By Weswa Ronnie
KARAMOJA
People from the Karamoja region have asked the State Minister for Microfinance, Hon. Shartsi Kutesa Musherure, to remind government to come up with lasting solutions to the current disputes between them and the people of Teso.
For years, people of Kapelebyong District in Teso and those of Abim and Napak have been embroiled in long-standing conflicts over boundaries, with each side accusing the other of crossing the boundary.
The State Minister for Microfinance, Microfinance Support Centre officers, and the State House Emyooga Monitoring and Coordination Unit headed by Rita Namuwenge on Wednesday, 28th October, 2026 started touring the Karamoja sub-region to assess how to transform the region economically using government programmes like Emyooga and the Parish Development Model (PDM), among others.
While speaking to locals in Napak District during her first engagement meeting, John Tebakol Wilberforce, the LC3 Chairperson of Apeitolim Sub-county in Napak District, said the boundary conflicts have claimed lives of many people on both sides of Teso and Karamoja, which he said is not good.
He said that generally the Karamoja sub-region is peaceful after government introduced the disarmament exercise and deployed security everywhere, but the boundary issue remains the only challenge.
Million Odongo, the Resident District Commissioner of Napak, said he has written countless letters to the Ministry of Lands about the issue but has never received a single response.
He said majority of people in the Karamoja sub-region have embraced government programmes to improve their household income.
Peter Mujuni, the Executive Director of the Microfinance Support Centre, added that the government is trying to bring services nearer to the people through its programmes and urged people to embrace them.
He said the government is ensuring that poverty is eliminated from people’s homes to improve the money economy.
Rita Namuwenge, of the State House Emyooga Monitoring and Coordination Unit urged people of Karamoja and Uganda at large who received Emyooga money and have not paid back to do so, so that other people can also apply and get loans.
She praised President Museveni for coming up with such programmes to eliminate poverty from homes.
However, in her response, the Minister said that people, especially the youth and women, must use the Emyooga and PDM programmes to create employment opportunities and fight poverty.
She said their purpose of coming to the region is to assess the performance of the PDM and Emyooga programmes so that government can see how to improve them for more Ugandans to benefit.
On the issue of boundary disputes, she pledged to talk to the relevant minister when she returns to address the problem once and for all.
