LAND IN KARAMOJA WAS NOT FOR DEATH



There were not such struggles here. The people were contented with presence of animals and the guns made them proud as the guns would be to protect these precious living things. Ok, guns were not very good at least. Guns, as everyone know can make you kill somebody or make somebody finish you! Then these greedy outsiders come with selfish interests. The wizards who want to control the whole world. They come and start confusing everyone and twisting people’s minds, people’s interests, values and needs...

Wednesday morning of this week, some modest radio presenters put the topic of land in Moroto for discussion on air. People called in and said these and said that. The presenters argued that too much land is redundant /vacant and that potential investors come and go without doing anything on this land. How can you do a thing on what is not yours? It’s not your land! It’s not their land and they have no right to force their noses in!

But the specific issue that radio boy and girl seem to highlight was that of slow development or growth of Moroto Municipality. That - 100 years down the line nothing visible, nothing audible, nothing tangible and or that no aroma to   portray what to call a town, a municipality or a regional city. May be they are right because they pointed:

People possess huge chunks of land in the Municipality and because of poverty they are not supposed to develop it. They cannot build a house because money is their forever problem. They cannot even do plantation because it’s municipality and law no allow and also rain not there here Karamoja. But radio boy and girl bickered that why can’t these poor breeds of people, sale off these assets to rich men and women who come from metropolis?

Am speechless on this side of town. Me remembers old days in Kaabong of Dodoth people and the way people and animals moved freely. Free like they are in a free world. I thought that it was good; in fact I thought that it was better. I as well lived/survived in Kotido of Jie people and witnessed same flow of freedom. One day my Shepherd friend caused me to gallop milk of a sheep while we wondered freely like natural global tourists. Mom back at home was not happy with this kind of freedom I enjoyed because she did not know anything!

However, today things are quite different. Guns have been taken and people have to move on –is what we think or should think. It was ignorance and the current people all consent to this idea...ignorance to think that a gun is wealth. People now say no to the gun, what we need is to live better. But food or what to eat generally is still the biggest trouble!

Now the on air debate in Moroto was like walking in the thicket. The issue of land in Karamoja needs broader handling. If the plat form is what is probably not flat again, then another human freedom is denied here, but I leave this to media lawyers and me, a mere blogger can talk about something real and on the ground. As a radio man, I would have asked about the facts if they are available -surrounding the land grabbing questions in Rupa of Matheniko, in Moruita of the pian and delicate rumour that says some gods have taken control of mineral rich land in Tepeth land inside Moroto district.

Now to say that land is being left like that in town without giving it to better off people to develop it is to me like an insult any way. It is like selling off your life because you are poor! It’s like accepting a rich man to take away even the little that God gave you and to accept to be a slave in your own land!

Well, the people of Moroto could be poor monetary-wise, but they have the assets that can let them change! The only thing needed is probably giving them the pass word to enable them access the liquid hidden in the assets. Ok, this can be done by government, by a development NGO or by the UN depending on how serious the people who control us can be. I hear that people in UK can get big loans from government financial institutions and erect big investment structures then they pay the loan slow by slow as they continue earning.

To say least, the question of land was never an issue in the past free Karamoja. People would grow maize or sorghum anywhere and graze animals anywhere. Today warriors and their leaders and learnt children will fight over land. They will not fight each other but they will fight the outsiders, for it is the outsiders who brought tricks of thieves into their land. Thus, instead of living the ideal life God wanted Adam, Eve and family to live, the Karimojong will start living the life that Eve opted for. As a result, the issue of land will become an issue of life and death on this soil until the second coming!