By Otim Nape
Shocking details have emerged pointing at the existence of a fresh scandal in the refugee management in Lamwo district which is line Minister Hillary Onek’s backyard. Curved out of Gulu, Lamwo directly borders Southern Sudan, a thing that makes it susceptible to huge influx of refugees whenever there is renewed armed conflict in South Sudan. Sometime in 2016, there was increased influx of refugees into Uganda as the war escalated in the South Sudan. This unprecedented refugee numbers coming to Uganda necessitated establishment of more refugee settlements by UNHCR including one in Lamwo. The people of Lamwo for long have taken Sudanese to be their brother because of the linguistic similarities and the rampant intermarriages that have brought the two communities closer. In a rare show of magnanimity, the Lamwo local community that barely has enough for their own families, warmly welcomed the Sudanese. Individual households wrote to the OPM indicating readiness to surrender their land to accommodate refugees in a permanent settlement. The refugee settlement was established in Palabek Sub County which neighbors Ogili where Onek has his commercial farm. On average, each family lost like half of their original land holding to accommodate to Sudanese brothers and sisters in the true sense of Pan-Africanism. Hillary Onek is the refugee affairs minister and Lamwo area MP. Onek, who fought hard to get OPM officials to agree to situate one such refugee settlement in his district, is already plentifully benefiting due to enhanced market opportunities for livestock products from his vast farm in nearby Ogili sub county. Yet that isn’t all. The value for his vast land has appreciated because of the infrastructure-such as roads, schools, hospitals and market places-that UNHCR has opened up for the service of the refugees. All these amenities previously didn’t exist. It’s also true that many of his people have got employment as a result of the refugee settlement being opened up in Lamwo. This politically has boosted his 2021 re-election chances to the chagrin of his political adversaries.
CHAOS ERUPT:
With slightly more than 21,472 refugees (all of them Sudanese), some local leaders like Ogili Sub County LC3 Chairman Christopher Omar say that the refugee population is making the indigenous local population to begin to feel threatened. Whereas they willingly gave up their land for the refugee settlement to be put in place, the local Lamwo populace are now nervously regretting. Why? They can no longer access or cultivate the land they gave up yet they need to increase food production to feed their own households and be able to sell to the refugee community some of whose members have since become wealthier than their hosts. They expected the OPM or UNHCR would be paying them some monthly stipend of about Shs45,000 per household to atone the loss incurred in the land they donated. They also expected monthly upkeep in terms of food rations from WFP. This misunderstanding resulted from failure by local leaders like Hillary Onek to adequately explain.
ONEK IN BIG TROUBLE:
“They gave us forms that we filled and the expectation was that as host communities, they would be giving us some money monthly and material things each time they deliver for refugees. In the process of constructing the roads and other infrastructure, our property including crop land and homesteads were destroyed. We naturally expected compensation which we haven’t got and even Hon. Hillary Onek, who is minister and our MP, hasn’t been very clear on this,” says Daniel Komaketch a peasant from Palabek where the Lamwo refugee settlement was established. Clearly there are angry sentiments against Onek which his local political foes have capitalized on to team up with the Lamwo cultural institution, the paramount chief Luc Achebe and his Prime Minister Paul Akaka to intensify mobilization against him. Like in all other districts of Uganda, rival NRM camps actively exist in Lamwo with one headed by Onek and the other headed by ex-LC5 Chairman Mathew Achia who in 2016 lost to pro-Onek John Komakeck Kgwok. Ex-Lamwo woman MP Sarah Lanyero belongs to the anti-Onek camp because the long serving Minister fought her in favor of eventual winner Lanyero Omuli. Naturally, Onek’s refugee settlement-related woes must be good news for his political foes as they see it as an opportunity to build political capital to deflate him. There is also Beatrice Anywar (potential Onek cabinet rival) who last week said in Parliament that UNHCR officials were sexually exploiting children in Lamwo as line Minister Onek and other OPM officials merely looked on. Anywar, who used to represent Lamwo when still part of Kitgum, singled out UNHCR staffer Kemis Ali saying he was exploiting girls in Lamwo. She said the UNHCR diplomat famously gets girls driven to Kitgum hotels for his personal pressure. She said victims had reported to area police but no action was being taken because of the perpetrator’s diplomatic immunity. She plans to raise this as a matter of national importance on the floor of Parliament. “If Parliament doesn’t act decisively enough we shall stage a demonstration on the streets of Kitgum to denounce the UNHCR and this individual diplomat,” said Anywar adding that what makes it even worse was the diplomat’s continued refusal to materially help the victims of his randy ways. Already there intelligence reports that Anywar’s impending ascendance to cabinet could necessitate the exit of the clearly fatigued Onek and her anti-UNHCR outspokenness in defense of the ordinary people only gives the appointing authority more justification to relegate Onek in her favor.
BACK TO ONEK:
Apparently, all these hostile political forces have allied with the cultural institution to exploit the local populace’s anger against Onek to demonize him even further. There are at least 5 local councilors who are proxies actively working for Onek’s political downfall and they are riding on the land-related grievances the OPM/UNHCR’s refusal to compensate local residents has created in Lamwo. The cultural institution officially argues that it was a mistake for local residents to be politically manipulated to give away their land without sufficient sensitization. Elderly Onek is perceived as one who looked at his 2021 re-election more than the long term impact the loss of land would have on his own people. All the forces against him in Lamwo are working with the exposed and economically powerful sons and daughters of Lamwo who live and work in Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe. These emancipated children of Lamwo have called a crisis meeting next week to which Onek is expected to come and explain why he hasn’t used his position as the line minister to prevail on the technocrats at OPM and the guys at UNHCR to ensure Lamwo residents are expeditiously compensated for the land and other property they lost as roads and other infrastructure was being constructed. “We have our people in Lamwo who are now starving and are always calling us to send food yet in Kampala life isn’t any easier for us. They say they can no longer cultivate cassava and maize for domestic consumption like they used to because politicians lured them to give away their land for refugee settlement but the monthly upkeep they expected from the UNHCR and WFP hasn’t come and Onek isn’t coming out clearly. We shall be demanding for answers from him in that meeting,” said one of the Kampala-based professionals organizing the meeting to denounce Onek’s indifference to his electors’ plight. Mr. Bongomin, a local community leader, says Onek’s only problem was failure to sufficiently explain to the people the truth regarding how they would be affected in the long term. “Officials from his ministry spoke in a way that created excitement and hope in the people that they would be getting some money and food rations monthly under the refugee program and now they are frustrated nothing has come their way,” Bongomin explained.
SUDANESE VIOLENCE:
Only a few days ago, a group of Sudanese refugees descended on local residents’ gardens and harvested all the cassava and ate it without pay. With their characteristic impunity, the very forceful Sudanese threatened to beat up local residents who resisted them claiming “this food is ours because the UNHCR paid for it already.” This angered the cultural institution whose main relevancy is to ensure the land-related welfare of the paramount chief’s people. When its officials intervened, the Sudanese unleashed violence something that further fermented more anti-Onek sentiments in Lamwo. In fact claiming the matter has become even more urgent, the cultural institution has since dispatched their prime minister to Kampala to mobilize the Lamwo children working and living here in order to very quickly nationalize the cause against Onek. Questions are being raised as to why Onek is too defensive of the Sudanese. “We expected immediate response from his ministry regarding these Sudanese violence and forceful harvesting of our cassava but nothing has been heard from him so far. He is only looking at 2021 with his supporters hoping that some of these refugees will have become Ugandans and register to vote for him,” said an angry Lamwo councilor. But supporters defended Onek claiming that he has a duty as a leader to be for the Sudanese refugees what Joseph was for the Israelites in Egypt. People are also raising questions in the way Onek’s supporters dominated all the employment opportunities that came with the establishment of the refugee settlement in their area.
ONEK DEFENDED:
We were unable to speak to Onek: we rang him several times and there was no answer. We sent him several whatsapp and text messages (SMS) but they all went unresponded to. But Lamwo LC5 Chairman John Komakeck Kgwok, who is his closest political ally, offered to defend the Minister. “There is no single mistake our leader the Minister has made. I know there are people in Lamwo who don’t like him politically but they should accept that the electioneering period is over and stop exaggerating things to politically disorganize him. The people of Lamwo are very hospitable and that is well known about them. They willingly communicated to the OPM offering to become a refugee hosting community. Nobody coerced or manipulated them. In their good will gesture, the people of Lamwo were motivated by their own history whereby many of us were refugees in Sudan. When Museveni’s NRA was taking government here in the late 1980s, we had a lot of instability and our Sudanese brothers hosted us. So our people know what it means to flee from war in your home area. Let nobody deceive you about tensions because there isn’t any here. I’m the chairman. I live here and I know the entire district. It’s all peaceful leave alone those frustrated political failures trying to hide behind the cultural institution to incite anger against the minister. How can my people be angry for something from which they have benefited so much? Today we have amenities like schools, hospitals and more roads than we had before this refugee settlement came here.” The LC5 chairman didn’t pronounce himself on councilors who are up in arms against Hillary Onek arguing that even before the refugees were brought in, there was a feeling land wasn’t enough for the community to sustainably do the different activities including crop cultivation, communal hunting and other activities. “What do they want with Lamwo? We are still mourning the manipulative loss of land to Sudanese refugees yet they are fidgeting to bring in a multi-purpose irrigation project under the Lake Victoria Basin Initiative that will cover several sub counties. Where do they want us to do?” ranted one of the angry councilors currently mobilizing public opinion against Onek. Watch this space for more! For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755!
