The UPDF 4th Division Commander Maj Gen Felix Busizoori has revealed that the operation to evict nomadic Pastoralists commonly known as Balaalo from Northern Uganda has been code named ‘Operation Harmony’ and it will bring together the country’s security organisations led by UPDF, police and other government agencies like; National Forestry Authority, Uganda Wildlife Authority, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture through districts veterinary officers.
Maj Gen Busizoori who is commanding the operation said that different implementation teams are already on the ground preparing and carrying out reconnaissance and sensitisation of the community including the affected Balaalo to welcome the move noting that it was authorised by the President for the good of the country.
“This new order will be implemented under an operation we have coded Operation Harmony and it will exclusively be conducted by Security agencies and selected agencies of the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Internal Affairs,” Maj Gen Busizoori said.
He added that all the cattle which will be moved from Northern Uganda will first be taken to a loading point where the implementation team will be documenting their exit permits and provide escorts to the trucks until they cross Karuma bridge.
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He added that he will make sure that no person hides his cattle along the way to bring it back after the operations.
He added that the transporters of the cattle should first receive their permits allowing them to transport cattle and if any person is found a permit, they will be arrested and prosecuted with offences related to stealing cattle.
He divulged that the operation will start with indiscipline cattle owners who refused to implement the earlier Executive Orders that were issued by the president.
Highly placed sources said that the process of evicting the Balaalo from Northern Uganda has been delayed by President Museveni’s young brother Gen Salim Saleh who is not in support of the move and on several occasions has been advising the president to first study his directives which annoyed a section of Acholi cultural and opinion leaders led by Chief Justice Owiny Dollo.
Early this month, Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) visited Northern Uganda and met the concerned cultural leaders to discuss the matter and through his X handle, he pleaded with the Balaalo to accept the president’s decision and leave the area since they are not wanted even though a number of them are still protesting the move.
Still through his alleged X handle, Gen Muhoozi stated that, “NOTHING will happen in Northern Uganda, that Mzee, Afande Saleh and I have not approved. Absolutely nothing.”
He added that, “Baraaro in Northern Uganda should ONLY follow the instructions of my 2 Division Commanders i.e. Maj. Generals Felix Busizoori and Keith Katungi. Nobody else should even dare to utter a word!”
On the frequent Thursday tweets on his alleged X handle, Muhoozi further declared former Principal Private Secretary to the president before being appointed the State Minister in Charge of Northern Uganda Kenneth Omona an Idiot and gave permission to his Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) Secretary General and also Kasambya county legislator David Kabanda to lead the operation to throw him out of government office.
Sources close to minister Omona told this investigative website that the Balaalo and their symphysis are targeting him claiming that he is the one behind their eviction from Northern Uganda even though the entire move is orchestrated by Chief Justice Dollo and other opinion leaders who persuaded Museveni to allow their prayer to evict Balaalo from their land.
Opinion leader and former Leader of Opposition in Parliament Morris Ogenga Latigo revealed that after establishing that there is a lot of oil beneath their land, which is making up 17% of the entire country’s oil fields, and because they want to start preparing it early, they wrote a Memorandum of Understanding to the president in 2014.
Ogenga narrated that they were shocked that after sending their Memorandum of Understanding to the president, the Balaalo started raiding their area with a lot of force using guns and money to grab their land.
He explained that their people were desperate due to the twenty years they spent fighting a civil war between President Museveni’s government and the Lord’s Residence Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony which eased the fraudulent move to grab their land.
He insisted that the Balaalo are being fronted by top government officials and army generals who want to benefit from their oil when time for exploitation comes which is a bad move and the accused persons were the very people who raided Bunyoro hiding under the pretext of pastoralists yet they were targeting their oil.
The operation to evict them was commanded by former coordinator of intelligence agency Gen David Ssejusa fourteen years back.
He explained that people of Northern Uganda are not tribalistic and they value living with other Ugandans that’s why many other people like Local Government minister Rapheal Magyezi own huge chunks of land in Nwoya district doing agriculture and no one is touching him because they know that he obtained the land legally but the actions of Balaalo are insulting and provoking them.
Latigo assured the world that as opinion leaders of Acholi and the entire Northern Uganda, they will not be threatened by the tribalism blackmail card, noting that they will fight for their land as their great great grandparents did and they are ready to shade blood to save their land.
He accused Balaalo of compromising some of their people calling themselves the Northern Uganda land owners association to mislead the public that the entire region is ok with their stay and are helping the community to grow
Latigo was supported by minister Omona who said that after Justice Dollo and culture leaders convinced President Museveni over the matter, they decided to hold a meeting on the ground to talk to the people about the behaviour of Balaalo, the Balaalo used their money and power to stop people who they think will not support them to attend the president’s meeting and only those supporting them attended the meeting. However, the president later established the truth and he was very bitter.
He explained that even the minister Hillary Onek, legislators and local government leaders were denied access to the president’s meeting and when he asked the Balaalo to tell him where they came from to go to Northern Uganda, one of the Balaalo without any respect for the head of State threatened him telling him not to ask them of their origin.
He even warned him that if he allows their eviction, he will face it rough during the elections.
He said that the president observed the arrogance of the Balaalo and how they insulted other leaders in the meeting and directed the minister to make sure that they are leave the area, insisting that they are the problem.
Latigo said that if it was not for the respect the people of Northern Uganda give to President Museveni, the locals and their leaders would have acted on the Balaalo because they are very arrogant and keep insulting all leaders using guns and money as their weapons.
Minister Omona claims that the Balaalo disturbing the people of Northern Uganda are part of the people evicted from Tanzania, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo and the government has to take serious action against them to save the other members of the country.
Kennedy Okello, a leader within Northern Uganda Land Owners Association claims that Latigo and other elites from Acholi are bitter with Balaalo because they know that they have brought competition on buying land and they pay good money to anyone who wants to sell their land yet for them, they want to buy the land at cheaper prices.
He insisted that it was the elites who brought Balaalo to Northern Uganda and they resorted to selling other people’s land when they were still in camps during the war.
He also challenged Latigo and Justice Dollo to explain how they obtained the huge chunks of land in Nwoya.
He claimed that they were targeting oil which was discovered in the area.
This website has established that top government officials and elites are grabbing land in Nwoya and are threatening those trying to protest their move among who include Nancy Oryem the granddaughter to Lt Col Wilson Erinayo Oryema the first black Inspector General of Uganda Police.
Oryema accuses Lt Gen Charles Otema, his family members including top politicians in the NRM party, top judicial officers, officers in Uganda police, top Kampala lawyers of sharing his grand father’s estate fraudulently and helping others to grab his other properties in Kampala and other parts of the country.
Veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda warned that what president Museveni is doing to evict Balaalo from Acholi is setting a bad scenario because other people are also going to sell their properties to people from other regions and then after eating their money turn against them
Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka assured this website that he is done with executing the presidential directive of authoring legal regulations which will help control pastoralists in the country and he has already handed over the regulations to the Ministry of Agriculture because they are the ones in the control of the cattle keepers.
