Acholi MPs should stop adoring Kony

Jan 11, 2009

I have been following with interest the reactions of some MPs from Acholi regarding the recent attack on Garamba and I realised that some of them are true Kony apologists and now the devil seems to be putting on its real gown. One great Chinese revolutio

By Richard Todwong

I have been following with interest the reactions of some MPs from Acholi regarding the recent attack on Garamba and I realised that some of them are true Kony apologists and now the devil seems to be putting on its real gown.

One great Chinese revolutionary Lao Tzu once said: “A good leader is one who goes to the people, learns from them, lives with them and starts with them what they know.”

Whatever the MPs are saying is totally the opposite of the majority feelings in Acholi.

I thought by now the MPs would have called for a press conference to condem the killing of innocent civilians by LRA, but instead they only critique the Government.

Some of the MPs have been preaching hopelessness to the people for as long as they remain in Parliament. A leader is a ‘dealer in hope.’

One of them was on a radio station this week mesmerised by Kony’s ‘power’. He claimed that Kony is like a buffalo, lion and leopard. He said, the UPDF has just ‘scratched’ his mentor Kony and the people in the North are going to suffer when Kony retaliates. I wondered what retaliation the MP expected from Kony.
Another said there is indiscimnate killing by the UPDF gunships as if Kony was selective in Barlony, Abiya, Mucwini and Atiak.

What amuses me most is the level of double standards these leaders practice and I have also since come to realise that some of these MPs could be the real political wing for Kony. When it is Kony killing, they all keep quiet.

Acholi parliamentary group (APG) has a very large membership including agriculture minister Onek Hillary, Maj Gen J.F Oketta (UPDF), William Nockrack and minister of state for international relations Okello Oryem as ex oficio but none of these people have ever been involved or invited to any of the APG press conferences.

APG has been reduced to a thing for Reagan Okumu and Okello Okello. These two believe that whatever they feel and say is the general position that must be accepted and they have totally misled the community.

There are many categories of leadership and the local government leaders in Acholi are never considered by these MPs as leaders yet they know more of the community feelings than the MPs. About the attack on Kony, many people are in support and only wishing for a firm assurance from the Government that this time round, Kony will be history.

Leadership is action but not a position that people occupy. I wonder what they could have done having witnessed how Kony was tossing everyone who had been going to him in Garamba. We are right to conclude that the MPs failed to convince Kony on the issue of ICC and Mato Oput.

I recall that when we were in Juba in one of the meetings called by the LRA peace team, the issue of Mato Oput brought disagreements on the aspect of sacrifice.

The traditional leaders with the exception of Awitong of Lango, wanted sacrifice of a chicken, goat or sheep performed during cleansing ceremonies in the event that Kony is back the religious leaders where of the opinion that Jesus Christ was sacrificed for mankind and no other sacrifice shall be clean before God.

Both the MPs and Kony had no position on this and it is to date a big issue with Mato Oput that the MPs could have consulted the elders over. If any of them still believed that Kony was signing the agreement then I doubt their sense of judgment.

There is no government programme that these MPs appreciate and it makes me wander about their agenda though remotely one can imagine, it is a game of survival.

The fear they are creating in the IDPs is making those who had returned home come back to the camps and yet I would have thought they could have encouraged the IDPs to resettle while supporting the Government’s effort to completely end the menace of Kony.
The children they want Government to mind while slashing Kony are the ones abducted, raped infected with HIV, trained to become soldiers and deployed to come back and abduct.

Kony was advised to release these children and women but he said he had no children. All these, the MPs from Acholi are quiet about. None of them came up publicly to condemn Kony for this and the many abuses he has meted out on Ugandans.

In a recent attempt to encourage him to sign the peace pact he molested elders and religious leaders under the pretext of searching them for security reasons. One of the elders I talked to said they were touched all over and now he has pain in his genitals because the rebels claimed to be looking for grenades in their trousers.

Above all, is Kony’s refusal to sign the peace agreement. I thought these MPs would show their patriotism by condemning such acts at the APG but they kept quiet as if Kony advised them not to complain. But the Government has to manage and provide leadership, that is why Garamba is on fire.

If I may divert to the issue of land. It was the same MPs who told the community to spear each other over Land. Now the locals are seriously killing themselves.
The question is what are these MPs up to? I know they have been scratching hard to find grounds for the next election since the people have proved their lies on land and the war. Now they want to use this attack to mobilise political support.

To to these MPs, everything starts and ends with politics but for how long shall they fool the people? Honourables, the only safe ship in a storm is leadership, which you seem not to be providing. You blame the Government, which you are a part of. It is better to deserve an honour and not receive it, than to receive one and not deserve it.

The writer a presidential advisor on northern Uganda

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});