Madam Minister,
1. You will recall that soon after your appointment to be in charge of the land docket, you gave me a call on 9th June 2016, requesting to have a chat and “tap your brains as someone who had worked in lands for a long time and is knowledgeable in land matters before I embark on this new responsibility.”
I was attending Wang-OO meeting in Gulu, but I agreed to meet you anytime during the following week when in Kampala. You promised to give me a call and advise where to meet for the conversation. I am still waiting for that call. But this is for another time.
2. Today I write an open letter to you following a statement attributed to you in the Daily Monitor of Monday, July 31, 2017, page one and two: “Government to use force over Amuru Land,” it partly read and continued: “Anyone thinking of stopping (next week’s) survey of this land or anyone who is thinking of stopping the acquisition of this land is dreaming. I have come with all the power from the government to ensure that this land is surveyed,” you were quoted as saying. These words sent a chill down my spine.
3. Amuru land saga started eleven years ago, ten years before you became a minister. It is likely to remain an issue long after you have left the current portfolio you are holding. When it started, the person occupying the chair you are sitting on now was Hon. Daniel Omara Atubo. Both of you hail from Lango community, a permanent neighbour to Acholi community. Have you ever asked yourself why this should be the case? If you have not, I think you had better do so. Do you see any political game in it?
4. Methods of land acquisition are known worldwide. The main ones are: inheritance, purchase, gift, and acquiescence. Military might and force of arms are not methods of land acquisition. They can only qualify as methods of land grabbing.
5. I see some technical difficulty with your proposed compulsory and militarised survey. In Acholi, people hold their parcels of land scattered in several places. Even the parcels of those who have “consented” may not be adjacent in one block. They may be mixed with the parcels of those who have not consented. How will the survey proceed in such a situation? How will the parcels of those who have declined to welcome the project be excluded?
6. You should be reminded that on February 26, 1885, seven European nations assembled at the Berlin Conference and Belgium’s King Leopold, while reminding them about the urgency to colonise and share out the African continent told them: “We are here to see how we should divide among ourselves this magnificent African cake.” Indeed, they came, chopped up and shared Africa among themselves with exception of Ethiopia, calling their spheres of influence after their countries thus ‘German’ Africa, ‘French Africa, ‘Belgium’ Africa etc. By use of the gun, they took the most fertile parts of Africa, pushing the rightful owners to the periphery, to the arid areas. As I write to you now, the colonialists are no more. They have left and in most countries the land is back to the Africans. In view of what is happening in Acholi sub region, I want to ask you: has there been a mini ‘Berlin’ conference here in Uganda to divide the magnificent Acholi cake among some people? Just Asking.
7. Land is the most important thing in the life of any human being. It is wealth, it is an asset (in our case the only one left), it is the first development capital, it is livelihood (ours), it is security, it is our culture, it is our all. How come that our people should be forced to give away their most precious possession free of charge to some so-called investor? What if it was your land, Madam Minister, how would you feel? There is no investor under the Sun who will put their money where the locals do not welcome it. Never. Is it really madhvani? Or is Madhvani’s name being used to camouflage land grabbing?
8. In the 8th Parliament, Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG) raised the question of precious minerals, including oil, under that land. APG then asked government to explore what is under the land first before this nonsense of sugar-cane growing could be considered. No one ever paid attention to this. Is it deliberate?
9. Madam Minister, in your own words, your project is unstoppable, least of all by the Acholi community. I do entirely agree with you. Due to the sufferings we have gone through in the last three decades, our community is now a shadow of what it was. Our livestock, which was our bank accounts, our pride, our security was swept (1987-93); the entire population was interred in concentration camps (glorified as internally displaced persons’ camps) for twenty years; poverty level is, perhaps, the highest in the whole world. All these have left us a broken community. Our brokenness is now being taken advantage of to grind us to dust. But remember, however tall a person may be, he or she cannot see tomorrow.
For God And My Country
Okello-Okello John Livingstone
Property Consultant
2 Comments
Thank you OB, the Father of Land Economics!! May we all listen to him closely, including so called very BRAINY phd or Bsc, professors or any such brainwashed bullshitters masquerading as leaders!!
I know of many of our (Northern) leaders who have shown no shame in declaring President Museveni their God. I recall Todwong soon after the loss in the Luwero bi-election where NRM was trounced, Oulanya, and the “good” DP leader who some people call a mongrel / no true full-blooded anything. I have a picture of Mao ‘ka twero dude inying Kabaka” a NO NO for an Acholi Luo – the so called Royals are your kith and kins – no wonder those in attendance seemed to be dying laughing.
Now, if all these Northern men are “twero dudgi” or genuflecting to the “almighty” I shudder to think of what YOU, our sister would do or are doing to compete. Remember also our sister, that although the true Acholi symbol is LAA KWAC, we accept the elephant that was dumped on us, and the ELEPHANT never forgets!!
We lost the Murchison Falls (unpronounceable and stupid name) Game Park (720 sq miles) during the British rule without compensation yet their rule was illegal / illegitimate (the 1900 Buganda Agreement with Kabaka and Buganda). The animals were there before the British and still remain a Bunyoro and Acholi assets. Now we have so called Aswa Ranch. Pretty soon Acholiland will begin to look like Swiss Cheese.
The Madhvani’s sponsored the current government’s (NRA) war because they remember the Common Man’s Charter and what it did to the Indians, Israelis and the Brits. This is NRM paying them back while at the same time getting very rich. Look at the ownership of Chobe Lodge, Paraa and Mweya at the Queen Elizabeth game Park (did the queen bring any animals there?) – Indians where they celebrate their Di Waalis – no African faces. The board members are choke full of the Eli Karuhanga’s etc. I suspect even the murderer of Luwero Ugandans, Paul Kagame is a share holder ( he used to vacation in Mweya)
Lastly in LAW, CONTRACTS signed under DURESS is null and void – so bring your guns. Further the 1995 constitution was crafted when the country was in a state of war (30%) hence full participation of all “Ugandans” was impossible. Any lawyer out there to help me dismiss this instrument being used to oppress a people who were at war or in concentration camp?
We can sell CUT GRASS (HAY, yes Hay is farmed in Europe and US) to Bafurikis (in their homeland do not move foot and mouth cattle to the North)) BUT they should never dream that they can ever establish themselves north of Karuma. Why, because when the north need to preserve human life they were locked up in Concentration Camp (never transported to Ankole or wherever), so why should drought in the West be northern burden, after all the cows can be slaughtered for “SOROTI MEAT PACKERS” if it still exists.
Dera Hon. keep the beat going!!
To Madam Minister Betty Amongi; Yes as Mr Okello Okello has put it , it is true that the Acoli Society has become a shadow of what it used to be. And that is why much as you may undermine and despise their Action of Stripping themselves naked, I would like to inform you that, they would not be using such weapons (in their case the only weapon)to protect their only resource(LAND) if this NRM govt you serve had it’s citizens at heart.It is a sole responsibility of any govt to protect the rights, lives and property of it’s citizens . If your govt would not want to grabb land from the People, they would not reduce themselves to such Acts in the first place. For govt will have played it’s role already by protecting the people. This Acoli People you now despise were once a very dignified and proud People. A govt for the People protects both the interest and welfare of it’s citizens first and foremost. It means ,that the govt would be providing skills and capitals for the citizens to uplift from poverty hence enabling the citizens a better life. Governments don’t use force to acquire private property from it’s citizens with the Intention of impoverishing them like it is in your case.. In cases where land is involved, govts do negotiate with citizens. And it is only and only when the citizens have given green light that govt may go a head and use the land in question. Therefore use of force is non applicable. Please revisit your Action. For the consequencesof forcefull aquisition of land may haunt you forever. Thankyou.