Janet rallies Karamoja leaders

Sep 08, 2011

KARAMOJA leaders in their various capacities should take charge and play their roles efficiently because the region’s development will only come from all stakeholders’ concerted efforts.

By Vision Reporter

KARAMOJA leaders in their various capacities should take charge and play their roles efficiently because the region’s development will only come from all stakeholders’ concerted efforts.

The First Lady and Minister for Karamoja Affairs, Janet Museveni, said her ministry cannot manage the work in Karamoja alone without other stakeholders all playing their roles.

“If all stakeholders were playing their roles seriously, the money injected in Karamoja would have changed the lives of the people by now,” she said.

Janet Museveni was addressing the districts’ leadership and MPs from Karamoja during a meeting held recently at Morulinga to discuss the Seven Districts Status Reports.

She said if all local governments became functional in their roles and developed a firm foundation for the central Government to build on; Karamoja would be different by the end of these five years.

She requested the MPs to vigilantly monitor what Government funds in all sectors were used for and ascertain whether it was value for money.

The Minister of State for Karamoja Affairs, Barbara Nekesa Oundo, called for an honest administrative structure to supplement the efforts of the Ministry of Karamoja Affairs to transform the region.

The director of NUSAF 2, Dr. Robert Limlim, a Karimojong himself, said what Karamoja needed to propel it forward was consolidation of state authority and teamwork between all Government structures.

He urged the leaders to unite, organise their people to benefit from all available opportunities, use their energy constructively and fight the dependency syndrome.

The chairperson of the Karamoja parliamentary group who is also MP Dodoth, East Samson Lokeris, pointed out that various committees of Parliament had been erroneously thinking that it is the Ministry for Karamoja Affairs concerned with addressing all issues in Karamoja.

He called for teamwork and collaboration between the ministry, MPs and local governments.

He advised them to stop abdicating their roles to the minister alone.

The Minister of State for Minerals, who is also MP Nakapiripirit, pointed out that most mineral mining activities in Karamoja were illegal, which should be addressed if the local governments are to receive royalties.

The Minister for Ethics and Integrity, Fr. Simon Lokodo, said his ministry was up in arms to fight corruption and instil integrity in all Ugandans, Karimojong not excluded.

Some of the issues identified to be failing the Government programmes were failure to share information between the different actors of Government and conflict of interest between technocrats and politicians in contracts works which makes the quality questionable.

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