Bishop Emeritus of Bukedi Diocese Dr Nichodemus Okille Engwalas has said the continued questioning of President Yoweri Museveni pronouncement on the location of Tororo municipality by some individuals from West Budama County is insubordination.

"Who are you to start questioning the authority of the President? We are only waiting for the day when Tororo and West Budama counties will be given their sovereign district and let the matter not bother you as an individual," Okille said.

Background

President Museveni, while addressing National Resistance Movement [NRM] party Members of Parliament [MPs] during a 10-day retreat at the National Leadership Institute Kyankwazi in early June, said Tororo municipality which has been a source of conflict between resident of Tororo County and West Budama entirely belonged to Tororo County as per colonial maps.

Museveni said he was compelled to send a delegation to the commonwealth archives in the United Kingdom to retrieve the colonial maps after residents of West Budama claimed to have made a contribution of parishes that were merged into Tororo municipality.

This was during a meeting with leaders from the two parties at State House Entebbe after the West Budama leaders rejected the maps that were presented by lands ministry officials on account that they could have been doctored since the ministry's permanent secretary and one of the technical persons happened to be Itesot.

Museveni said his team, however, discovered that the entire Tororo municipality lies in Tororo County without any contribution from West Budama.

This is after Tororo South County MP Fredrick Angura asked the President to pronounce himself over the London report since the team visited London in 2017. He said the report should act as a precedent to those who keep on changing goalposts denying reports presented by the land ministry.

‘’My political advice to all of you is that our doctrine is to accept the colonial boundaries whether International or internal the way they were. You political leaders should stop causing unnecessary excitement among the residents because you are causing confusion’’ Museveni said.

Exposing the lies

However, the pronouncement has made some leaders from West Budama uncomfortable with others questioning the President’s authority since it has exposed the lies they have been peddling to their communities claiming Tororo municipality belonged to them.

Delivering a sermon during the burial of Mzee James Omaset at Aututun village Apokor town council Tororo district on Saturday, Bishop Okille told the mourners that both parties accepted to respect the outcome of the London report irrespective of where they fall after the President asked them before the delegation was sent to London.

He also called upon the Paramount chief of Iteso Emorimor Paul Sande Emolot to protect the Ateker language and culture against extinction by other languages saying it’s so sensitive an entity to be joked with.

This has been noted after a number of Jopadhola books were sent to some schools in Tororo county to be used for teaching the language, which, according to the residents, is a provocation.

Speaking during the same function, Emolot asked district chairperson John Okea to prevail over his education officers to stop the nonsense and ensure that Ateso is taught in all schools in Tororo County.

Emorimori called upon the school management committee, parent’s teachers associations and Iteso Cultural Union officials to ensure that Ateso is taught in every school warning that those quietly moving Jopadhola books will pay for their own crime once caught.

He called for total unity between the two communities as demonstrated by him and his colleague, the leader Jopadhola Kwar Moses Stephen Owori, whom he said share the same table and functions without any trouble.

Emolot added that the same unity must continue to thrive between the two communities even when the district is divided since they have intermarried and inter-lived together since time immemorial.

He said the continued marginalisation of the people of Tororo County by the district leadership is what is breeding more tempers citing the recent allocations in the university quota system where out of 8 slots only one was given to Tororo County.

He called upon his subjects to support the education of their children by conducting fundraising to help those that are less privileged to achieve their dreams.