Gulu City orders 78 beneficiaries to refund Shs 390mln cattle restocking funds

GULU CITY, October 7, 2026 — Seventy-eight people who allegedly received Shs 390 million in cattle restocking funds in Gulu City without meeting the eligibility criteria have been ordered to refund the money or face arrest and prosecution.

Peter Banya, the Gulu Resident City Commissioner [RCC], said those who allegedly received the funds fraudulently include Local Council I chairpersons, city councillors and city technical staff, including town agents.

According to guidelines issued by the Office of the Prime Minister [OPM] in December 2025, although the cattle restocking programme targets people across the Acholi, Lango and Teso sub-regions, priority in the first phase is being given to elderly people, persons with disabilities, widows, widowers, orphans, former abductees, female-headed households, and unskilled and unemployed youth.

Banya said some people who do not fall into these categories fraudulently accessed the funds either directly or through proxies.

“We have received so many complaints from the community pertaining to cattle restocking. We have received official complaints from the Office of the Prime Minister in writing. We have also received official complaints from the Ministry of Local Government pertaining to how cattle restocking was handled in our city,” Banya said.

He said that following a recent security meeting, all the ineligible beneficiaries were informed of the directive to refund the money.

According to Banya, some of those affected have agreed to repay the funds, while others are reluctant because they fear that doing so could be used as evidence against them in a prosecution.

“The Internal Security Organisation [ISO] is doing the investigation pertaining to restocking. And I need to assure the public that the matter is being handled. We are in advanced stages,” Banya said.

“Some of the technical people who received the money for restocking were invited for a meeting and told to pay back the money. Some of them requested that they be given time to refund this money.”

Banya said the government’s directive was that beneficiaries who refund the money would not face further action.

“We have been given strict instructions that once someone refunds the money, that’s the end of the story. Because they did not steal,” he said.

“First of all, people should understand that the people who received this money for restocking are all Acholi and they are supposed to get [it]. Even me, I am supposed also to get this money. But we do not qualify for the category who are supposed to receive at this particular time.”

Gulu City received Shs 3.32 billion under the cattle restocking programme, which also targets the Lango and Teso sub-regions.

A total of 664 households in Gulu City were selected to receive Shs5 million each to purchase three cows and two oxen.

The first phase of the programme started in the 2025/2026 financial year.

The government earmarked Shs 80 billion for the restocking programme in the Acholi, Lango and Teso sub-regions to help communities recover from the effects of historical insurgencies and cattle raids.

https://thecooperator.news/govt-disburses-over-shs-3-9bln-to-soroti-for-cattle-restocking/

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