Agnes Nandutu, on Wednesday became the third member of President Yoweri Museveni's cabinet to be remanded at Luzira Prison for reportedly taking part in diverting iron sheets meant for vulnerable people in Karamoja region.
Nandutu, the Minister of State for Karamoja, spent Tuesday, April 18, in Kira Division police custody after turning herself in. She was produced in Court on Wednesday, charged and remanded. This comes just several astonishing days that saw in short succession Goretti Kitutu, the Minister for Karamoja Affairs; Amos Lugoloobi, the Minister of State for Planning, suffer a similar fate, with Kitutu spending the Easter weekend on remand before securing bail.
The list of those involved is long and one might be tempted to think that there was a government meeting that sat to organise the "diversion of iron sheets". The vice president, the Speaker of Parliament, the prime minister and her two deputies are among the 53 names on the list. On the list are seven cabinet ministers, 13 state ministers and 30 members of parliament. This is, quite simply, the biggest political collusion in recent history.
In the 1960s, during the decade after independence, the political mantra was: "Uganda shall not wait for the Karimojong to develop..." This was carried on into the 1970s, 1980s and even early 1990s. Absence of functioning government institutions was as visible as the presence of a few church institutions filling the gaps. Well, until after the disarmament exercise that started in 2001.
Don't we need to revisit this line today?
Karamoja is one of the areas in Uganda with the highest number of minerals. Studies show that the region has deposits of gold, limestone, copper, lithium, gypsum, nickel, iron ore, marble wolfram, cobalt, gemstones, tin, and other rare earth minerals. These paint a paradoxical picture of a region wallowing in poverty but amidst plenty. The same area which is rich in mineral deposits also has documented evidence of famine and starvation leading to death, high cases of teenage pregnancies, high school dropout rates and insecurity.
Stories of land grabbing, dispossession, displacement, child labour, exploitation of artisanal miners including women and other human rights related issues are as widespread as the minerals themselves.
Two of the mentioned minerals -Marble and Gold - stand out. Studies from the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development indicate that marble deposits can be found in the districts of Moroto, Amudat, Kotido and Kaabong.
Rupa sub-county in Moroto district is one of the areas where deposits for both minerals exist. And different companies, almost all of them from outside Karamoja, are in business. Records from URA indicate that more than 30 mining companies are registered and are operating in Karamoja.
One of the companies, according to media reports, mines 1,000 tonnes of marble per day and produces up to 40 tonnes of tiles and other by-products which are transported to Kampala and beyond...
Mining companies are supposed to pay royalties. Eighty percent of the royalties go to the government; the district where the mineral is mined takes 10 percent while the sub-county takes seven percent. The village takes the remaining three percent. How much of this goes to the ordinary person?
In the words of Simon Nangiro, a chairperson of the Karamoja Miners Association, a grouping of local artisanal miners, the first business people after the disarmament were taking over communal land and "negotiating deals behind the scenes with people who are vulnerable!" Then the middlemen came in, making it difficult for an ordinary small-scale miner to stay in business. Dispossessed of their land, even the alternative source of livelihood, besides cattle rearing, is threatened.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
For decades there's been gold mining in Karamoja whose benefits the locals hardly get. There's been mining of marble and limestone whose real benefits go elsewhere.
We read reports of Karamoja goats disappearing along the way, or reaching there when they are too sick to live beyond days. The mabbaate grow legs and travel to other parts of the country which, in the 1960s, did not want to wait for the Karimojong to develop.
Meanwhile there's the "hell fire" that came with the latest round of disarmament and reports of human rights abuses.
We might as well revise the line and say:
We will never allow the Karimojong to develop...
