PRESIDENT MUSEVENI’S ORDER IMPLEMENTATION IN WEST NILE HIT BY INTIMIDATION OF ACTORS

The leaders from West Nile in a group photo after the engagement.

By Godwin Abedican
Arua City

Leaders spearheading the implementation of the presidential order number 3 on the ban on large scale commercial charcoal production and occupation of Northern Uganda by the Balaalo herdsmen have come out to voice their concerns over intimidation while playing their roles.

According to some of the leaders, whenever they try to implement the presidential order and take actions a lot of calls begin flocking their phones with threats from people within the government system especially those working in the security.

Swaib Toko, the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Arua, while narrated his experience while serving in the same position in Pakwach district, one of the major crossing points for illegal charcoal, “The implementation of the order on charcoal has even became more complex. The business men and women just enter the bush anywhere in the west Nile Districts, cut their logs and burn their charcoal. They just drive towards the border points, get a document which is cleared by Uganda Revenue authority (URA). And you, here with your executive order to impound and prosecute but somebody has a license. The documents are indicting import and on transit to Nairobi, they go. And when you try to come up with your story of executive order number 3, they will ask who are you? Are you bigger than URA? Are you bigger than so and so? You begin to get intimidations; you begin to get harassments from people who call-themselves from above. I don’t know where this above is,” he said.

“One day they told me you will leave Pakwach tomorrow and indeed I left Pakwach. I found myself in a district I had not seen in the google. I found myself in Kapelebyong district after such an intimidation” he added.

Meanwhile, Ismail Drabe, the District Chairperson Madi Okollo voiced his disappointment on the failure to implement these order saying people assigned to do the eviction are just pretending to be working to please the president.

“In Madi Okollo, we have 52 Balaloos that have been reported to me by the veterinary department. But of these 52 only 6 have met the requirements. The other 46 have either fenced their land halfway or not fenced totally.  As a result, there is a lot of animal human conflict in the process of the Balaloo grazing. There is a lot of pride in them, they say in whatever they do, nobody is going to suppress them that’s why they leave their animals to graze in peoples farm land and every time their animals stray into peoples’ gardens, they don’t want negotiations as if they are above the communities and the leaders,” Drabe said angrily.

“Right from executive order numbers 1, 2 and 3 we have not evicted anyone there because the eviction taskforce responsibility was handed over to the army, which army has not prioritized and they have been saying openly that nobody will evict the Balaloo from Madi Okollo. We are actually disappointed. Last time I informed the minister that if there will be need to evict them, let him leave it to us the Madi people. I know Just within one week we can send them away. Leave the issue of eviction to us just tell us, “Madi Okollo take them away” we shall do that successfully,” Drabe said in anger.

However, Dr. Kenneth Omona, the State Minister for Northern Uganda in an interview says that, since the government has declared a plan to use the security forces to enact the evictions, the RDCS and local leaders shall be offered all the necessary support.

“I have listened to the RDCs and other stake holders who have expressed concerns about the intimidations that they receive from what they call above as far as the implementation of the presidential executive order is concerned. I have given them assurance of protection from the government. I have given them the channels to report quickly to us and any other authority above about who is intimidating them and therefore interfering with the president’s executive order number 3. Theirs is to do the work. They must simply go ahead and implement what is required of them,” the minister directed.

President Yoweri Museveni issued the Executive Order no.3 of 2023 exercising the authority granted to him by Article 99 (2) of the 1995 Constitution, which order looked at addressing various issues, including the Anti-cattle Rustling efforts in North and North-Eastern Uganda, the environmental damage caused by the charcoal business, the disruptive activities of the nomads known as Balaalo, the transformation of the Uganda Police Force into a Uganda-wide Police rather than just a Kampala Police, and the challenges posed by the Turkana nomads.