The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The sons and a former wife of fugitive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel leader, Joseph Kony are seeking another meeting with President Yoweri Museveni over what they say are their poor living conditions.
This comes less than three months after the President met Kony’s son Ali Saloongo Kony, and his former “wife” Cecilia Akullu at State House Entebbe shortly after their return from captivity and promised to help them start a new life.
Saloongo Kony, a former commander in the LRA rank defected from his father’s rebellion campaign at the rank of Brigadier in 2022. He returned home with his mother, wife, and three children in July this year. During their first meeting with President Museveni on August 25 at State House Entebbe, the head of state promised to help Kony’s family acquire land to carry out agriculture .
The meeting was also attended by the Pageya clan chief Rwot Yusuf Okwonga Adek and Bosco Odoch Olak, the Presidential Coordinator for Northern Uganda.
However, while addressing the media in Gulu City on Monday, Kony’s family alleged that while the President had promised to meet them for the second time in September this year, people assigned to coordinate the meeting have remained silent.
Ali Saloongo told journalists that the President had personally promised to rebuild his career in the army and help support his elderly brother in finding a job after a second meeting. Saloongo says ever since September, his efforts to get in touch with the coordinators of the meeting have been futile adding that some haven’t answered his repeated phone calls.
Saloongo says they are currently living a deplorable life with limited opportunities in life since they are new to the region and life outside captivity.
Kony’s former wife Cecilia Akullu notes that the family is already struggling to provide food for the young children and pay for their school fees and yet the president had made promises to address their challenges. Akullu who spoke with tears rolling her eyes says the President has to grant them another chance to meet so that they present to him their life challenges. She notes that with their current dilemma out of captivity, it would be a wrong signal for others who are still returning or intending to defect from the LRA.
Moses Komakech, Kony’s eldest son says whereas he had been granted a scholarship by the head of state and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Ndeje University, he hasn’t had a stable job. He says the President had equally promised to understand more about his status in the second meeting in September but notes that the family’s efforts to secure the meeting ha as failed after being blocked.
The Pageya Clan Chief Rwot Yusuf Okwonga Adek who led Kony’s family to meet with the President in August this year however says he has withdrawn his support from Kony’s sons and former “wife” over their disrespect towards him. Rwot Okwong notes that while the head of state had temporarily advised Kony’s son and his mother to stay at his palace pending resettlement, they disobeyed the directives and started engaging with other state actors.
“There are people who would come and pick them up from my home without my knowledge and if I question, they tell me they are government agents. I believe people started getting interested in them because the President had promised to buy for them 30 hectares of land for resettlement,” Rwot Okwonga told Uganda Radio Network Tuesday. He also notes that he had to part ways with Kony’s family for his own safety.
Bosco Odoch Olak, the Presidential Coordinator for Northern Uganda, says the September meeting with the President couldn’t take place because the family delayed coming up with resolutions on exactly what they needed. He says while the resolutions were to be submitted before September, the family delivered to him the documents a month later adding that he has nonetheless submitted the resolutions to the President and only waiting for feedback.
