Iron sheets saga just tip of the iceberg – Karamoja MPs

Feb 25, 2023

“By the way, the story of the iron sheets is just a small thing; that of the goats is going to be even worse because out of 74,000 goats, less than 30% have been delivered."

Minister of Karamoja affairs, Mary Kitutu. (File photo)

Vision Reporter
Journalist @New Vision

Members of Parliament (MPs) from Karamoja sub-region have said the ongoing saga of the diversion of iron sheets and other relief items meant for their vulnerable communities is just the tip of the iceberg in the level of alleged graft in the ministry of Karamoja affairs.

They said on Saturday (February 25) that the story was much bigger than what Ugandans could imagine.

“By the way, the story of the iron sheets is just a small thing; that of the goats is going to be even worse because out of 74,000 goats, less than 30% have been delivered (to Karamoja),” Baatom Ben Koryang, the Dodoth West MP, said.

“That is out of the budget of sh25b.  In the procurement process when they were soliciting companies to supply these goats, they said each goat costs between sh600,000 and sh800,000 and if I do mathematics, that is around 39,000 cows. Now if this (sh25b) was translated to cows and just thrown into Karamoja, people would be very happy,” he stated.

He made the remarks while appearing on the weekly Urban TV morning talk-show, Press Wall, hosted by Umaru Kashaka.

Others who featured on the two-hour show that makes sense of the major events of the week every Saturday morning from 9 to 11 were Peterkhen Lochap, the Bokora East MP, and Perry Aritua, the executive director of the Women's Democracy Network-Uganda Chapter.

The panel discussed the just concluded Serere County parliamentary by-election and the iron sheet scandal that broke two weeks ago.   

“We are not sleeping. We have looked at the docket of the ministry of Karamoja and we want to make the person who was charged with the responsibility to account for the iron sheets and the goats. The budget of iron sheets was sh8b and if I translate this to cows this is 13,000 cows,” Baatom said.

Lochap said all the people who have been serving as ministers for Karamoja affairs have been ‘eating’ money for the sub-region except the First Lady and minister for education and sports, Mrs. Janet Museveni.

“When Mary Kitutu and Agnes Nandutu were appointed as full minister and state minister for Karamoja affairs, respectively, some of us were happy that at least they have now appointed mothers who will now take care of us the way the First Lady did during her time as minister for the region but they have disappointed us,” he said.

He hailed the First Lady for selling Karamoja to the rest of the country and the entire world as a sub-region where one can produce food and even sell it to other areas.

“And she is the only person who gave us water when she was a minister for Karamoja. We now have two dams but of course these two dams can’t sustain the number of animals we have. So Karamoja has lost a lot of resources which government has been channeling to it like the money for constructing valley dams,” Lochap said

Aritua commended Karamoja MPs for starting the process to censure Kitutu over these allegations of diverting relief items.

“I am happy that there is a notice of censure. She (Kitutu) needs to speak up because this is a national issue. The bigger implication is that people will stop paying taxes because this is taxpayers' money her office is squandering,” she said.

According to the notice submitted to the offices of the Speaker and the Clerk to Parliament, Kitutu is accused of failure to deliver iron sheets and other supplies meant for Karamoja to support the ongoing disarmament exercise and the diversion of some items to non-intended beneficiaries.

Efforts to get a comment from Kitutu and Nandutu proved futile by the time of filing this story. While other ministers and other government officials have been named to have benefited from the diversion of these relief items, Kitutu is in the eye of the storm because she is the head of the ministry for Karamoja affairs. 

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