Last Updated on: 12th November 2021, 08:01 am
By Caeser Okello
Lira – 12, November 2021: The leaders of Moroto and Nabilatuk districts all chose Lira City for their exposure visit.
According to their team leader, Milton Odongo who is the Nabilatuk district RDC, they are in the City to learn on what the leaders and communities in Lango are doing that has enabled them have a peaceful society.
Odongo said Karamoja is currently battling with cattle rustling that has left communities and leaders having sleepless night.
Odongo worked as Lira RDC until mid this year when he was posted to Nabilatuk.
“The (our) visit is to see some of the developmental strategies, factories, Olweny Rice Scheme and Lira University Teaching Hospital. We want to go back and let people know the benefits of leaving in peace and avoid engaging in unlawful act of stealing cattles and killings,” he told TND News.
“If the people of Karamoja could change their mindset and start doing business and commercial agriculture then they would know that cattle rustling won’t take them anywhere,” he observed.
The LCV Chairperson of Nabilatuk district, Paul Lokol said there are lots of things they can learn from Lira City.
“Most of the people bringing insecurity in Karamoja are lawless youth who do not want to engage in developmental ventures as the only way of surviving,” Lokol said in Lira.
He stated that the people of Karamoja still think that stealing and killing of civilians is the best way because they perceive that Karamojong people are the poorest tribes in the country.
Dr. Fitsum Teddla is an advisor in the Justice and Peace Commission for Moroto. He is sponsoring the visit. “We opted for this exposure visit to allow leaders from Karamoja reflect on how the peace can be achieved through holistic approach.”
Dr. Teddla added that the looming insecurity in Karamoja can still end. “But this means both the Church and the leaders all apply peaceful means by using dialogue and reconcentration.”
After their visit, the team will be equipped will knowledge on how best they can go and apply what they have learned to stop the current insecurity in Karamoja, he said.
The visitors are twenty in numbers: ten from Moroto and ten from Nabilatuk comprising of LCVs, Justice and Peace Commission Moroto Catholic Diocese, and NRM leaders and councilors.