Kizza Besigye

IN SUMMARY

Accused. Dr Besigye also accused the government of deliberately keeping Karamoja sub-region poor so that it can easily control it

Kaabong.

Presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye, has said instead of ensuring food production in the drought-stricken Karamoja sub-region, the First Lady and minister for Karamoja Affairs, Ms Janet Museveni, has been presiding over hunger in the sub-region.

“People in Karamoja are now dying of hunger in a country that is so fertile and rich with all the requirements for having food and this in spite of the fact that the First Lady is your minister. The people over whom the First Lady is a minister are dying of hunger,” Dr Besigye told a rally at Kaabong Town Council on Thursday.

Dr Besigye was campaigning in Kaabong District on his first day of the campaigns in the sub-region. He cited bad planning and poor service delivery as the main cause of the problems afflicting Karamoja, which has been grappling with hunger, drought and floods, and impassable roads during the rainy seasons for decades.

Ms Museveni was appointed minister of State for Karamoja Affairs in 2009, and was elevated to full Cabinet minister for Karamoja in May 2011. The ministry for Karamoja affairs is under the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

Government interventions
In 2007, government introduced affirmative interventions for Karamoja and the entire northern region under the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan to uplift people from hunger, poverty and water scarcity. However, the challenges have persisted despite these interventions.

In November 2012, Britain suspended financial aid to Uganda following corruption scandals in the OPM, where billions of shillings were embezzled by the officials, many of whom are still on trial in the Anti-Corruption Court.

“The Karamoja region should be a very prosperous region of Uganda only if services could be availed so that there is water because you see, there is rain and when the sun comes, it becomes too dry and everybody has to move,” Dr Besigye said.

Janet defended
In a telephone interview yesterday, Mr Ofwono Opondo, the director of the Uganda Media Centre, defended the First Lady, saying she “cannot transform every Karamojong in five years,” but referred inquiries over how aid money meant to develop the region was stolen to former prime minister and now presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi, as “the money was siphoned off under his watch.”

“Karamoja is much better today than it has ever been, more stable and with more food production. The five years of Janet Museveni cannot solve all the problems of Karamoja [and] cannot transform every Karamojong. Karamojong is a work-in-progress like the rest of Uganda,” Mr Opondo said. He added: “In Rukungiri where Besigye comes, there are the poorest of people like the poorest Karamajong, what has Besigye done for them?”
Dr Besigye said once elected President, his government will invest sufficient resources to develop Karamoja sub-region to become a prosperous part of Uganda.

He said the NRM government created a deliberate system to keep the people of Karamoja poor so as to control them easily.
“They know that if you are poor and they give you Shs1,000, you will clap for them,” he said.

Dr Besigye also spoke about land grabbing, which he said was not unique to Karamoja but a countrywide problem, which is denying Ugandans a chance to benefit from this God-given natural resource