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Two battle Minister Lokeris for Chekwii East County seat

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LEFT-RIGHT: Stephenson Lokoru, aspirant, Peter Lokeris, Chekwii East MP and Joshua Losuru, aspirant

Two aspirants want to end Mr Peter Lokeris’ reign as Chekwii East county MP. Mr Lokeris, who is also the minister of Karamoja Affairs, has been in Parliament since 1996 and is now seeking a seventh straight term. He is one of the longest-serving MPs. Chekwii East County was carved out of Chekwii Constituency, Nakapiripirit District, in 2021. Mr Lokeris has been active in the politics of Nakapiripirit and across Karamoja Sub-region. Mr Stephenson Lokoru, a clinical officer, with five years’ work experience with local government, and 10 years in the civil society, wants to unseat Mr Lokeris in the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party’s primaries. 

Mr Lokoru said Mr Lokeris had failed to do his duties as an MP, accusing him of not doing enough to lobby the concerned authorities to improve key sectors such as education, health, and agriculture in the constituency and the district. He added that several underprivileged learners from Nakapiripirit have not benefited from government scholarships.

 “The children who have benefited from the presidential industrial hub in Napak District through skilling have come back home because they have no push factor in terms of materials for starting their hands-on skills,” Mr Lokoru said. He argued that while the water coverage in Nakapiripirit is currently at 60 percent, most of the water sources are non-functional. He added that when elected Chekwii East MP, he would ensure all village boreholes are functional and maintained regularly.

Mr Lokoru said Nakapiripirit also lacks a district hospital and patients who require x-ray and ultra-scan services, are referred to either St Kizito Matany in Napak or Moroto Regional Referral Hospital. “These are the things that I need to go and bring before the floor of Parliament, the aspects of health is critical,” he said. Mr Lokoru added that Tokora Health Centre III, which serves as a district hospital, has been in a sorry state for the last 50 years, and so is Namalu Health Centre III, which was elevated to a health Centre IV but has not been operationalised.

“In Nakapiripirit, we have areas where if one wants to access the social services, they have to go through Amudat District, then find their way back to Nakapiripirit. This is so because the road network remains a nightmare,” he said. Mr Joshua Losuru, who lost in the 2021 elections on an independent ticket, also wants to unseat Mr Lokeris. He said the constituency needs someone who will challenge the status quo for the betterment of residents and the whole Karamoja Sub-region. Mr Losuru cited the need to work on community roads for easy movement and ensuring food security by turning the greenbelts into production zones as key areas of his focus. However, Mr Santo Obwoch, the political assistant of MP Lokeris, said the minister has performed well for both the people of Nakapiripirit and Karamoja.

He said Soroti-Moroto and Moroto-Nakapiripirit roads are what they are today because of the lobbying prowess of Mr Lokeris and other leaders. Mr Obwoch said some people pushed for the tarmacking of Nakapiripirit Road, starting from Muyembe but in the wisdom of the minister, Moroto being the heart of Karamoja Sub-region, he ensured the tarmac had to start from Moroto. “The other remaining stretch, which runs from Muyembe joining the rest of the Nakapiripirit Road is at the verge of completion,” Mr Obwoch said. He added that some people don’t know the dynamics and gymnastics that were involved in securing the funds for the Nakapiripirit roadworks, saying that in view of the Covid-19 lockdown, the money for that road could have been returned.

Voter speaks out

Ms Stella Lokuda, a businessperson in Namalu, Nakapiripirit, cited several issues that she said needed to be addressed across the district. She cited the need for land justice, adding that community land is being surveyed secretly. “The people here being majority illiterates, the duty bearers who should be protective of them, use times of calamities to make them sign forms that they don’t understand, at the end, they only realise that the community land is gone,” Ms Lokuda said.

She accused MPs from Karamoja of not protecting communal land, saying "the greenbelts have ended up in the hands of a few individuals". “The issue of the health facilities, schools have over years also received a cold shoulder. Mothers still deliver under the supervision of the traditional birth attendants, which too many rural people think is still normal even though the Ministry Of Health discourages it,” Ms Lokuda explained.

Pain points.

In Nakapiripirit, we have areas where if one wants to access the social services, they have to go through Amudat District, then find their way back to Nakapiripirit. This is so because the road network remains a nightmare,’’ – Stephenson Lokoru, aspirant in the Chekwii East MP race

2021 poll results

In the 2021 polls, Mr Peter Lokeris garnered 3,173 votes against his closest rival Joshua Losuru who managed to get 1,689 votes in the race for the Chekwii East MP seat The other candidates were Samson Aleu, who got 1,044 votes, Fred Kalibbala, who got 76 votes, and Nathan Lomanat Oluket did not get any votes