WHAT CHANGE COULD MRS MUSEVENI POSSIBLY BRING TO KARAMOJA?

BY
LONGOLI SIMON PETER
KAMPALA
I congratulate the first lady up on her appointment to the Karamoja affairs ministry.
That Karamoja region is the least developed sub region in Uganda is a fact. Thousands in this part of the country do not have access to basic needs. Efforts by government to develop the region in the past have remained wanting. Interestingly, other regions have ‘not waited for Karamoja to develop.’
The close to a million Karimojong are fed by relief agencies given the unreliable rains. With the human development index well below national average, the largely nomadic community has more problems; self imposed, natural and caused by other factors. Be prepared to be shocked more than you thought on your first visit to Karamoja.
In the face of this misfortune, Karamoja, like the rest of the country has not been spared by the evil of corruption. A number of high ranking government officials have been known to embezzle funds meant for development programs in Karamoja.
The Cabinet reshuffle of 16th February saw the president’s wife appointed as the Minister for Karamoja affairs, an appointment a lot of people are celebrating about. The same appointment another politician turned down a few years ago.
Mrs. Museveni comes face to face with a highly unstable region that has just started seeing calm as a result of the government disarmament program. The region has a very poor population and the first Lady, known for being compassionate with the less privileged will meet the very poor of this world.
The excitement about the appointment mainly comes from the fact that the Minister in charge of Karamoja affairs is the closest to the president, his wife. Will bedroom politics have any benefit for Karamoja? I think this is the only thing worth celebrating about in this appointment. This is likely to be seen in the allocation of resources to this region for development programs.
After fifteen or more years of promising Karamoja tarmac and electricity, there is some hope some thing is going to be realized this year. Is the appointment of the member of the first family to this region a clever trick by the president to connect himself directly to the developments in Karamoja and to earn himself a landslide vote for the fourth time from this region? A vote for the president is a vote for the first family.
The appointment may not be aimed at pegging Janet’s political star down as pundits have suspected but may be to shoot it up. Either way, the Minister faces a herculean task. She has a chance to show Ugandans she can deliver and inspire change.
The media will soon turn to Karamoja. She will be shown launching this and opening that and the result will be a bountiful 2011 harvest for the president! Well calculated.
Will the appointment of the first lady translate in to a change for Karamoja on the ground not only on government’s books of statistics and press conferences? Only time will tell.

The writer is a Mass Communications Student at Makerere University