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Moroto, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Leaders from the Karamoja sub-region, want Karamoja Development Agency reinstated to spearhead government programs in the Karamoja sub-region. Karamoja Development Agency was started by an act of parliament in 1987 to implement affirmative action for the Karamoja region.
The agency overlooked various departments including education, agriculture, and health among others that were implemented by commissioners with funding from the European Union. However, the government later replaced it with the Ministry for Karamoja Affairs, which is responsible for the coordination of all government programs in the region.
During a meeting on improved food security as a means of reducing child labor in Karamoja, organized by the “Work: No Child’s Business” an organization advocating to end child labor, on Monday, the leaders want the government to revive the agency, saying that it is the only legal entity that would spearhead the development of Karamoja and help to address some of the persistent issues if funded well.
“I would want to support the issue of having Karamoja Development Agency retrieved because right now we see the region has developed a very cold feeling for the ministry. But people might not feel that because of the affirmative action, they feel it’s the people who are in office who are not doing their job,” said Esther Anyakun the State Minister for Refugees and Disaster Preparedness.
Anyakun believes the agency performed well before, and can still do the same if it is funded very well.
John Baptist Lokii, the Member of Parliament for Matheniko County said that the region has been hit hard by hunger because of the failed implementation of the Karamoja food security plan.
“We need the government to have a deliberate plan of implementing the Karamoja food security plan, we have it, it’s there in the Ministry of Karamoja affairs and the office of the prime minister. So we are saying the prime minister’s office, the ministry of Karamoja affairs, and the ministry of finance, should be able to allocate money to implement this plan” Lokii explains
Lokii said that the government should revitalize KDA, to spur meaningful solutions to the region’s challenges. The absence of KDA, Lokii said has led to the structuring of interventions from Kampala without reaching the ground.
Markson Ojao Akol, the District Education Officer for Moroto district, belives that the revitalization of KDA would meet the educational expectations of the local person, unlike the Karamoja Ministry which has failed to fulfill its mandate.
He said it is surprising to see the government and other development partners struggling to transform the region over the years as the communities are still trapped in extreme poverty.
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