By Steven Masiga
Many online platforms are flooded with stories claiming that the Bateso and Lango people are planning to demonstrate due to the government’s failure to compensate them for the cows stolen during the war period.
However, if there is any tribe that lost the most cattle, it was the Bamasaaba people, particularly in the mid-1980s, around 1985, when the Okello government sent soldiers across Masaabaland to hunt down Obote and Museveni collaborators.
Many families lost their livestock, especially in areas like Bukalasi, Bushiyi, and other parts of what was then under greater Mbale. This is well-documented, and I can’t fathom why the Bamasaaba remain silent about this injustice perpetrated against us by the Okello regime.
If there is any tribe that should be calling for compensation, it is the Bamasaaba people, not the Bateso or the Lango. Parts of Bunambutye, Bulambuli, and generally the Sironko region also lost animals to the Karamojong and other groups. It is a long-held legal principle that actions of government agents—no matter how rogue—bind successive governments. Can the National Resistance Movement (NRM) also compensate the Bamasaaba based on this principle? The compensation should be made public.
Furthermore, during the NRA struggle, the Bamasaaba made significant contributions to the cause. Many of us supported and fed the combatants of Elgon 13, a subunit of the NRA. We deserve to be acknowledged and compensated. Of course, there are ongoing compensations by the government, but extra focus on Bugisu is needed.
When Okello’s soldiers looted our animals, even slaughtering some publicly and feasting on them, many of us—some as young as seven years old—still vividly recall the trauma of hiding in caves with our parents. While we couldn’t fully understand the legal consequences of such actions at the time, the memory of that violence remains. Many of those soldiers were from Lango and Acholi, and they openly tortured our people. This included creating mental trauma by shooting randomly into crowds.
Among the Bamasaaba people, there is a long-held saying that the death of a new person reminds you of someone who perished many years ago. Therefore, the threats by the Bateso and Lango people evoke very sad memories for us, as we, the Bamasaaba, suffered greatly at their hands.
The writer is a researcher and Master’s student from Mbale.
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