KITGUM, Uganda: President Yoweri Museveni has given shs170 million to SACCO groups in the Acholi Sub Region. The president who was speaking at the 38th Tarehe Sita Celebration held at Kitgum Core Primary Teachers College in Pager Division Kitgum Municipality on Wednesday also blamed the escalation of the Apaa land issue on some bad leaders.
But on a positive note following appeals by State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hon. Henry Oryem Okello, regarding government, promised to compensate people, who lost their cattle during the war, Museveni said the government had been paying the victims but through their lawyers whom he described as ‘smart’.
Museveni then announced that he was offering shs120 million to all boda-boda SACCOs in the six districts of Acholi Subregion. These include Kitgum, Lamwo, Gulu, Oyam, Nwoya, and Pader. Each of the boda-boda groups organized under SACCOs will get shs20 million per district. The President also donated shs50m to the women in Kitgum who lost their property due to fire.
addressing the mammoth crowd, Okello Oryem noted that more than 23,000 people who lost their animals and properties during insurgencies in northern Uganda under their umbrella body of Acholi War Debt Claimants dragged the government to court in 2007 seeking for compensation amounting to Shs1.4 trillion.
They, however, later opted for out-of-court negotiation in 2007 and since then the government has only paid Shs7.05 billion to about 17,000 people by 2013. Gen. Museveni, in his response, blamed the lawyers who were representing the claimants for misusing the money for compensation.
“We have been paying some money to the claimants but it was misused by their lawyers, you [claimants] believed in them not knowing that lawyers also work for themselves,” he said.
A Total of 330 people received medals in the categories of Golden Jubilee, Nalubale star, the Rwenzori star, Masaba star and the Luweero triangle. February 6 marks 38 years of the Kabamba Barracks attack in 1981 triggering the guerrilla war that brought President Museveni to power in 1986.
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