Serere Leaders Protest Underpayment of War Claimants

Serere District leaders have expressed displeasure about the ongoing cattle compensation for the Teso war claimants. 

On Wednesday, the Vice President, Jessica Alupo said that Serere was among the districts that received funds for the first phase of compensation. 

Alupo, who was handing over motorcycles to the sub-county chairpersons in Teso said that each district in the three sub-regions had been allocated 1.7 Billion Shillings. 

But Hellen Adoa, the Serere Woman MP who doubles as the Minister of State for Fisheries says that the said compensation is inadequate to cater to the needs of the claimants.   

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Stephen Ochola, the LCV Chairperson Serere says that the compensation is a mockery. He said that the money is not able to recover expenses incurred by some claimants in the last two decades. 

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President Yoweri Museveni launched the livestock compensation payment in March at Soroti University for the Acholi, Lango, and Teso sub-regions. The compensation is earmarked for more than 200,000 war claimants cleared in the first phase. Acholi has 16,946, Lango 42,042 and Teso 33,664 claimants. 

Prior to the actual compensation, the government revised its rates for compensating each cow lost from 600,000 Shillings to one million shillings.

In Okupa Vs Attorney General judgment of 2018, each cow was valued at 900,000 Shillings, goats, and sheep at 150,000 Shillings while compensation for an adult life lost was valued at 100 million per head.  

Jamba Simon Peter Kwagala, the Attorney General's Public Relations Officer says that the money given out was based on the funds available for compensation. He notes they will continue to pay the claimants as and when funds are released by the Ministry of Finance. 

“Because of the insufficient amount of money we received this financial year, we arrived at the decision to pay people based on the funds available. But it’s just the beginning of the payment. Whoever is getting less money compared to what they claimed will be paid when the money is available”, he said on phone.