Fifteen ghost villages have failed to receive the Parish Development Model (PDM) in Katakwi, raising concerns about the potential manipulation of elections. Our reporter observed this perplexing scenario in a letter addressed to the Katakwi Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), which reads in part:
“This is to inform you that Okore Subcounty has parishes and villages that were gazetted by the electoral commission for political purposes and do not have any inhabitants. Okore Parish has five villages: Okore, Abobore, Atukol, Oitakol, and Nakat.
Aminit Parish also has five villages: Aminit, Omamtum, Apapaipi, Olet, and Omara.
Orimon Village, Okabale Village, Ochos Village, Atikokin Village, and Atelan Village.
The letter, drafted on July 19, 2023, by Okore Subcounty Chief Malinga Moses, seeks guidance on what to do with villages and parishes without inhabitants.
The letter reads, “This is to inform you that Okore Subcounty has some parishes and villages that were gazetted by the electoral commission for political purposes and do not have any inhabitants in them.”
“We have, however, failed to implement PDM activities in the above-named parishes because residents were forced to take refuge elsewhere in the nearby parish. Yet the PDM guidelines state that beneficiaries must be full residents of the parish,” the letter adds.
“Therefore, I request your office to guide in this scenario,” the letter concludes.
According to John Patrick Nuwabigaba, Katakwi CAO, he wrote to the Permanent Secretary to seek guidance on administering the fifteen ghost villages of Okore that have no human beings but are supposed to receive PDM.
The Permanent Secretary in Local Government, Ben Kumumanya, constituted a committee in the ministry headed by him. They went on the ground to verify and scrutinize the allegations of villages without human beings. Their conclusion is that:
“There were no signs of people having lived in those areas. They are, therefore, contemplating what to do with the area,” he said.
Geoffrey Omolo, the Katakwi LC5, said in a recent interview that they have written a report to the local government to confirm these parishes to fix this problem.
The report from the electoral commission indicates that Okore Subcounty has a total of 8 polling stations, including the alleged ghost parishes.
Is it right for individuals to double benefit? No.
Those who want to double benefit should give a chance to other individuals within those parishes to benefit so that those individuals can also escape poverty.
It should be noted that individuals living in other parishes register in the ghost parishes, causing double benefits.
These villages were not the old villages; these villages and parishes were created in 2018 under an Omnibus at a time when other administrative units were being created, and somehow there was no time for councillors to scrutinize whether these villages existed.
Politicians want to cover the truth; they are essentially telling everyone in Okore that they are not going to get PDM because of these villages, but that’s not the case.
The politicians are deliberately trying to mislead the people by spreading propaganda that the Vice President and other politicians are the ones who do not want them to get PDM.
The former aspirant for Ngariam County, Augustine Otuko, is among the few uncomfortable with the parishes, saying they were created by Minister Peter Ogwang and former LC5 Hon. Walter Elakas to rig the general election of 2021.
“The truth is these villages were created in 2018 with the intention of rigging primary NRM Elections,” says Otuko.
According to the tally sheet of the last election, MP Minister Peter Ogwang garnered 8900 votes in only the 33 villages that are partly Ngariam and partly Okore.
