Museveni In Teso Today

By Joyce Namutebiand Hamis KaheruPRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni is to visit Teso region over the rift between the pastoralists and the Iteso.While presenting his ministerial statement to Parliament yesterday, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs, Eriya Kategaya, said the President would visit Teso today. He said Museveni would meet leaders in the Teso region to discuss the issue of cattle keepers.Parliament yesterday passed a motion calling upon the Government to set up a commission of inquiry into the loss of cattle from Teso during the insurgency. The motion also urged Government to resettle the pastoralists away from the wetlands in 30 days. Meanwhile, state minister for animal industry Mary Mugyenyi and that of ethics and integrity, Miria Matembe, demanded that Mbarara Municipality MP Winnie Byanyima explains where in Ankole the cattle stolen from Teso went.Byanyima during debate on the minister’s statement said she blamed the problem in Teso on the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government. Byanyima, who said she was a child of pastoralists, said, “I want to lay this problem squarely at the feet of NRM government. When there was insurgency in Teso, I saw lorries carrying Teso cows from Teso down to Ankole where I come from.”She said, “I find it a bit odd when we are talking of big groups moving together. It becomes more unusual when they move with guns.”But Mugyenyi said the Banyankole were not moving with guns. Matembe asked Byanyima to name the real places where this cattle went saying, “calling us thieves is not a joke.”Kategaya said the situation in Teso came as a result of the return to the region of pastoralists who once lived there but were forced to leave the area because of insecurity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. “The return of these people has been misinterpreted and politicised,” he said.Kategaya said the pastoralists would in the mean time be allowed to graze their animals in the wetlands. He said government officers responsible for refugees and settlements would travel to Teso to establish the nationalities of each of the pastoralists.He said the central Government was working with the eso local authorities and the pastoralists to find another place to resettle the pastoralists.Ends