Lango MPs query the verified cattle compensation list by government

LANGO – Lango Parliamentary Group (LPG) has queried the list of 18,469 beneficiaries of cattle compensation verified and validated by the government.

They said the number of animals stolen during the insurgency in 1986 is much more than the equated 608,755 consensus.

The government earmarked Shs.150b to compensate Lango, Teso and Acholi for cattle looted by the Karimojong.

In this financial year, the three sub-regions will share Shs.50b and another phase in the next financial year.

In 2010, war victims under the Lango War Claimants Association, dragged the government to court in a civil suit number 027/2010 at Lira High Court demanding compensation for their animals and property lost during the war between 1986 and 2006.

Four years down the road (2014), Justice Simon Byamukama Mugenyi, now Electoral Commission Chairperson, ruled in favor of the claimants and ordered the government to pay Shs. 2.9 trillion.

The government was ordered to pay 69,457 war victims to help them rebuild their lives and recover from the economic inconveniences inflicted on them during the war.

According to the court, a total of 1,100,055 heads of cattle were lost and each should be paid at Shs. 900,000, goat owners be paid Shs 796,377 goats and sheep be paid at the Shs.160,000.

But according to LPG, the payment rate for each cattle should be Shs.1 million and the government was yet to determine the rates for sheep, pigs and goat.

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Last month, Lango Parliamentary Group headed by Kole woman MP, Judith Alyek held a meeting in Lira City with the claimants and found that a number of them were dissatisfied with the process because of the missing names, failure to display the list and lack of sensitization.

Other anomalies include; short time for the exercise, challenges to obtain information from the claimants due to the short period given and complaints from claimants who didn’t go to court.

“Several options were raised on the payment plan including part payment of the claim to ensure all claimants benefit from every round of payment,” the legislators said in their report compiled by Kole North MP, Dr Samuel Opio Acuti.

In the list released by the government, Alebtong has 3,356 approved claimants, Apac 2,662, Dokolo 1,276, Kole 1,719, Lira 4,518, Otuke 1,918, Oyam 3,020 and Amolatar 954.

“We have not received Amolatar information to date despite request to have it availed to us,” said MP Alyek adding that a section of claimants are threatening to secure a court injunction to stop the compensation process.

MP Okot Bitek, who is the Vice Chairperson of Lango Parliamentary Group said, the number of claimants from Amolatar is too low and there is need for the government to start registering the claimants afresh.

Bito Okino, one of the beneficiaries who was verified said, when she went to the bank to check whether her account was active, she found the account number was not even matching with what she had before.

“I found my account was changed but the system is bearing my photo,” she added.

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