Last week, a team from the State House anti-corruption unit stormed Karenga district in the Karamoja sub-region, Northern Uganda. During this operation the district chairperson Lochaale Felix Mark was arrested over allegations of aiding the rehabilitation of a road that was already contracted.
The road in question is the Karenga- Lokori road, the major route connecting the district to South Sudan via Biira boarder.
Since the day this operation happened, mixed reactions have been raised twisting Lochaale’s arrest from ordinary corruption allegations to a political witch hunt allegedly engineered by the State Minister for Ethics Hon. Akello Rose Lilly, who doubles as the Woman Member of Parliament for Karenga district, who according to sources is intending to have a big celebration with her supporters once Hon Felix Mark Lochaale is imprisoned.
According to our highly placed sources, it is said that the Minister’s bad energy sparked off the day she was got to know about Lochaale’s interest to run for the Parliamentary seat for Dodoth West currently being occupied by her ally Hon. Baatom Ben Koryong.
It is said that the duo hold strong ties and have several occasions been on the spot for sidelining every local politician who expresses appetite for their juicy positions.
Minister Akello is currently serving her third term as a Member of Parliament whereas her ‘partner in crime’ is wrapping his first decade in the August house.
Lokiru Francis, a resident of Mungu Konya village in Lokori described the charges against the district chairperson as broad day persecution that did not give their leader an opportunity to defend himself.
He further revealed that at the time the road in question was rehabilitated, the road had reached a breaking point because it was no longer motorable affecting livelihoods and access to social services in the entire area.
“For us as voters we look at Chairman Lochaale as our hero. He knows our problems and his different interventions have greatly helped us. The people staying in the area where the rehabilitation had reached before the process was topped are better off now. We know all those people fighting our hardworking chairman and the most disappointing thing is that they are always in Kampala eating fried food and wine, yet for us villagers here suffering to transport our produce to the market and accessing the health center. It’s bad that when Chairman took a quick solution to make road navigable as we wait on the lazy contractor, now all guns are being turned against him because they fear that he getting more popular. We shall not accept that!” Furious Lokiru said.
Agnes Nakwang, a resident of Kachapangole village, wonders about the minister’s motive to fight fellow leaders who have never fought her and also both have a mandate to serve the community.
“I personally don’t see a crime committed by the chairman because the road they are talking about is not going to his place or his village. This road is the major route for us villagers. It’s the only road that connects us to the health center where we go every day for antenatal and medical care but it’s unfortunate that this road also floods in rainy seasons. I’m not happy to see that our chairman is being attacked and heavily fought for taking a decision that benefits us the poor people.” Nakwang said.
Karenga is a district in the Karamoja sub-region of northeastern Uganda. It is one of the districts that make up the Karamoja region and it became effective in 2019 after it was curved out of Kaabong district.
Being one of the youngest districts in country and also neighboring Kidepo Valley National Park, it faces multiple hardships like lack of the necessary resources, infrastructure, and capacity to effectively deliver services to their residents. This can result in challenges in providing basic services such as healthcare, education, and clean water. Addressing these challenges will require concerted efforts from both the government and development partners to support the capacity-building and infrastructure development of new districts in Uganda.
In bid to address some of these challenges, the Uganda Wildlife Authority UWA’s efforts to engage with and support neighboring communities are aimed at fostering positive relationships between communities and wildlife, and at promoting the long-term conservation of Uganda’s natural heritage.
Locals say this notion may not be easily achieved especially when the new Chief Warden has been coerced into implicating the LCV chairperson.
“We know the Warden might have been intimidated by the powerful politicians because we know how they work. However we pray that Justice prevails. I want to tell you that we have stayed in harmony with UWA for as long as I can remember, they have supported us so much including even helping take our pregnant wives to hospital when we are stuck on the same bad roads in the area. We don’t want to see selfish politicians spoil the working cooperation with UWA to drive their petty fights for supremacy.” Lokiru said adding that wrangles affect the poor people of Karenga not the two elephants fighting.
