First Lady must tread carefully on Karamoja Development Agency

In its early years, Museveni’s government saw water and pasture as Karamoja’s primary problem and although there were efforts to build water reservoirs, these plans got bogged down in divergence of opinion between donor agencies and the government while graft ate away at whatever resources were availed by the state.

Previous appointees to the office have had little impact, often blaming underfunding. The state also appeared to have designated Karamoja as an area that should be the responsibility of donors.

But the region has recently come into Museveni’s orbit again as he eyes it for a number of pet projects.

Its mineral potential aside, Karamoja, with its sparse population, is one of those parts of Uganda that still have large tracts of arid but fertile land. In recent years the government has spoken of allocating parcels of this territory to Iranian and Libyan investors to launch large scale commercial farming that would involve bulk transfer of water from nearby water bodies for irrigation.

For the first time also, the government is committed to extending a bituminised road to Moroto, the region’s capital.

These programmes have the potential to transform Karamoja, but they could also turn out be Mrs Museveni’s Waterloo.

Previous efforts at exploitation of the region’s gold deposits resulted in conflict with locals after the South African proxy for local interests fenced off miles of land, cutting off traditional migratory corridors for pastoralists and their herds.

If Museveni’s designs for the region include getting his wife to charm the Karimojong off their land, then she has a long treacherous road ahead of her.