debt claimants not on compensation list
LRA war survivors attend a meeting at Barlonyo Memorial Site in 2017. PHOTO | BILL OKETCH
What you need to know:
- While appearing before the parliamentary Committee on Government Assurance earlier this year, the Deputy Attorney General, Mr Jackson Kafuuzi said at the closure of the financial year 2021/2022, out of 38,225 submissions from the districts, 30,339 were reviewed.
The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has asked the leaders of Acholi War Debt Claimants Association (AWDCA) to update the records in war compensation files to enable a total of 5,733 claimants to be included.
On Tuesday, Mr Kiryowa Kiwanuka, the Attorney General, told this publication that AWDCA leaders notified his office about the issue.
“The claimants should make those things (records) available to the Deputy Attorney General and they are included. We said if a person needs to be verified, he/she will get verified and get on the list,” Mr Kiwanuka said.
In 2021, the Office of the Attorney General revealed that the government had verified a total of 16,946 claimants.
Of the number, Gulu and Omoro districts topped the list with a combined number of 4,927 claimants, Agago 3,393, Nwoya 1,995, Kitgum 1,983, Amuru 1,470, and Lamwo 1,408.
It also said that the final compilation followed a lengthy consultation meeting between the claimants, Acholi leaders, and officials from the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, aiming at harmonising the war claims.
However, the figure contradicts the latest figures tabulated by the AWDCA compensation committee chaired by retired Justice Galdino Okello Moro.
According to the committee chairman, the compensation committee was instituted in November 2020 to scrutinise the process in which it recently discovered that while data on the 16,946 claimants with the Attorney General has several irregularities, more than 5,700 were missing.
Mr Moro said when they asked the office of the Attorney General to display the verified list, they declined to do it claiming to have done the verification exercise earlier in 2016.
“We later compiled a list and the total number we found were 21,266 claimants and these include 5,733 claimants whose names were not on the list of the Attorney General,” Mr Moro said.
He said the committee asked those missing on the list to submit their original claim forms and supportive documents. Mr Moro said the affected people fulfilled the requirements.
While appearing before the parliamentary Committee on Government Assurance earlier this year, the Deputy Attorney General, Mr Jackson Kafuuzi said at the closure of the financial year 2021/2022, out of 38,225 submissions from the districts, 30,339 were reviewed.
He said 20,727 claimants have so been paid, at a total sum of Shs50 billion and the government still requires more Shs2 trillion to compensate the remaining war debt claimants.
