Rtd DIGP Julius Odwe: Somalia needs people who can transform insecurity into peace….

By Julius Odwe,

DSO, JoP, ESO, RTD DIGP and Senior Consultant of Security Governance.

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I read this document from Toronto about the challenges that the African Union will face in Somalia without US donor support. It looks like very authoritative advice to embrace in undertaking strategic management.

It appears that our leader’s concern about Somalia is more about private or personal benefits than public.

So the view about transforming Somalia into a peaceful country which also calls for conflict resolution through mediation for reconciliation was not valued.

So the reasons why there were broken communities in Somalia were not addressed (the internal conflicts) of the Somali people.

Being foreign troops, our experience is that you first study the culture of the people you are to deal with and capitalize on their cultural values best known for conflict resolution instead of peacekeeping.

This is what we did when I led the ASTU into Karamoja where we achieved both peace and conflict resolution within three years. Within the three years presence in Karamoja, the Karamojong themselves admitted that the Government of Uganda was there for the first time, were present in Karamoja, saying, “We are seeing the presence of government now here.”

This is something which had evaded Uganda success for the last 75 years (1935 to 2010) when we, through ASTU, maximized the achievement of THE LONG TERM PERSPECTIVES OF GOALS within three years only (July 2006 to July 2009).

When President Museveni dispatched us from Masindi police training school on 13-7-2006, with a contingent of 1600 ASTU personnel, there was no money enough for that mighty work.

Of the 20 billion on budget, the police had only 1.2 billion.

I had to encourage the police to recognize the presence and the role of God in the mission, by praying every morning and evening for God’s intervention.

It did not last long, after about three weeks when I was in the bushes of Katakwi, I got a call from the Netherlands Government that I should return to Kampala to receive and put to use 8.2 million Euros. This money was exactly equivalent to UGX 20 billion.

Later, many more donor support came in and at the end we received up to about UGX 47 billion.

Most important was to ensure that the money achieved the LONG PERSPECTIVE GOALS, and not things outside the peace. Not so much about personal gains, but to strengthen the operational cost that led to the achievement of THE LONG PERSPECTIVE GOALS for peace which had evaded Uganda for 75 years.

We had mastered the priorities to resolve the Karamoja conflict by ensuring that the Karamojong and the people they offended all live in peace.

The peace and security element was then of two components: Reestablishment of Law and Order in Karamoja (RELOKA) and the economic package for their lively good.

RELOKA meant permanent presence of the Uganda Police in all Sub Counties of the affected communities in Karamoja, Acholi, Lango, Teso, Bugisu and Sebei.

This was accompanied by constructing permanent police district headquarters, barracks and locations of ASTU.

We also had to construct the police training school at Olilim of Katakwi for rehabilitating the demands for professionalism expected from the police.

We also had to convince the NGOs to construct Primary Schools in some locations with the aim that if the Karamojong children go to school for ten years, they will have abandoned the culture of cattle rustling.

To that extent we did and succeeded in modeling a serious crisis into peace within the shortest time possible of the LONG TERM PERSPECTIVES wanted.

We did not expect wealth or personal benefits, but rather prayed to God the Almighty to support our purpose, which became a reality.

No one of the ASTU was given any take home package like in the case of Somalia where the peacekeepers go back home with lots of money yet the people they were to serve remain in great need of security, poverty and conflict resolution years after years.

May the Lord bless the peace expected in Somalia.

Editorial note: This opinion has been slightly edited.