How Museveni’s donation sparked war, confusion amongst Teso Journalists

Op-Ed: President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni this week concluded his wealth creation tour in Teso sub-region where he warned individuals against mismanaging the Parish Development Model (PDM) funds.

In every region the president visits, he spares time to interact with selected members of the press. About 16 journalists from different media houses mainly from Soroti City were selected to interface with the president where they had an opportunity to present to him their proposal on socio-economic empowerment.

The president as usual listened to the concerns of the media in Teso as it was contained in the Memo read to him by the Chairperson of Teso Media Initiative for Development (TEMID) SACCO, Samuel Odongo. President Museveni pledged to boost the SACCO with UGX. 100m and 250 sheep.

Whereas the new development was welcomed by a few members of the press who subscribe to TEMID, there is another bigger group of journalists under their umbrella body, Teso Journalists for Community Empowerment (TEJFOCE) which has since questioned the reality of TEMID.

TEJFOCE is an umbrella body that brings together over 130 media practitioners across Teso and Kumam. The subscribers are journalists, bloggers, online reporters and Tiktokers from the two sub-regions. Prior to the meeting with the president, TEJFOCE Executive Committee led by their Chairperson, Emmanuel Opio, prepared a two-page Memo which they were to present to the president. The Memo was shared on their platform before it was immediately deleted and reposted after the president’s meeting.

Members of TEJFOCE claim that TEMID duplicated their proposal and presented it to the president. Some members accuse the executive of betraying them by giving out the proposal they spent sleepless nights drafting. In the TEJFOCE WhatsApp platform, the chairperson, Emmanuel Opio, ignited fire when he said that, “I am happy the MEMO earned us this pledge.” This prompted some of the members to question how the TEJFOCE Memo ended up in the hands of TEMID.

Members like Stephen Ojacor, posted saying, “But you also chairman, you are fake. How can the man snatch our Memo when you were in charge?” he added and asked, “How can five people eat 100 million and 250 sheep?”

Lydiawealth posted saying, “After stealing and reading our memo that indicated that we had over 140 members to the president now you want to start picking members from TEJFOCE to go and try and cover up the lies you made to the president. Members I will urge us to stay put and calm, let the 100m pledge of the president not make us panic.

If Odongo knows that TEJFOCE is the biggest body of journalists in Teso, he will do the needful. If he feels his SACCO of 10 journalists is the right one, he will still do the right thing. So let’s not panic. It’s TEJFOCE Memo that earned us that pledge but unfortunately it’s gone to the wrong hands. Let them prove the 140 members TEMID has but not asking TEJFOCE members to register to TEMID again.”

George Muron said. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Memo from TEJFOCE or TEMID but the most important thing is that there is something that has come to the table.”

According to the TEJFOCE Memo which I have read, the journalists acknowledged that they are trying their best to implement government programs, however, they still face some challenges such as; financially strained media houses which have failed to facilitate staff to execute their tasks and low wages paid to the journalists.

In the same Memo, the journalists requested the president for three things; to construct a Resource Centre in Teso so as to ease their coordination and dissemination of information. They asked the president to take them to his model farm for a tour so that they can benchmark more on his four-acre model. Lastly, the journalists requested for ideological training so as to understand the full-scale idea of socio-economic transformation which the president preaches endlessly.

In addition to the monetary and livestock donation, the president also pledged to sponsor journalists from Teso to tour his farms. This was one of the requests contained in the TEJFOCE Memo, perhaps the reason for TEJFOCE members’ uproar. The president said that the visit would provide journalists with an opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge about the NRM ideology on socio-economic transformation through commercial agriculture.

What has remained unclear is which Memo was presented to the president and how the donation is going to be shared among members of the two warring sides which some of them have referred to as “FDC Najjanakumbi vs FDC Katonga.” However, it is evident that many of the journalists fear that the president’s donation is going to be eaten by few people like it happened with the first 80 million shillings which is alleged to have been eaten by the same group which is bound to receive the 100 million.

The author is Julius Obongo,  a former Journalist with Etop

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