Cattle compensation: Lango leaders threaten to storm Parliament

A section of leaders from the Lango Sub-region have threatened to mobilise the masses to march to Parliament to protest the delayed livestock compensation.

In the last financial year, the government allocated Shs50 billion to each of the three sub-regions of Acholi, Lango and Teso to compensate individuals whose livestock were stolen and killed during the two-decade insurgency in northeastern Uganda. 

In Lango, local leaders say only a few people benefited from the compensation package. 

They said cattle compensation has become a political tool used by the government during every election period and warned that if people are not compensated, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party will not get votes in Lango come 2026. 

The Lira District Woman Member of Parliament, Ms Linda Auma, told the parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances and Implementation on Friday last week that the cattle compensation issue has been delayed for so long that many of the claimants have already passed away. 

“I started chasing for this cattle compensation in 2006 when I was still a youth councillor for the former Lira Central Division. But up to date, this issue is still pending,” she said. 

Ms Auma said in the last financial year, the government approved compensation for 42,000 people but the names of 23,000 individuals were allegedly removed from the final list provided by the Attorney General’s office.

“This is another robbery because people went to court and won the case and the court ordered the government to pay them, but the Attorney General is not interested,” she said. 

Ms Josephine Omara Olili, the Kole Resident District Commissioner, said the district had 1,719 claimants, but only 625 were compensated, despite the Attorney General claiming that 923 people were paid. 

“This animal called Attorney General is causing problems for us come 2026 general elections,” he said. 

Mr Benson Dila, the Oyam District chairperson, said 3,016 claimants were approved for compensation. Of these, 316 were paid in full and 359 got less pay. 

He asked the office of the Attorney General to release enough data cards so that all verified individuals can receive their compensation. 

Mr Francis Abola, the Otuke District chairman, said many of the elderly claimants died before receiving compensation. 

“I am going to mobilise elderly men and women and we shall pretend as if we are going for a pilgrimage to Namugongo and end up storming Parliament to present our case if we don’t get any immediate solution from you,” Mr Abola said.  

The deputy chairperson of the parliamentary Committee on Government Assurances and Implementation, Ms Joyce Bagala Ntwatwa, said they gathered a lot of complaints about unfulfilled government promises from West Nile, Acholi, Lango and Teso and that the committee will present their report to Parliament. 

“When we interfaced with the Attorney General, he told us that the rate for each cow is Shs1,050,000 but we found very old women telling us that they have received a Shs150,000. This is very unfortunate, and we are going to investigate this matter very seriously,” she said.