UGANDA: WHY THE ITESO DOMINATE PRIVATE SECURITY GUARDS INDUSTRY

 

NOTE by Editor - This post has not been proof read for grammar. Please allow us a few days and it will be corrected for any minor errors contained. MLN

By CHANGE OF GUARDS

WHY THE ITESO DOMINATE PRIVATE SECURITY GUARDS INDUSTRY

The Iteso ethnic community of eastern Uganda has played a significant role in Uganda's political history.  At independence, on October 9, 1962, Maj. Kanute from Teso was selected to raise the new National Flag as the British Union Jack was being lowered.  Brig. Shaban Opolot from Teso became the first native Commander of the independent Uganda Army (UA).  Teso region hosted the East African Aviation College under the defunct East African Community (EAC).  The Iteso being a traditional pastoralist community, their region hosted the Meat Parkers industry. To preserve their cattle as a national asset against the Karamojong cattle rustlers, the Iddi Amin regime established a Teso Home Guards Unit (THGU). 

During the fight against the Iddi Amin Regime, Teso's Ateker Ejalu found the Save Uganda Movement (SUM) and  though it did not attract Iteso in it's ranks, it had feld commanders like Matayo Kyaligonza.  At the  1979 Moshi Conference in Tanzania, SUM's leader Ateker Ejalu  was accompaigned by the likes of Commander  Sam Magara who was later to become Museveni's rebel NRA's Army Commander.  After the overthrow of the Iddi Amin regime in 1979, the successive governments retained the THGU.  The UPC government (1980 - 1985) further strengthened the THGU through training and logistical support.  It even deployed them outside the Teso region to fight Museveni's NRA insurgents alongside the UNLA in the Luwero Triangle.  These were the half baked gun trotting young boys from Kitgum and Teso who roamed the bushes in the central and some parts of western region and were commonly referred to as Not Yet Approved (NYA).   Being a predominantly UPC stronghold, Teso produced the powerful Minister of State for Defence, Peter Otai and the Director of Military Intelligence, Capt. Emeju.  A number of Iteso were recruited into the defunct Naguru based Police Special Forces Unit.  

Following the overthrow of Obote (July 1985) and the Lutwa's January 1986, that brought  Museveni to power, many Iteso members of the defeated security forces retreated to their homes in the region.  When Museveni's NRA reached the Teso region in February 1986, it was wholeheartedly welcomed.  Many Iteso youth voluntarily joined the NRA and underwent training at Serere under Commander Kirenzi.  Unlike the Acholiland, in Teso the former soldiers had no plans of militarily resisting the NRA.  However, the suspicious NRA ordered for the disarmament of all the militias and former soldiers. It went ahead to round up and detain former soldiers, militias and police personnel.  The Balalo from Western Uganda who had all along been their casual cattle herders were now donning NRA uniforms and confiscating their cattle.  It issued arms to the Karamajong under the excuse of building their capacity to defend themselves against the Turkana rustlers.  Many  were forced into hiding and hiding of arms  for self protection against the traditional Karamajong raids.  Without any justification, it went further to order for the ban on movement of livestock outside the Teso region.  Instead, the senior NRA officers embarked on the lucrative  livestock business for a profit.  The then Commander of the Mbale based NRA's 157 Brigade, Gen. Matayo Kyaligonza is reported to have led the ferrying of trailer loads of cattle to his home.  

The Karamajong cattle rustlers also descended on the disarmed Iteso, pillaging and rustling cattle without any hindrance.  The NRA is accused of having been aiding the Karamajong raiders.  Even when it recovered the raided cattle from the Karamojong, it never returned them to their rightful owners. Within six months Teso region had been depleted of all it's cattle population before they resorted to a campaign of terror against its neighbors including Teso.  The Iteso adopted a self-defense mechanism led by tested commanders like Hitler Eregu, Jesus Ojirot, Sunlight Okoror, Eloit Justine, Oronya, Osugiri, Dikuret, Obote Ederu, Max Omeda, Martin Olupot, and others.  In May 1987, the self-defense mechanism was formally transformed into an armed rebellion dubbed Uganda Peoples' Army (UPA). The likes of Peter Otai, Col. Omaria, Musa Ecweru, Brig. Smith Opon Acak and Maj. Ouol who were based outside the country formed the external wing.  

The NRA responded with brutal force in dealing with the battle hardened insurgents.  Museveni dispatched his then NPC, Dr. Besigye to London to talk to the likes of Peter Otai.  The Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) rebel group of Alice Lakwena swept through Teso taking with it some members of UPA before it was defeated by the NRA in Busoga in November 1987.  Museveni sent three of his cabinet Ministers who hailed from Teso to go and talk to the rebels in the bush.  The three Ministers, Stanslus Okurut, Dr. Aporo Akol and Robert Ekinu we're instead taken hostage by the UPA rebels on December 10, 1987.  

Five months later, Minister Aporu Akol escaped from UPA captivity in March 1988 before leading a government Peace Team for discussions with UPA.  Together , the then Anglican Bishop of Gersom Ilukor and others made two rounds of negotiations with UPA at Matany in Karamoja on 14th & 16th.  The UPA put forward the grievances of the Iteso against the NRA as looting of property, use of defamatory and derogatory language and conspiracy with the Karamajong to deplete the livestock.  During the said negotiations, the NRA attacked the UPA bases with the intention of rescuing the two hostage Ministers.  The attack ended in the killing of Robert Ekinu on August 2, 1988 and rescuing of Stanslus Okurut.  

With the betrayal by the NRA, the peace Talks broke down before hostilities resumed in full gear.  The NRA intensified brutal force to quell the insurgency as exemplified by the July 11, 1989 suffocation of 69 out of the 280 Iteso suspected rebel captives in a stationary train wagon at Okulingo Railway Station, in Mukura Sub-county in Kumi district.  The incident was simply swept under the carpet as both the Brigade Commandeer, Maj. Chris Bunyenyezi and his I.O, Capt. Oduch were left scotch free.   In 1990, Bishop Gersom Ilukol and other eminent people of Teso spearheaded the formation of the Teso Commission in pursuit of a peaceful settlement of the conflict.  Grace Akello became it's Chairperson and Secretary.  With the able mobilisation skills of the then Division Commander,Zebra Brig. Cheffe Ali and his Division  Commander, Capt. Charles Angina, a Peace Accord was secured with the UPA and by mid 1992 the UPA rebellion had ended.  The likes of Musa Ecweru who had been the head of UPA's External Relations and Max Omeda joined the Museveni government where they were rewarded with positions of district administrators.  

A few UPA combatants were incorporated into the NRA while the majority were demobilized and sent back to their homes.  The traditional Teso peacebuilding mechanism dubbed "Auiluc" for those who had committed atrocities against locals was initiated.  Around early 2003, the LRA invaded Teso with the aim of attracting into its ranks the former UPA rebel combatants.  The NRA which was thin on the ground went into a panicky mode.  Former rebel, Musa Ecweru who was at the time an RDC in Kasese rushed to Teso and liked up with the likes of MP John Eresu and Mike Mukula to mobilize former UPA combatants and soldiers who had been demobilized under the RIF I & II of  the early 1990s, into resisting the LRA.  They mobilised a sizable number of them whom they armed with arrows.  Museveni was reluctant to issue them with arms and uniforms.  He even reprimanded Musa Ecweru for having abandoned his duty station in Kasese for self deployment in Teso.  On June 30, the LRA overrun Soroti Airstrip and Museveni rushed to Teso where he set camp.  He agreed to issue 7,000 rifles to the 2,000 mobilized militias that came to be known as Arrow Boys.  They were reorganized into 12 battalions with each placed under the command of an NRA Major.  By December 2003, the LRA had been driven out of Teso.  

The NRA embarked on demobilization of the former Arrow Boys with a few being incorporated into the army and ferried to Somalia.  Several went back home with promises of a resettlement package that was swindled by top army officers. Similarly, Museveni's duped the Iteso with compensation for the war losses and restocking the cattle.  Mukula and Musa Ecweru were rewarded with ministerial positions.  With over half of the population of Teso region living below the poverty line, subsistence agriculture is undermined by dry spells, pests and crop diseases, floods and lack of markets.  Harassment of fishing communities on Lake Kyoga and absence of their traditional cattle keeping way of life leaves the Iteso in a precarious economic situation.  Consequently, these former UPA rebels, Arrow Boys militias and former soldiers and police have been a source of manpower for private security companies in major commercial centres of the country.  Even when Museveni raises his auxiliary forces dubbed Local Defence Units (LDUs), youth from Teso have always been at hand.  In Uganda, private security guards are derogatorily referred to as ASKARIS and often associated with the underprivileged in society.    

INFORMATION IS POWER AND THE PROBLEM OF UGANDA IS MUSEVENISM.