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President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has asked the Karachuna (reformed
Karimojong warriors) to stop the tendency of cattle rustling among the
Karimojong clans and in the neighboring areas in order to help the
government plan better for the sub-region.
The President made the request on Tuesday 20th June 2023 while
meeting a group of Karachuna at State House, Entebbe.
“When it comes to you people of Karamoja, we need to stop insecurity
so that we now start planning, we can't create wealth when there's
chaos. Stop the cattle raiding, now that will leave me to deal with the
Turkana. They will have to stop raiding or I will completely throw them
out of Uganda,” President Museveni cautioned.
“Once we have stopped the chaos, then we shall have to deal with the
issue of water for our animals. The money we are now spending on fuel,
security operations can be used to generate more water through setting
up communal and individual dams and thirdly, stop burning grass,” he
added.
President Museveni reminded them how he managed to convince the
Banyankore in the cattle Corridor to switch from nomadism to
commercial dairy farming that has since uplifted their welfare.
“In the 1960s, the Banyankore were still nomadic. Nomadic for what
reason? In the dry season the water would dry up, the grass would also
dry up. Thirdly, they have a belief that if you stay in one place for a long
time, the cows start getting some sicknesses,” he stated.
“Our message to them during our meeting was; stay in one place,
concentrate on storing enough water in big containers, stop destroying
the food of the cows by burning the grass and kill the ticks from there.
So, at the end of the meeting, they realised that may be this boy was
talking some sense. That is how the Banyankore stopped nomadism
because they realised that they were wasting their wealth and life," he
added.
The President added that when they came into power in 1986, the
Banyankore had stopped nomadism, but they had not started getting
enough money through farming.
“The issue now was how to create wealth through calculation –
“ekibaalo”. With ekibaalo, I suggested to them to go for milk because
with milk you can earn daily and that is how they listened to me and
started going for these Friesian cows.”
The President further tasked the Karachuna to take up commercial
farming especially for milk. He said this will help them to generate daily
income, thus improving their livelihoods.
“The cattle Corridor embraced dairy farming which has transformed the
area, so it is not hard for Karamoja to transform as well,” he said.
H.E Museveni also rallied them to embrace government programs like
Parish Development Model (PDM) and Emyooga to fight poverty.
Before the meeting, the President first took the Karachuna on a tour of
the various model farms with an aim of helping them learn new and
modern methods of farming that they could use in their agricultural
ventures.
Notable among the visited model farms was that of Mr. Richard Nyakana
in Rwengaju- Kabarole where the group benchmarked how a farm can
make a lot of money on a small piece of land.
On the other hand, the group thanked the President for advising and
guiding them on issues of security and wealth creation. Many of them
gave testimonies that they have been asleep, but they promised to use
the knowledge they got to cause a fundamental change in the areas they
live.
The group further apologised to President Museveni for causing the
insecurities in the sub-region before promising that they will preach to
their fellows to stop cattle rustling and join promote the country’s
development agenda.
