Museveni asked Lango-based lawyers to be excluded from cattle compensation talks

Lira City | Kole North legislator Dr. Samuel Opio Acuti has urged President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to conclude the decades-long cattle compensation battle in Northern Uganda with certainty and finality, noting that the unresolved issue remains both an economic and political time bomb.

Reading the Lango memorandum on cattle compensation at Lango College playground in Lira City on August 17 before President Museveni, government ministers, local leaders, cultural and religious, Dr. Samuel Opio Acuti, Kole North MP, said the question of cattle compensation lies “at the bone marrow” of grievances affecting Lango, Acholi and Teso sub-regions.

Dr. Opio, who doubles as the General Secretary of Lango Parliamentary Group, painted a vivid picture of communities once sustained by livestock stretching from the parishes of Iceme in Oyam, the shores of Lake Kyoga in Amolatar, the banks of River Nile in Apac, to the victims of the LRA insurgency in Kole – all devastated by conflict and cattle rustling.

“Our cry for long has been that the cattle compensation question be settled with certainty and finality. This battle is very sensitive. If well managed, it can give birth to triplets. But if mishandled, it can be a political graveyard,” Dr. Opio said.

He likened the President’s past achievements in Lango to hat tricks of goals scored in a football match. Dr. Opio said the President has scored a hat-trick on Akia Bua Olympic Stadium whose construction is ongoing, Lira-Kamdini road, and Rwenkunye–Apac–Lira road.

“You are already the top scorer in the Lango political arena. You scored the Akii Bua goals, the Lira–Kamdini goals, the Rwenkunye–Apac–Lira road, among others. Now we have passed the ball to you as our striker to make the final shot with cattle compensation. We are ready to celebrate an injury-time goal,” he added amidst applause from the crowd.

Reading from the memo, Dr. Opio highlighted the issue of Lango traders who lost property in South Sudan, many of whom were left in debt after their goods and trucks were destroyed. Some, he said, died under the weight of these losses while others lost homes to banks.

“They were once the tycoons of Lango, but today they have been reduced to zero. Their children are out of school. We appeal to you, Your Excellency, to intervene,” he echoed.

He also spoke for Amuka war veterans, who fought alongside government forces during the insurgency but remained without recognition or support. In addition, he reminded Museveni of his promise to meet NRM historians from Lango, led by Reverend Canon Richard Ogwang Odyero, who has continued to wait for an audience with the President.

While praising Museveni’s efforts in defeating the Lord’s Resistance Army and dismantling cattle rustlers, Dr. Opio argued that the absence of war is not enough. “Economic justice must follow,” he emphasized. “Your Excellency, today, we hear hoes digging, tractors ploughing, saucepans dropping—and some even say the sound of beds shaking. But without cattle compensation, the wound is not healed.”

The speech at Lango College reflected the intensity of grassroots expectations on when, and how, this time, their stolen animals are be compensated.

Deputy Attorney General Jackson Karugaba Kafuuzi reassured the gathering that the government’s intention is not simply to pay individuals but to restore local economies across Lango, Acholi and Teso. He detailed steps taken since President Museveni first issued a directive between 2009 and 2014.

According to Kafuuzi, an inter-ministerial committee was formed to remove the matter from courts and instead bring verification directly to communities. By 2016, this team had verified 16,940 claimants in Acholi, 42,024 in Lango, and 33,664 in Teso.

In 2021, the process was decentralized to districts, with Chief Administrative Officers, Community Development Officers, local councils, NGOs and elders directly involved.

Claimants fill in data cards, which then are forwarded through CAOs to the Attorney General’s office. This system, Kafuuzi said, was designed to ensure order, transparency and fairness in a process often marred by suspicion.

In March 2022, President Museveni personally launched a compensation exercise at Soroti University, backed by a budget of shs200 billion. So far, shs159.5 billion has been released, of which shs158.3 billion has reached 28,281 claimants, Deputy Attorney General said.

Kafuuzi admitted that several payments bounced due to dormant accounts, closed accounts, invalid details or double claims. Thousands of verified claimants remain unpaid.

“This exercise is meant to bring justice and restore livelihoods,” Kafuuzi stressed. “It is not about enriching a few but about rebuilding communities whose economic backbone was broken.”

The Deputy Attorney General ended: “This is about restoring the economic backbone of our people. We have already made progress, but we must complete the journey. Our people need closure.”

President Museveni told the people of Lango that the government was planning for rehabilitation but some lawyers went to court for cattle compensation. “The problem is that, with war, the destruction is so much to be compensated for.”

The President, reading from his body language, is ready to compensate Lango, but asked for an alternative way of doing it. “This is a matter which had not been coordinated properly from the beginning because of bad politics,” he said.

He soon gave some Lango leaders the task of telling him which way they want the government to compensate livestock. Different ways were given but no immediate conclusion followed.

The Head of State later directed that a “trusted group of up to 20 members” be formed to meet him in Kampala for more discussion, but urged Lawyers who sued the government and have been cited for the current loopholes to excuse themselves from that meeting.

While billions have reportedly been sent to Lango for the said compensation, the President was made to know it does not reflect the statuses of the beneficiaries as some are asked for “huge kickbacks” by “middlemen” and the little they remain with have refused to change their lives.

Additional reporting by Milton Emmy Akwam.