It’s always hard to feel the importance of anyone who has been toiling to provide services to the community until one day that person is no longer there. This is now the current situation the people of Amuria and Kapelebyong are facing after the exit of former State Minister for Works, Mr. Musa Ecweru.
When Hon. Musa Ecweru was serving as State Minister for Disaster Preparedness and later as State Minister for Works, he prioritised community access roads. However, his exit is now being felt, even though it has not yet been a year.
So far, the road that connects Amuria to Kapelebyong has developed what residents describe as uncovered pit latrines rather than potholes. Whoever travels on that road thinks of Ecweru, while others even wish elections could be recalled specifically for Amuria County so they could vote for him again.
One of the residents, Peter Omoding from Amucu Trading Centre in Amuria District, recalled how Musa Ecweru had made sure that all community access roads were made passable.
“Sometimes we, the voters, really don’t know what we want. It was not yet time for Hon. Ecweru to have left this seat,” he said.
The concerns raised by Mr. Omoding are a general concern for many people in Teso who felt that Musa Ecweru was not a friend to thieves and those who wanted to poison others.
In fact, there is a belief that most thieves had disappeared from the Teso region because of Musa Ecweru. However, ever since Ecweru was dropped, incidents of cattle theft, burglary, and night-time crime have increased in the region.
The question is: Will the newly elected Member of Parliament for Amuria County fill the shoes left by Musa Ecweru?
The writer is a senior veteran journalist.
