{UAH} IS IT TIME FOR TESO TO MOVE TO NRM?

IS IT TIME FOR TESO TO MOVE TO NRM?
Omongole Richard Anguria,
The Teso claimant
Whenever you are faced with a dilemma that requires that you review your position, more so regarding morals, you are compelled to look for the best way to describe your predicament. In fact, most people become philosophical about the dilemma!
When most of Teso's old generation was beginning to sit at the age of their sits when discussing political situations in Teso, one would look for the best suitable way to describe the shift in sitting postures of these once proud, intelligent confident , reliable and consistent people from the East.
Looking at what is coming out of this once prosperous region that went through untold suffering under the superintendency of the NRM/A , abject poverty made a trade mark , yet resilient , it's a very daunting task to find better and acceptable words to describe what appears to be loss of consistency, pride, honesty, and reliability by my fellow Iteso in now choosing to bandwagon with NRM !

" people don't change , situations change and it makes you see more of who they really are" - Uknown- could that best described the teso situation? No , I know my people. " people don't change times do"- Says Viggo Tarasov. May be, but the situations in teso had changed so many times and teso people hadn't changed.

Then some Unknown comes up " may be sometimes people don't actually change, may be you just never knew who they really were" sure? After 48 years in this planet earth, living in times war , poverty, suffering and before ,seeing them drink ajon, sleep by roadsides , yet get up early to their gardens, I really didn't know who the Iteso are? No I know my people! Or is it me suffering from " people change memories don't " mindset? No I don't think so . Even if , I refuse that anonymous saying!

But Bobby Knight seems to have given me the best phrase to describe my people and what's coming out of teso seeing the preparations for change of political office holders and as Iteso begin to sit at the edge of their seats; " people change over the years , and that changes situations for good and for Bad" - Bobby K .

I agree the changes in sitting positions appearing to come from teso as my people's willingness to sit in the yellow bus, could be for good in some people's pockets but also for the bad of already frustrated and desperate people getting disillusioned for not getting the manna from heaven they expect after 35 years of watching and smelling the aroma from the far down neighbors.

I have lived a fairly good potion of my adult life under the government of NRM but particularly watched keenly the purgatory given to Teso year after year in a promise to share the national cake.
In the late 1980s precisely between 1987 - 1989, when Teso experienced one of the most brutal wars this country has witnessed,as one of the students of Ngora High school then , we saw some of the most wanton and brutal massacres of the people of teso in the name of purging a war. The excessive destruction of property, livelihoods, and all living creatures by the government soldiers, left a very bitter taste in the mouths of many Iteso.

Names like Bunyeyenzi, kaferuka, Tinyefuza, Nyorosa, and others became symbols of the brute force that the army was, in Teso as we lived by the infamous Mukura massacre, the Nyero cave massacre, the Kumi Railway station evening mass shootings, the Ngora Dem. under ground cells that could turn to mass graves anytime!

Some of the inhumane violations of right to life were so despicable that most people who witnessed them , todate roll tears down their faces when the try to recount the horrors. The story of the student who came from a Kampala school for holidays in ngora and couldn't go back to school due to both insecurity and lack of fees , who eventually gets arrested at Ngora high and killed by splitting his body from the chest into pieces using an axe at Ngora boys can never get raced from my mind .

Witnessing the famous school cook being slaughtered infront of library in full view of students requires no type of rubber to erase and the next day facing the threat of most of us being put under firing squad for having relatives in the rebellion made us believe our lives only depended on the moods of a particular NRA commander.

The war was eventually brought to an end through the concerted efforts of teso elders and religious leaders who could not live to hear of anymore wastage of human lives .
However the effects of the war and cattle rustling that was mostly supervised by the army-NRA and its greedy commanders, left many lives lost that the next population census showed that Iteso dropped from being the second largest ethnic group to 6th.

The kraals of cattle were no more that stories were told of how teso cows found their way to a certain part of the country by crossing the Nile .

As the guns completely went silent in 1992, teso was desolate, poverty stricken, destroyed livelihoods and economic base of cattle, agriculture and cooperatives completely brought to their knees.
A community that was originally a food basket for the country became the begging basket of the nation and permanently took the seat in relief and disaster docket.

However they persevered, gambled, cried and were one time in the face of had hitting famine told to eat mangoes but they went a little down in the desperation ladder and ate lizards as national newspapers ran headlines. Being a resilient people, they slowly started getting back to humane living from animal life.

In 1996, when the first electoral process presented an opportunity, these Iteso people who had in the countable elections, voted UPC, saw what they thought was an opportunity to vote out a regime they had seen to have meted untold suffering, comparable to the wrath of a pandemic to them , massively voted Ssemwogere with over 90 percent with hope that it would change their suffering and return the cows that they depended on for everything. It didn't happen but they didn't completely give up or lose hope.

In 2001, again probably as their only hope of ever changing their fate, they overwhelmingly voted against the sitting regime . Many voices from within and without teso started both threatening and cajoling Iteso to go with the wind. My people were never the ones to go with the direction of the winds.

Come 2006 , the saw this new party FDC as their saviour . They even nicknamed the fdc supremo " Okongu " the one with a big eyes , probably to mean vision or the size! They voted in large numbers still bitter and not yet better from the war and robbery of their cattle, property and livelihoods.
By this time a few case had emerged out of the region claiming for compensation. Hon. Okupa led a group of teso parliamentarians to file a case against the government for the massacre by the government Anti stock theft Unit ( ASTU) in Ngariam, katakwi. Motions by around 2000-2001 had also been brought to parliament to highlight the continued cattle rustling and doing of nothing by government.
Before 2011 elections, around 2009, a group of Teso elders came to me and pleaded that they wanted to take on government in the courts of law to compensate Iteso for all that they had lost .
I was initially reluctant given the spirited fight government had put up on a very clear broad daylight massacre by its auxiliary force, the ASTU but they assured me that it was a good cause for "your people" they said.

We eventually filed 3 other cases led by these elders to add to the one by Okupa in which by this time most of the Teso Mps had run away from. But before we could go any further, a government that should have had the guilt to compensate instead had the temerity to fight a cause that was to provide reparations for her people.

Immediately the elders went around to solicit signatures of the masses, another group backed and funded by some in government got onto the ground, quickly collected signatures, filed a separate case and using some of the elders who behaved as if and actually did get something in public rallies , and entered consent with government.

The consent entered with government was meant to give government a cap of a good cop who had come now to save teso. They even consented that no other case would be filed in teso again in regard to compensation. Letters with the schedule of payments signed by the president himself, were distributed all over teso to show the government commitment to compensate Iteso.
We , they other group knew it was a gimmick. We ignored the letters and successfully challenged the offensive part of the judgement in court and continued with our process . Passed a message to our people and most of them listened though some fell for the gimmick.
NRM didn't get what it had hoped to get in teso . Yes the people were getting fatigued and wanted to try change and see whether their lives would become meaningful again.
But come 2016 elections, we turned the heat on NRM , using the very letters that the president had written during the 2011 elections stating how government will have fully compensated teso by 2013. Of course the whole court process and consent together with the letter we a vote catching lie.
We then embarked on sending the message and composed the song " No cow no vote". An akogo group even recorded it . We spread the message and NRM felt the heat. Many political heavyweights camped in teso but the threat was real knowing the consistency of the Iteso.

By November 2015, the President sent in General Tumukunde to talk to me and Julius Ochen to see how the teso issue can be resolved. Tumukunde wanted us to meet the president. We talked to the elders and they said " go and bring back only one thing , our compensation "

General Tumukunde took us to State House for nearly a 3:00am meeting with the President. His concern was why we were fighting the government and not supporting him. We gave him the message of the elders. The president told us that unlike in the past, this time,(2015) , the government had included the teso compensation issue in the budget of 2016.
I insisted on getting the figure, but the president said three times " omongole, I will call you tomorrow and give you the figure" as I kept on insisting on the figure " budgeted" for compensation.
The president wanted us to organize a meeting with the elders and report our" good " discussion. He asked whether we needed some money to do that. We did not take any but as soon as we got out of state house , social media posts , done by some Iteso who had been given some little facilitation, was awash with " news " of how the two of us had gotten money and crossed to NRM . I unusually lost my head and abused these manipulated Iteso who could not see the goods from State House.
The elections passed with NRM improving in most areas of teso but seriously suffering in Soroti. We never heard again from the President and General Tumukunde.

We went back to court and won our cases . We have never seen the compensation for teso in the budget. The consent judgement with government has remained in the court files since 2010. Todate we have used all government offices to get teso compensated for the cattle rustling and the war that wrought unprecedented suffering to teso .

Many Iteso have been told lies , lived by the lies, rejected the lies and have never come to terms why teso is treated that way by NRM ! Or may be it's only me still thinking so and the people of teso have a changed situation for good and bad by now deciding to go NRM faaaaaah even without a negotiated position on their economic restoration!
May be , may be not , am still struggling to come to terms with all the election materials coming from teso showing a majority standing under NRM despite the raw deal and lies fed on them every year about their reparations and economic restoration.

Acholi and Lango got 10 billion each in 2016 after a delegation led by oulanya comprised of bishops, Rdcs, district chairmen, Mps both opposition and government. Teso without unity and effective representation, is still yawning but appear now to match up the NRM alter to receive another dose of 'esabet' (lies) .

The question though is; has teso now agreed to more esabet ( lies) and decided to walk into the esabet head on? Or are these again clearly well orchestrated political games to blindfold teso from raising the issue of compensation at elections time ? Or may be , has desperation set in? Or are the Iteso finally changing under changing times for good and bad ?
For me I will keenly follow but also be very much willing to send a message to our network of teso war claimants, who number close to one million, that like my old professor friend from the west , who was sent by The president in 2016 to teso to hunt for votes and the only word he was told everywhere was that with NRM , it's esabet . He came back to Kampala and one day asked me what does esabet mean? And why are the people of teso everywhere saying , for the NRM and the president only esabet ?
I will be comforted that for NRM and teso , it will be another esabet. And it's not yet time Iteso went to NRM in throngs.

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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