Kaberamaido youth abandon tractor over Shs 5m debt

KABERAMAIDO-Kaberamaido youth have abandoned a tractor in the hands of a mechanic after failing to clear a bill of about Shs 5.4 million.

The tractor Reg. No. UAW 096V was donated to the district youth council in 2016 by president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni with the aim of boosting agriculture among the youths in the district.

After receiving the tractor, the district youth council with the guidance of the Chief Administrative Officer [CAO] then acting Chief Administrative Officer, Herman Ejoku constituted a five-member committee to undertake the management of the tractor.

The committee was chaired by one Samuel Eweku, the former District Youth Chairperson Kaberamaido.

It is reported that the committee agreed to charge any youth who is in need of a tractor of Shs 60,000 per acre for maintenance purposes.

A source who preferred anonymity said, the proceeds from hiring the tractor out were allegedly saved on the youth council bank account without giving details of the account number and under which bank.

However, in 2020, the tractor disappeared and this sparked outrage among the youths across the district.

Following mounting pressure from the other youth over the tractor’s whereabouts, the current youth council leaders embarked on engaging various district stakeholders to forge a way forward to find the tractor.

In September 2021, the then acting Chief Administrative Officer [CAO] Herman Ejoku, the Resident District Commissioner [RDC] Jimmy Segawa Ebil and the youth leaders held a meeting to demand for accountability from the previous tractor management committee unfortunately it didn’t yield fruits.

A source, who attended the meeting but asked to remain anonymous in this story because of the nature of her work, told theCooperator that the Chief Administrative Officer [CAO] and the previous committee in whose hands the tractor was said, they didn’t know of the whereabouts of the tractor and could not account for the monies the tractor made in the past years.

“The previous committee would tell the new youth leaders that they don’t know the whereabouts of the tractor and the CAO would tell us the same that the district does not know” the source added.

After the tractor management committee failed to tell the meeting the whereabouts of the tractor, the source said a select committee was set up to carry out investigations to locate the tractor.

The source said, when the committee led by Cuthbert Ewiru, Youth-desk Officer went out to the field, the tractor was discovered at the home of one Daniel Emechu in Otuboi Kalaki. Emechu is a mechanic based in Soroti.

“It was discovered that the tractor developed a mechanical fault and the committee grounded it at the garage belonging to Emechu without the notice of the district engineer, not even any authority at the district,” the source said.

Emechu, a mechanic who has been repairing the tractor from the time it was donated to the youth said that on the fateful day the tractor developed a mechanical fault around Ousia.

“They packed it there, they went to look for a way of sorting out the problem thinking it was a minor problem. They then got information that I was at home so they brought it to my home where he was told to check and find out what the problem was all about” he said.

Emechu inspected the tractor and found out that its engine and the shafts had a mechanical fault.

After discovering a technical fault in the engine and shafts, I told Samuel Eweku about it and he told me to open its interior from his home garage so as to find out the magnitude of the fault,” said Emechu.

He explained that after dismantling the engine and accessing the fault, he told Eweku and the team that fixing the fault will cost Shs3M.

However, Emechu said, Eweku and his team left and never came back and couldn’t pick up his phone calls.

In February 2021, Emechu claimed that he contacted the Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Herman Ejoku and informed him how much was needed to fix the fault in the tractor so that it bounces back on the road.

“In our interaction which lasted for about 20 minutes, he [Ejoku] promised he would come and clear the bill”, said Emechu. He explained that based on the promise he was given, he travelled to Nairobi to buy the spare parts which were required to have the tractor engine and shafts fixed.

According to Emechu he repaired the tractor and sent an invoice to the office of the Chief Administrative Officer [CAO].

The invoice with Serial No.[S/N] was written by Emechu’s Soroti Garage,  demanding Kaberamaido district Shs5,412,000.

However, to Emechu’s disappointment, no one has come for that tractor despite acknowledging receipt of the invoice.

“It’s inconveniencing me at my home garage, I have nowhere to park my car and they have tied my money. I don’t only blame the youth, there was reluctance in supervision and management of the tractor,”  Emechu said, adding that the tractor is currently in good shape except that the battery may require changing.

When contacted by theCooperator, Ejoku, the assistant chief administrative officer acknowledged that there are issues surrounding the youth tractor and said that efforts are underway to release it.

“So, we plan to sit as district leaders together with the youth leaders and the previous tractor committee to forge ways forward on how to get back the tractor to the district for the youths,” he said.

Asked where the money will come from to clear the debts? Ejoku said, “I really can’t tell, of course, the tractor used to make money from 2016 but from what we are getting from the previous committee, we are not sure whether there is some money even in their account. There are a lot of discrepancies in everything,” he said.

Meanwhile, Clare Anyipo, the deputy Resident District Commissioner [RDC] Kaberamaido who was part of the team that carried out the investigations to find the way about the tractor said, “The whole thing of the tractor is surrounded by greed and arrogance from the previous committee.”

She revealed that their investigations indicate that the previous tractor management committee personalised the tractor and that the money they would get from hiring the tractor would go into their pockets instead of the youth bank account.

“So, the meeting yet to be called by the CAO, will determine whether they will be forced to pay some money as individuals or the district comes in because the tractor is meant to serve the youth across the district, not individuals,” she added.

https://thecooperator.news/alebtong-district-failed-to-recover-shs-840m-from-youth-projects/

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