Amuru district forms committee to scrutinise eviction of illegal herdsmen
AMURU – Following complaints that the security personnel in Amuru district ask errant herdsmen [Balalo] for bribes to protect them from eviction, the district council has formed an independent committee of councilors to study the ongoing eviction exercise and present a report.
The committee formed on April 12, 2022, comprises five members of the district council. They include; Simon Peter Arop, Joyce Atim Keren, James Odoch, Concy Adong and Charles Nyeko Taylor. Simon Peter Arop heads the established committee.
The formation of the committee comes at a time when the district is stuck with over 200 cattle in Kololo, and hundreds of other head of cattle in Okidi Parish, in Atiak Subcounty.
However, reports indicate over 500 head of cattle have unclear circumstances, vanished from the kraal erected in Okidi by the authorities, to keep the animals seized from illegal cattle keepers.
During the fourth council meeting held at the district council hall in Amuru town, Joyce Atim Kere, the female councilor for Atiak Subcounty accused security personnel of collecting money from the Balalo, notwithstanding the fact that President Yoweri Museveni had directed that some herdsmen be given time to erect fenced kraals for their animals.
According to Atim, in some incidents during the verification exercise, the bribed security personnel caused the verification committee to evict herdsmen who had erected kraals, leaving out those that have not followed the presidential directive to erect kraals with water sources for the animals.
James Odoch, the Lakang Subcounty LCV Councilor and a member of the newly established committee, says that there has been minimal supervision of the eviction exercise, the reason why many of the uninvited herdsmen have continued to stay in the district.
Amuru district Chairman, Michael Lakony says that the main task of the newly formed committee is to verify, scrutinise and ensure that all the cattle keepers grazing animals in the district have or are adhering to the presidential directive of erecting kraals. The committee will report to the district executive committee within one month.
Lakony says the community and a section of leaders have occasionally blamed and accused political leaders of being bribed to let the herdsmen stay, something, he said, the committee can investigate and report findings to the district council.
Recently, Amuru district seized hundreds of head of cattle in operations targeting cattle keepers grazing on government, public and private land. Plans are already underway to publicly auction animals whose rightful owners have not claimed them.
In November 2021, in a meeting held at Ker Kwaro Acholi headquarters, Anthony Akol, the chairperson of Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG), and the Acholi cultural leaders gave a 14-days ultimatum to the Balalu to leave Acholi land.
President Museveni had earlier proposed five years’ imprisonment, confiscation and auctioning of the cattle belonging to the errant Balalo herdsmen. His proposal followed the demand by Acholi leaders; including members of parliament and cultural leaders that illegal herdsmen leave Acholi region.
https://thecooperator.news/mp-olanya-donates-a-tractor-to-amuru-farmers/
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