President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni says he will consider pardoning youths in the Karamoja sub-region who were detained for cattle rustling and illegal gun possession.
“I’m going to study the issue of pardoning these young people. I will discuss it with the army. I did not know that so many young people were involved,” President Museveni said.
He made the remarks on Thursday, December 5, 2024, while addressing the people of Karamoja at a rally held at Kotido grounds in Kotido municipality while concluding his performance assessment tour on the Parish Development Model (PDM) and wealth creation.
The matter was raised by Kotido Municipality Member of Parliament, Hon. Peter Abrahams Lokii, who said that recently, mothers have been flooding his home, asking the government to pardon their children. President Museveni has recently granted pardons to convicted minor offenders by Article 121 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda.
For the last three days, the President has visited several farmers in Karamoja who benefited from the government’s PDM program and also addressed a leaders’ meeting in Moroto.
President Museveni observed that Karamoja’s population has grown tremendously, calling for concrete government interventions to improve their way of life.
“These days when I come here, I thank God for the work he has enabled NRM to do in Karamoja. In 1996, when I was campaigning in other parts of the country, I would get huge crowds coming to attend my rallies. In Karamoja, they were supporting the NRM 100%, but the people were few. Now these days it is as if I’m in Western Uganda, Buganda, or any other heavily populated area,” the President said while attributing it to the correct interventions by the government, such as immunization and peace.
“Of course, in the past, you were marrying many women, but the children were dying from diseases and war. So, all these huge numbers of people are because of peace and immunization. I therefore want to thank God for enabling the NRM to do something good in Karamoja,” he added.
He further added that the population of Uganda has since risen to 46 million people from 14 million in 1966.
“In all these years, we emphasize two words, wealth and jobs, and we try to wake our people up to show them where wealth and jobs come from,” the President said, adding that wealth and jobs cannot be achieved without peace, which is followed by health through immunization and good nutrition.
The next issue to address, he said, is water for domestic use and production.
“I know this very well because where I live in Rwakitura and some cattle corridor areas, we don’t have spring water. But the problem was solved by the valley dams and tanks. I’m very sorry to hear that some of the dams sank and don’t have water. The good thing, however, is that some boreholes can serve people but also livestock. But for the large number of cows and irrigation of crops, we need big valley dams. We are going to increase the valley dams in a serious way,” the President assured.
