GOD PRESIDED OVER OUR ‘SECRET FRIEND’ END OF YEAR PARTY

This should have not been the topic for weekend, but it came at short-notice and since this site demands according to time and propinquity, it has appeared first and the big Naleyo story had to sleep under carpet –but it isn’t dead, it will not die because it has my full protection.

My friends- people who walked with me the childhood road and those that I shared school, drinks and deals, understand classically what I am; reserved, polite, simple, down-to-earth, frank ,moderately critical, very sensitive, slightly ‘jokative’, smart and self driven African child. Some take this traits for granted and look at me from the sky, others become snobbish towards my  manners, but a greater majority of men and women in the environment I live surely do not understand and only keep changing views about what I could be. Meantime, my work is to take advantage of all different judgements/ thoughts of men to unveil details of the things they are made up of and the things they can make at all moments; moments of smiles and moments of tears. Fortunately, I always only prick on the former- moments of smiles!

My weak body was obliged to attend the party at work place Friday evening. Strange things are meant to happen in life. True, the party opened for me in a very poignant mood. Apart from the loss of appetite, almost loss of sight, - sight of well-skimpily dressed daughters of Eve present, loss of strength to sustain the upward supporting push of the wooden chair, I also lost thoughts. The DJ boy was responsible at last for my positive emotional teardrops when he played one of my most striking classical songs from the western world. Then my attention stabilised and concentrated on the attitude and the joy of the party members.

Here was a party that ensured all members showed love for any workmate through the ‘secret friend gift’ game. Each of us bought presents, - precious commodities for the randomly selected partners and it played magic! Strange, thrilling, stupid, yet completely unbelievable situations. After realising that my secret friend was already so obvious, so ordinary and too close for the world to believe the secret affordable for me and him, I just sat back like a disappointed hunter waiting for any godsend consolation.  It didn’t come.

What came instead was another most obvious individual calling me secret friend. He is more of a brother, same place of birth- he was the least individual I expected to pick my name. It happened and the man shakily, ordinarily and dryly runs to me with his black disposable paper bag! His gift was the most poorly wrapped, but one of the best stuff given out that night. Some friend received mere pictures drawn by a poor marker pen artist, others received ordinary handkerchief, some settled with BIC pens made in Kenya. My other good friend celebrated the day with a bottle of whisky wrapped like a tin of Gold...but every soul was happy, I think God presided over this party and he made the choice for the men and women.

Dance; there was a dancing competition. There were no specific judges to genuinely specify that Sarah the tiny, flexible, animated woman beat Sofia the Scandinavian visitor. How Sofia displayed her talents was -well magical, she danced like a spoon but Sara was a fork...she had space and - that air of rhythm that obviously challenged the anti-rhythmical display of shapely beautiful Sofia from metropolis. The MC hurried to allow a class of conventional generation voters who blindly denied portable Sarah the obvious win!

There were also the cut walkers; I never knew that men also have their own way of showing muscular power throw stylish walking. Some were instead wild walking; –may be walks of wild cats, but several of them were more on to the monkey style. The man that showed his strength of a man was to me Simon -the boy from Kangole. Women am told admire us who have strong muscles,- the imagination is strange and far and hidden, hidden in the trouser. Sarah the queen dancer was wrongly voted best female cut walker. People did not see the misused beauty fact in Rwina. Rwina almost created fire in my base; I could not afford to let her go free without giving her that simple, fire-cooling hug immediately after her show...but am engaged, engaged to a young, smooth, confident African girl...and she will never cry me!

I shouldn’t be mistaken for a bad fellow because of not participating in any of the priceless fan-generating competitions during the party. I love to keep a very low, stupid profile so that I may make my friends happier through winning easily as I cheer them up. In this way am not a competitive challenging bloke on world target. “It is prudent to be silent but it does not mean that someone is mad”. On the party; many crazy, sweet, sexy, grandiloquent things happened, but as usual, I kept my promise to get back early and wish my queen a good night before I pray and snore.

Tepeth Waters, A Glitch to Survival and Communication

Communities, wait for river at Loyaraboth to slow speed down

Chichi Naoya is a breed winner at their homestead in Alamai village of Loyaraboth parish, Tapac Sub County, Moroto district. Her two parents are already helpless in their old age. Her mother is blind and crippled; while Mzee who has three wives is permanently packed under tree shade at his third wives’ home and can offer nothing more or less than an empty tummy to his dependants.

Lonyilik trading centre 15 km away from this mountaintop settlement is the place to get foodstuff and other basic needs. Naoya takes chicken, grains and occasionally honey for sale to Lonyilik so she can buy some beans, salt... for the family. “My family has spent two nights without having anything cooked at home to eat because of this river,” the 14 year old Tepeth girl tells her friends who are also waiting at the river bank.

The women and girls cannot access market because the river is flooded following two days of nonstop rainfall on top of mount Moroto. Naoya is heading to the grinding mill with some 30 kgs of maize. “I also want some beans from the centre if I can reach and get the balance of my money for the honey I sold last week to Lokiru”.

One of the biggest challenges that this community hassle with is the poor state of transport and communication. Government through the Second Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF 2) is funding the creation of community access roads in this part of Karamoja but the work is done with very limited technical support. A mountainous place like Tapac Sub County would require full engagement of engineers and motorized technology but as the Sub County Community Development Officer, Moses Loru explains “everything is done basically by the community”.

“Most roads in this Sub County were opened up by the community themselves. They simply need tools like hoes, pangas, axe and maybe something to eat” Loru explained. Indeed under the current NUSAF 2 program, the Tepeth community preferred food for work instead of cash. Several roads have been created to access different locations in the Sub County. However, the challenge of planning and the absence of graders have rendered most of these roads almost useless.

“When there is heavy downpour, running water from the mountain follows this roads and block people from accessing other locations” Lomorumoe Lobeyo, a resident of Loyaraboth explains. Several families in three parishes of Loyaraboth, Nakwanga and Natumkale are cut off from access to services at the only trading centre based in Lonyilik. A group of mothers and young girls have camped at the river bank for days feeding on raw sorghum and maize as they pray and wait for the speed of water to come down.

Along one more route leading to Moroto town, an NGO worker survived the wrath of river Kalokutakori. This fast flowing seasonal stream sweeps big stones, fallen trees and other loads from the mountain top. Anthony, a field based worker with Concern Worldwide, an international NGO based in Moroto did not know this secret has he cruised heading to the Sub County head quarters on Friday morning.

“I thought since the water level looked low, I could manoeuvre through, but the big stones and other loads shifted the tyre of my bike and it put me down in the middle of the stream.” Anthony’s exhaust pipe sucked water and the engine went off. The boy was rescued by another driver of another Japanese crap - a Toyota Land-Cruser machine who gave him a hand to pull the two wheeled automobile out of the brook.

Apart from the vagaries of weather, getting transport means from Tapac Sub County to Moroto and vice-versa is also a game. The distant is about 50 kilometres, but the security threat is about unpredictable. However, travelling here on a vehicle is safe due to the strong UPDF patrols and the impact created by the disarmament thing. But business vehicles are not operating on this route because of the thousands of pot holes and rock holes available.

Modern or telecommunication services are also a gamble in this Sub County. The only network that is spotted is MTN and its obvious weaknesses. Thanks to Safaricom of Kenya because the Tepeth phone owners in Uganda use the Safaricom network flying all the way from Kibaki’s republic. The major challenge that should be said is that caused by the MTN business. Airtime of Ugsh500/= goes for Ugsh1000/= in Tapac. Wait, even in Moroto-a one star City; MTN dealers make subscribers part with an extra sh100/= on top of the authenticated price printed on the voucher cards...the country should work hard, very hard against this yellow business.

THE MARGIC AT THE TEPETH CULTURAL DAY



Gender & Culture minister receives knives used for FGM in Tapac

Thursday 25^th was celebrated as a Tepeth cultural day in Karamoja.  The first of its kind for this community. The main objective was to launch a community fight on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) out of the region. The Function took place in Tapac Sub county, Moroto district. The theme for the gala was “Women, Girls enjoy a life free from FGM...It is a human right”.

Hundreds of people of all kinds attended the occasion. Some of the top dignitaries who witnessed the celebration included Lukia Isinga Nakadama, the state minster for Culture and Gender, - she was the chief guest. Three legislators; Hon. John Baptist Lokii (Matheniko County), Hon. Margaret Iriama (Matheniko woman MP) and Hon. Simon Peter Aleper (MPfor Municipality) were present. Other guests included Mark Aol the LC5 Chairperson for Moroto district, Nahaman Ojwe the RDC and other top people from the UN and the NGO world

Tepeth mutilators who turned up to hand over their weapons

The occasion saw the disarmament of the Tepeth FGM surgeons who handed over their surgical equipments to the minister. “Government will ensure that alternative livelihoods projects are brought to you” said Hon. Nakadama. The minister added that, “the young girls should not allow to get wasted by this bad practice, go to school and you will become future leaders like Hon. Margaret Iriama”.

More than 100 elderly women gave out their weapons to the minister. The weapons included; knives used for trimming women’s bodies, horns of strange wild animals –all used in the conventional process of FGM... Others gave out outfits for their ‘theatres’.

Commenting on the actions and the overall value of the day, Matheniko County MP John Baptist Lokii described the celebration as that of - the feature of society. “We are here today to celebrate an aspect of society; the aspect we are celebrating is about culture –some of which are good but some are very bad and affects not only the body, but the integrity and the humanity”, Lokii observed. The legislator alluded to the Bible in the book of Genesis Chapter 2:26-28 which says that God created man in his own image.

L-R; Moroto RDC, Minster Lukia , MP & LC5 receive knives

“When we begin deforming parts of our body, we are defying God’s creation.” The MP asked the Tepeth to take the day as that time when they apologised to God that what they have been doing was not good and they now stand against it. Lokii also acknowledged that FGM was indeed a borrowed cultural practice of the Pokot and not for Tepeth, urging the elders, women and youth to fight it out of their other existing beautiful tradition.

The day was surely a blessed one as the fertility of the heavens ensured short paragraphs of showers threatening to disorganise the festival yet it did not.  Different drama groups supported by different development partners including community groups ensured incredible visual food and something for the mind. But most important thing to mention is that the Tepeth people looked set to live their future lives without FGM. There were also drinks and bites in plenty and plenty.

Tapac Sub County is located to the extreme East of Matheniko County in Moroto district - Karamoja region. It borders the republic of Kenya to the East –touching Turkana land at Lodwar district and the soils of North Pokot district in Kenya. To the south of the Sub County is Amudat district. Nadunget and Katikekile Sub Counties also neighbour Tapac from the West and North western respectively. Like most people in the Karamoja region, the Tepeth practice animal grazing as their main livelihood activity with subsistence crop growing carried out on a very small scale.

The Sub County is composed of six parishes including Tapac which has six abnormally large villages (each village in this Sub County is the size of a parish in other parts of the country,). Other parishes are Katikekile with six villages, Loyaraboth having 3 villages and Kodonyo with six villages.  Others are Nakwanga of seven villages and Natumkale (not accessible by road) composed of four villages.

Although this cultural day was organised by Sub County authorities, the event involved all Tepeth people from all over the region. Other Tepeth communities came from Katikekile Sub County at the edge of Moroto Municipality. According to informed people, the Tepeth land in Karamoja is approximately 300sq KM.  Reader, attending this function to me was like an extraordinary curtain raiser for the weekend and for Eid for- you brother Mohammed!

DON’T MISS THE TEPETH CULTURAL CARNIVAL THIS WEEK

Later this week, Thursday 25^th, a groundbreaking event will take place in Tapac Sub County, Moroto district. It is the Tepeth culture day. According to the area LCIII chairperson, Peter Loboot, the occasion will showcase the wealth and beauty of the Tepeth cultural system. It will also be an opportune time for this border group of Karimojong people to put clear their intention and reason for crave for autonomy. They are yearning for an independent constituency – Tapac County.

Expected to attend this occasion are; Lukia Isinga Nakadama, the minster for Culture and Gender who shall -as arranged be accompanied by Janet Museveni, Minister for Karamoja affairs. Others will be district officials at their various capacities, but also other Sub County officials from Matheniko County and beyond are all invited. The celebration is also open for the general public, Tepeth, non-Tepeth, Karimojong, non-Karimojong, Ugandans, non-Ugandans, Africans, non-Africans.

The LCIII believes it will be a real big event and that the Tepeth will take clear advantage of it to lobby for development support. “We have vast land and other mineral resources, we have big development dreams, but we have no loud voice and no support”, Loboot said during an interview with this blog. He added that, “the function is geared towards displaying our strength as Tepeth people and requesting government and other partners from all corners of the world to step in and give support necessary for social, economic and political development”.

According to Loboot, the Tepeth have been hugely sidelined by way of representation and distribution of development projects at the greater Matheniko county and Moroto district as a whole. He said social services growth schemes are poorest in his Sub County compared to other parts of the Constituency. Sighting the absence of a secondary school despite government arrangement to establish and support post primary education at Sub County level, Loboot said the jamboree will give a chance for the people to present their cry to the guys in power.

However, according to Sisto Lokiru, the Gombolola Internal Security Officer (GISO) of the area, this event was planned by the Sub County in consultation with and support from Moroto District Local government as a whole. “The main objective of the occasion is to launch a community-driven campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) which is commonly practiced by the Tepeth people, yet is very unhealthy, Scary, degrading and unlawful” Lokiru observed.

The GISO explained that the culture day will enable the community demonstrate their commitment to kick FGM out of their land and embark on development activities that government and development associates can provide. Another prominent issue that might come up during the event is that of security. Although disarmament program is as said, a real success story in Karamoja region, Tapac which sits on a precipitous land still faces the problem of presence of illegal guns and the weapons have continued to cause havoc to the inhabitants and their neighbours. More to this is the presence of arms in neighbouring Turkana region of Kenya.

The communication of every issue at hand will be done mainly through Music, dance and drama, but powerful speeches from Tepeth elders and key leaders is also expected to send the message home. This foundation festival according to Lokiru will see all cultural activities; signs, outfits, songs, dance, dexterity, believes etc displayed to ensure marketing of the Tepeth breed and also to let the young generation have a feel of their culture.

Tapac Sub County is located to the extreme East of Matheniko County in Moroto district of Karamoja region. It borders the republic of Kenya to the East –touching Turkana land at Lodwar district and the soils of North Pokot district in Kenya. To the south of the Sub County is Amudat district. Nadunget and Katikekile Sub Counties also neighbour Tapac from the West and North western respectively. Like most people in the Karamoja region, the Tepeth practice animal grazing as their main livelihood activity with subsistence crop growing carried out on a very small scale.

The Sub County is composed of six parishes including Tapac which has six abnormally large villages (each village in this Sub County is the size of a parish in other parts of the country,). Other parishes are Katikekile with six villages, Loyaraboth having 3 villages and Kodonyo with six villages.  Others are Nakwanga of seven villages and Natumkale (not accessible by road) composed of four villages.

Although the cultural gala is organised by Sub County authorities, the event will involve all Tepeth people from all over the region. The Tepeth are also found in another separate Sub County called Katikekile at the edge of Moroto Municipality. According to the GISO the Tepeth ground in Karamoja is approximately 300sq KM.  Reader, you could get more by attending the cultural fare this Thursday at the Sub County headquarters in Tapac.

 

 

 

 

 

WHO ARE THE PENSION BENEFICIARIES? WHO ARE THE GIRRAFFES OF MOROTO HIGH SCHOOL?

Back from my official hideout at planet B! I touched the ground at exactly 2:00PM on this chilly Friday in Moroto town; the first thing to catch me was the fresh news on The Daily Monitor website, “Government Stops Pension, Gratuity Payments”. That more than 60,000 retired civil servants would eat air for some good months as government mounts an operation on wild cuts that are allegedly diverting benefits of the dead, the ignorant and the ‘unconnected’ citizens of this Country. The ‘cats’ reportedly direct shares of these unfortunate groups to their personal accounts.

Uganda at present in my view, ought to be called ‘the pain... ’, and not the pearl of Africa any more. The pension recipients countrywide will sob bitterly following this reported -intended delay. But it is better to cry with anticipation than stay cheated because of ignorance caused probably by denial of information. I refer to millions of Ugandans who do not have any ‘connection’ or access to information or assistance to enable them access such country benefits.

These defenseless creatures are mainly found in the vulnerable regions. You will meet them in Northern Uganda; Acholi land and the soils of Lango. You will see them in Teso, but most of them are also suffocating here in the heat of Karamoja. The need to dig into this corruption suspicion is crucial, but the other very important thing that government should do is to release the nuts on procedures of retirement and processing of benefits- even for the dead ones. Otherwise millions of former civil servants with no benefits are commonplace. They usually complain that the procedure takes a lot of time, money and blood.

Our upcountry beneficiaries are hindered by the transport costs and the absence of what government employees refer to as ‘connections’ at Kampala level. It would make better sense for the Country to decentralise some of these offices that handle benefits of retiring workers so as to reduce the cost to the recipient and to the central government - in terms of work load and also to make it difficult for the wild fat cats in Kampala to continue milking poor village based citizens.

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Moroto: A week ago when students –young boys of Moroto High school scored four goals to just one in a football match they ‘Giraffes” had with Nakapelimen FC here in Moroto, I had a lot of laughter. One of my friends, my good neighbour is a super striker for the mighty Nakapelimen FC. During this particular game – the Semi Final of the famous though poorly facilitated Huhuru Cup, my man did not even have a shot on target. Yes, they lost to the kids and the excuse he gave was that “those boys take a lot of porridge!”

Another colleague in the Nakapelimen league said “our boys took too much of beer the previous day and you know, they had hangover”. The other thing that another player was about to say was that “our boys are married and they had a lot of sex the night before...” these boys almost took away my lungs. Anyway, football is a very exciting game! I don’t advise soccer stars to get addicted to drugs. I used to test Lira-Lira but I remember it affected my speedometer as a trusted winger at Kabalega S.S. I could vomit form whenever I tried to Inzicruiz so as to cross the line and give the goal keeper a killer shot. These days am retired, but not tired of playing football.

Soldiers: I always believe in, and support soldiers because they use military might in everything they do in this world. I cannot believe that the UPDF for instance is a weak force. Bush battles aside; we are talking about other tasks like games, sports. To the Huhuru cup here in Moroto, the army took it last year using the obvious usual military capacity! After escaping the wrath of Nakapelimen FC, the porridge boys of Moroto High School mysteriously invaded the military armoury in Moroto Friday and gave the UPDF a run for their haughtiness.

Personally I did not cheer the porridge boys although the whole world present seem to back the kids against our defence guys. For me, the lession learnt from their game –the Final play to determine the Huhuru cup champions were two; that over-confidence is a killer disease, my combatants had it all. They said it in the bars and in all public places that they at last would retain the cup. It didn’t work out, and it will as well not work for you bombastic man, lady outside there too!

The other is that, luck is for real; even as the match started, everything indicated that the military would win, but a weak pass, a minor personality created the lonely goal for the porridge drunkards and it was end of business for the combatants. Forceful attempts even worsened the UPDF game by producing ‘unfair’ red cards.  Sorry dear losers, take care of tomorrow dear winners...

 

 

           

           

 

THE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY WE SHOULDN’T MISS

Understanding Conflict:

 

Tepethland is not like Moroto town. Whereas you get mixed up every evening with raucous musical sound and noise of drunken brethrens and sisters while in town, real peace and tranquillity prevails while in Tapac - a typical indigenous African village setting. So I took advantage of this reverential environment behind the mountain to read and complete David Augsburger’s book, Conflict Mediation Across Cultures (Pathways and Patterns).

 

In it, Augsburger explores the true description of conflict, the fuel to it in the traditional time and at the contemporary moment. He also presents some plausible ways of handling clashes from corner to corner in different traditions. I found the book so rich, so challenging and very relevant to my current work, but also good for mending the existing (but-not easily visible) misapprehension between different people who live and work in Karamoja today.

 

I liked this observation: "conflict is a visible sign of human energy; it is the evidence of human urgency; it is the result of competitive striving for the same goals, rights and resources." Augsburger writes that disputes are part and partial of human nature much as most times it is destructive, he says it is also remarkably constructive!

 

The author reminded me of "The Opportunity we missed" debate, some two months ago. Here was when one open minded member of the Karimojong community sighted ‘a wrong’ in the way of sharing family fate as one people. The family dogs barked at the boy, and the boy’s relatives almost killed the dogs. It was fire. But Augsburger would curse my brothers who exchanged live bullets at the time, yet he would also say that the clash was necessary.

 

The book says "if a group were found in which such ebb, flow and counter flow did not exist; it would show no discernible life process". It goes on to emphasise, "in one society unwelcome words or deeds may be met with immediate violence, in another with covert attack through ... witchcraft or curse, a third moves toward compromise or conciliation. In some, a wrong requires retaliation, in others restraint. In one group honour is regained by revenge, in another honour is lost by retaliation since it lowers the avenger to the level of the offender". And my memory tells that the conflict fuelled by "the Opportunity we missed "debate openly lowered the fighters of the ‘wrong’ to -below the level of the offender!

 

I also learnt that global growth has come with gadgets that are now active in fuelling conflicts; these are industrialisation, urbanisation and technicalization. "All encourage contact among people, competition between increased visibility of inequities, injustices and inertia in social institutions." Thus, facebook, twitter, the use of phones, newspapers, radio, T.V and blogs are some obvious prerequisites for conflicts in today’s world. They encourage contact with strangers; they encourage participation in a discussion of a topic coined by strangers...

 

Personally I’ve ever hit my nose on media fuelled conflicts. Three months ago, a stranger - woman whose facebook face is the only thing I know insulted and worried me. I thought she would divorce her husband –just because she failed to understand the chat message that I unknowingly posted on her wall. Another chaos came my way when I posted a security story on a networking site; members cursed my actions to a point where others wanted my job to go to the dogs.

 

Indeed, the internet has become a very dangerous platform in a way, as rebel groups also use it for making revelations on the damages they cause. The al-Qaida network for instance uses the internet to threaten the world or to claim responsibility for killings or destructions committed. The Al-Sha-bab militants in Somalia are also in this business and several professional corn-men the world over as well use the internet platform or the media at large to make money through abduction of individuals and asking for ransom.

 

Other common fights that now live in the Karimojong working environment are those caused by such things as: Greed; greed is healthy but it hurts not only people, but the work goal. In most cases one man can assume to be more energetic, knowledgeable enough to do a single task so that -selfishly he/she can eat large. As we must know, ` team is stronger than individual.’ There is also prejudice; discriminatory characters judge others unfairly according to ethnicity, sex, skin, social status or regions of origin. Life and work become so traumatic and the targets are buried.

 

I pray and sob for the restoration of fairness, the adoption of merit systems and professionalism in our working environments, here in Karamoja, in our Country, in the African continent and indeed the world over. An open approach to settling conflicts and solving problems in my view would definitely make the world a far better planet to spend our lives. Off to the weekend house...

　

　

　

THE LAW IS ALIVE YET YOUNG GIRLS CONTINUE TO BLEED

   Girls this size in Pokot &Tepeth are already booked for marriage

She is called Christine. Her real name is Naupe. The 13 year old girl is in painful hiding from two of her people’s most cheeky cultural practices. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and forceful early marriage for the girl child are the most disturbing cultural order for Pokot and Tepeth girls in Uganda and Kenya.

The season for FGM is here. It is practiced during harvest time when food is available to keep victims indoors for weeks or months after their ‘sweet aerials’ are cut off. Then immediately, wealthy men – no matter the age, men with animals can ferry these disabled children off to their dark sleeping chambers; for sex, sex that should ‘according to elders’ taste sweet to only one side – not to the feminine, -only for the masculine whose pistons are at large.

This is the story of Christine Naupe. Poor Naupe crossed the border about a month ago after several battles with her parents deep in Nasal –North Pokot district of Kenya. “I was already forced into marrying a very old man who offered goats and cattle to my parents, but the man’s condition made me think of dying instead”. The old man demanded of Naupe to go through ‘the women stabilising’ initiation process –FGM.

“I could not bear the pain of being cut because last year three girls died after over-bleeding caused by the mutilation and about 15 girls in our neighbourhoods disappeared due to fear of the practice” Naupe told this blog. Even after bargaining for the price of the girl and convincing the prey into this nasty cross-generational bondage, the old man in question continued to ask for more.

Naupe said “I was already set to stay with him because my parents convinced me that the wealth accrued would help our family. The only thing that made me jump off is the knife; old men believe that when a girl is not chopped, she can still move out with other men”.

Naupe trekked, crossed the border from Kenya into Amudat district of Uganda where some of her family relations exist. “I woke up, got out of the house at about past-midnight and started to my relatives in Amudat.”

By 10: am of a new day – a Saturday, the girl was at her aunt’s home in Amudat and by 6:00pm same day, the boys from Kenya following- hunting for her, also touched the same soil, but; “I was inside when they arrived and started asking for me. My aunt protected, told them she didn’t see me and as they proceeded to another relative’s home, I planned another journey that took me to Loroo and finally to here, to Tapac.”

As we curse, Naupe is currently trying to forge life eating free posho and beans –sharing with Tepeth pupils at Tapac Primary school. The catholic mission in Tapac learnt of her plight and the long journey she cleared before securing for her shelter in this school. Naupe also reported that she was in Primary two before her breasts developed eyes. With only one pair of clothing, no shoes –sandals, no beddings, no sanitary things –basin, soap... she still feels better while here –away from home.

Naupe is not alone; hundreds of Pokot and Tepeth girls go through this shameful and painful experience year in and out. According to media reports, last year alone 169 girls were cut. More 317 girls were abused in the year 2010 and a shocking 500 others were dissected in 2009. Although the percentage is promisingly coming down, more effort is really needed to hit the last nail on the FGM coffin.

Human rights activists rightly argue that the practice disgustingly infringes on the rights of women as it causes terrifying corporal and emotional injuries on them. Doctors also say a woman who has been cut is at high risk of developing gynaecological problems which might cause terrible difficulties during child birth. However, very little is directly being done by our governments to ensure its total elimination.  

Uganda enacted the FGM law in 2009. It is now up to the people and their leaders to ensure that the effort to fight the monkey business is taken seriously. For instance in July last year, 36 community leaders composed of kraal heads, religious bosses and LCs of Pokot Sub region –Amudat district signed a declaration to advocate against the practice. Such pronouncements should be encouraged and they must be walked and not merely written or talked.