Bill Oketch and Patrick Okino
9 July 2009
Kampala — RESIDENTS of Adwari sub-county in Lira district have slaughtered the goats they received from the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) programme.
Members of the Can Ber Ipaco group slaughtered six of the 15 goats and shared the meat to avoid starving, a local official who asked not to be named said.
Lameck Atono, a member, confirmed the incident, but said the animals had become unhealthy. The LC3 chairman, John Bosco Olwit, said on Tuesday that their crops were destroyed by the prolonged drought. "People have nothing to eat," Olwit lamented.
The district production coordinator, Dr Jacob Oweta, noted that the most-hit counties were Otuke, Moroto, Erute South and Erute North.
He explained that the farmers had planted a lot of beans, millet, sim-sim, maize, cassava and groundnuts, but the rains disappeared. "We hope that the second season will be favourable," Oweta said. In a related incident, the sub-county officials on Tuesday fled their offices when the resident district commissioner, Joan Pacoto, visited the area.
Pacoto, who was on a routine tour of the NAADS projects, arrived at 2:00pm, but was shocked to find no official to interact with.
All the offices were locked as the officials reportedly feared being grilled over the poor performance of the programme in the area. Pacoto, who said she had made an appointment with the officials on Tuesday, decided to call the NAADS coordinator, Bosco Ogwang.
"I have not come here to chat with you, but to assess the NAADs performance. You are the people who are mismanaging government programmes," the angry RDC charged.
Ogwang, however, replied that he was attending a workshop at Lira Hotel. He argued that he was not aware of any group that had slaughtered goats, adding that he would investigate the claims.
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