Museveni to entrust lake management to local elders

President Yoweri Museveni has pledged to remove the Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) from the water bodies and entrust the administration of fishing communities to local elders.

Speaking at Amatiburu Primary School in Kangai Sub County, Dokolo District on Tuesday, the president emphasized the need to involve elders in lake management. He was campaigning for Ms Janet Adongo Rose Elau, the NRM flag bearer for the Dokolo District Woman Parliamentary seat.

“I want you the people who are near the lakes to guide me, to get the elders of this area; they should be the ones to tell us who is spoiling the lakes so that the army can go away and the people themselves look after the lakes,” he said.

"The minister for Northern Uganda can coordinate them; the ones from this side, Nakasongola side, and Busoga side, we shall have a conference and then we can remove the soldiers from the lakes," Mr Museveni added.

Established in 2017 under the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), the FPU aims to combat illegal fishing and improve the fisheries sector. However, President Museveni's recent announcement signals a shift towards community-led lake management.

In the interim, President Museveni urged people to report soldiers extorting money from fishermen to ensure accountability and discipline within the forces

“If you have evidence about soldiers who are extorting money, bring the evidence and we arrest them. We don’t have to wait until the handover. People need to be assisted to do proper fishing. And the ones saying that I should just take away the soldiers, I’m a bit suspicious of you because why don’t you want a proper handover?”

Mr Felix Okot Ogong, the Member of Parliament for Dokolo South in his remarks, had reported to the president that the army extorted money from fishermen.

“Your Excellency, our people in the fishing communities are requesting you to remove the military from the waters so that the local people can take charge themselves. These soldiers are extorting money from them,” he said.

But the President insisted that he was forced to bring in the army to save the fishing industry which was on the verge of collapsing as fishermen had resorted to fishing immature fish.

“But you have allowed the lake to be invaded by even foreigners, I hear; people come from other parts of the world and eat the young fish. If the Banyankore were eating the calves, there would be no cows, all the cows would be finished,” he noted, adding that when the fishing industry was doing well, Uganda had 22 factories for fish processing and earned almost $200 million from fish annually.