A Ugandan MP sparked laughter in parliament when he tried to define “nyash” and tied it to the scarcity of milk in Northern Uganda. Jonathan Odur, the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) representative for Erute South, made the comments while pressing the government to speed up cattle compensation for the region.
The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs is requesting UGX473 billion to compensate claimants in the Acholi, Lango, and Teso sub-regions for cattle lost during the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) conflict. By December 2024, Shs16.14 billion had been disbursed to 11,250 claimants.
On January 16, 2025, Minister Nobert Mao told the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee that resolving this issue is critical ahead of the 2026 elections. “The regions seeking compensation are among the poorest, according to UBOS data,” Mao said. “This could reduce poverty and strengthen national unity.”
During the debate, Odur blamed the small “nyash” sizes of Northern Ugandan women on the lack of milk, saying, “The lack of milk in Lango, Teso, and Acholi has given people the opportunity to ridicule us, especially our ladies, that they don’t have ‘nyash.’ How do we get this without milk?” He then defined “nyash” as “that body part capable of producing water,” prompting laughter from his colleagues.
Minister Mao reassured Odur that each sub-region—Lango, Acholi, and Teso—would receive Shs50bn for cattle compensation in the next financial year.
