The subject of Karamoja
roads again grabbed space in the media this week. The scoop was hauled out from
the popular Moroto -Soroti road. As I
wrote here last week, travelling on this road has indeed become a nightmare. NTV Uganda screened the story so the whole
world got to know it and for me, it was wrong anticipation that Karamoja MPs
would the next day go walk their statements of two months ago. I feared that
the legislators would run straight for their divorce promise with the
government whom they had blamed of being pigheaded on issues of roads and other
essentials for the region.
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| Travellers stuck near Nakichumet along Moroto -Soroti road |
Now unless am wrong; no
parliamentary representative has so far made any noise on the media this time
round. This is despite the over 20 vehicles that are stuck, blocked the road.
Despite the fact that Moroto town has run short of food supplies like bananas,
tomatoes and bread coming from Mbale. Also, children coming home for holidays
from other town schools are being overcharged on transport and fuel exhausted
from all stations in Moroto. Instead it was the RDC that raised concern this
time through.
No speculations here,
we all remember the government had called on the bulls who were trying to ‘let
the dogs out’, and asked them to assure ‘people’ that some quick money would
be borrowed from somewhere for immediate tarmacking of Moroto –Soroti road among
other roads in Karamoja. We cannot tell if they were also told to keep quiet
about the issue, or were they given something that makes one automatically stop
talking about things that need to be talked about? All that is happening now is
that they are not talking about this at media level, but may be when they are
with individual electorates they might say exactly what they were told to be telling
the ‘people’.
Well, am not trying to
blame our hard working members of parliament, I just expected some other MPs to
take on the debate, while key ones are still engaged. The truth is it has
always been Moroto Municipality MP Simon Peter Rock Aleper (ASPRO) and the
Matheniko representative Hon. John Baptist Lokii at the forefront of all
struggles for Karamoja in the ninth parliament but, believe you me they seem to
be very busy currently.
The duo had foreign
trips with the president and possibly they are still working on some issues of
international interest. ASPRO accompanied the big man to Ethiopia and JB was
notified that he would fly with the same boss to Washington. Now let us not
think that these guys have probably been compromised because of such important
travel arrangements with them, let’s just believe that they are busy compiling
reports needed for international affairs. But we should pray that they get back
soon to the dance they opened for us...Please ASPRO and JB don’t leave us
alone, come back home soon, very soon!
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Then there is this
Ebola outbreak that came from western Uganda. It has already eaten people from
the city and other places. By blog time,
about 16 people were already reported dead. Health experts say we shouldn’t
shake hands as contact with affected people is one way the Ebola can spread. We
should pray let this disease not come to Karamoja. Yesterday I passed Ebola
news to the community I work with in the field and people cannot take it
seriously. They took me for a town joker!
In Karamoja no one will
be happy with you if you greeted them verbally. The culture of hand shaking is
so strong. An old man said “emam edeke iriamuni yong ka akimala...” He was
serious and said it with all the body language. That, “there is no disease one
can get through greeting”. Now what shall we tell our traditional people? I
know the genuine thing to do is for the District Health Officers (DHOs) to do
some surveillance and sensitisation on Ebola as soon as possible. Are they
doing it already? If not why can’t they start?
They can do a radio
announcement, or send teams to all settlements so the people can be made aware
of this killer disease and can try to adjust on some practices that can let us
catch Ebola. Churches, schools, market settings and the like would be targeted
with powerful messages to keep people alert. Otherwise Ebola will simply kill
us all...
