Security Personnel in Amuru Propose Fresh Verification of Balaalo Cattle Keepers

Security personnel in Amuru district have made proposals to conduct fresh verification of migrant cattle keepers commonly referred to as Balaalo.

The proposals come amidst concerns that many cattle keepers in the district are not complying with the executive order issued by President Yoweri Museveni, leaving their cattle to roam freely into people’s gardens and community water sources. The executive order issued in May 2023 requires the cattle keepers to among others fence off their land, establish water sources, and settle pending land disputes.

Amuru District Police Commander Julius Jingo told stakeholders at a meeting Thursday in Kololo Parish, Lakang Sub-county that conducting a fresh verification of the cattle keepers will help to ascertain the numbers of compliant cattle keepers. He says several complaints had been registered by locals over the destruction of their crops by cattle owned by non-compliant balaalo cattle keepers.

Jingo noted that by last year, there were 211 kraals owned by Balaalo cattle keepers out of which only 125 had fully complied with the executive orders on fencing and establishment of water sources among others.

He said they had managed to evict a total of 19,019 heads of cattle belonging to non-compliant balaalo but revealed that efforts to weed out non-compliant is a hard task because of the behaviours of the cattle keepers.

“The challenges we have is the behaviours of these Balaalo. As you conduct operations in one area, they shift to another area and this makes our operation costly because you end up rotating in a circle,” said Jingo.

Jingo made the remarks during a meeting convened by the Fourth Infantry Division Commander Maj Gen Felix Busizoori following complaints from the community in Lakang on the persistent destruction of their crops by cattle owned by Balaalo. 

The meeting held at Akee village in Kololo Parish, Lakang Sub-county attracted scores of locals, area local leaders and dozens of balaalo cattle keepers.

Charles Kertoo, the LCI Chairperson of Akee village said an estimated 60 acres of gardens were destroyed in the last farming season by cattle belonging to balaalo cattle keepers who are illegally occupying the government land. He says the vice has created tension between the local community and the cattle keepers and called on the security personnel to reign on the matter urgently before it turns bloody.

Amuru Resident District Commissioner Geoffrey Osborn Oceng noted that some of the non-compliant cattle keepers have invaded the government land on which they are illegally grazing their animals.

The land in question was acquired by the government more than 10 years ago for the establishment of a sugar processing plant by the Madhvani Group of Companies under the Amuru Sugar Works Ltd project.

Oceng told the cattle keepers that the government intended to start utilizing the land and ordered all illegally occupying it to vacate within three days.

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He accused some of the cattle keepers of intimidating locals after their cattle destroyed gardens with claims that they have connections to high-ranking serving army officers.

Gen Busizoori however cautioned the cattle keepers against flouting the executive order guidelines on fencing their land arguing that such action is promoting a food crisis in the community.  He issued a one-week ultimatum to the non-compliant cattle keepers to fence their land or face immediate eviction if their cattle ever cross into people’s farmlands.

Eviction of non-compliant migrant cattle keepers from Amuru district which was intensified in an operation dubbed “Operation Harmony) was halted last year following an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Lakang Sub-county.

The district has since been under quarantine with a recent 30-day extension announced recently by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) over the resurgence of FMD in Lakang Sub-county.