'If he comes, evil spirits will attack the kids'

A headteacher in the Katakwi district has been rejected by parents and school administrators in three schools for allegedly being involved in witchcraft and misusing UPE funds.

The district education office first transferred Joseph Patrick Omugeto Amodoi from Olupe Primary School to Aakum Primary School but parents rejected him.

He was immediately transferred to St. Joseph Dadas Primary School in Katakwi sub-county but was not welcome there too, before moving him to Omodoi Primary School.

The DEO's office had thought that by transferring him to his home sub-county of Omodoi, Omugeto would be accepted but it was not the case.

Opol Pank Omodokolele, an elder and a founder of St. Joseph Dadas PS and Simon Elungat, a parent and member of the school management committee of Omodoi PS, accused him of being involved in witchcraft.

"Once he is brought to your school, evil spirits will begin attacking children," warned Opol.

Elungat was equally blunt about the consequences of Omugeto's deployment.

"We totally don't want him in our school. If he comes, we shall chase him. If the district does not give us another person, our deputy head teacher is there to act because he [Omugeto] is a defiler and misuses UPE funds," he said.

‘I am being witch-hunted'

At the school where the rejected man was the school head, his former deputy claimed that female pupils would lodge complaints that his boss (Omugeto) would check out their underwear for unknown reasons.

In the wake of the allegations, Omugeto has said that what people are saying are "false statements".

"It's not true that I practice witchcraft and that I touch girls unnecessarily. Why didn't those claims come out from the time I started working as a teacher in 1981 and as head teacher for the last 15 years?

"The major cause of this problem is that someone in the DEO's office is witch-hunting me. It's these people in the DEO's office who made a mistake first by transferring me from Olupe to Aakum alone, leaving my wife there. And when I complained, they transferred me before even finishing a year at Aakum," said the distraught man.

Set to retire as a headteacher in 2020, Omugeto had served as the secretary for Katakwi Headteachers Association from 1997-2012.

He said he has faced threats to kill him in schools that have rejected him and that the chief administrative officer, Ismael Musa Onzu, has reported the matter to Katakwi Central Police Station.

On his part, Onzu confirmed reporting the matter to police but did not disclose the details of the accusations.

Meanwhile Angella Atim Emudong, the district education officer, has denied being involved in the demobilization of parents to reject the embattled headteacher.

"Everybody is mine, how do I fight my junior and for what reason? How do I come in if the community has rejected him," she said.

She praised Omugeto as a good performer in terms of making children pass and has promised to hold a meeting to resolve the matter.

The officer in charge of Katakwi Central Police Station, Peter Oduko, has said that they are still investigating the reported allegations.

"Although this matter is purely administrative, which would have been handled by the CAO's office, we are investigating it.