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THE LATE REVEREND BISHOP EMERITUS GERESOM ILUKOR’S FUNERAL IN PICTURES
Mrs Loyce Ilukor, the wife of the fallen Bishop
Mrs Loyce Ilukor at the send off ceremony. She pledged to support leaders in all aspects that her late husband would have been involved in
Teso Leaders Pledge To Uphold Bishop Ilukor’s Legacies
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By Emmanuel Okwii
Teso parliamentarians and leaders have pledged to uphold and reinforce the late Bishop Gershom Ilukor’s education and economic legacy saying that what he had done needed to be strengthened and rebuilt. While speaking at the funeral ceremony of the late bishop at the weekend, the leaders said that education and development had been key priorities in the late bishop’s agenda and they would do more to promote the two in respect of him.
Hon. Christine Amongin Aporu who is the woman MP for Kumi and Teso affairs minister said that the late bishop worked hard to establish many schools in the area but more schools would be started and named after him.
“Although we currently have a school named after bishop Ilukor, it is very vital that another school be opened and named after him. Through him, we received quality education and the best gifts we can offer him in this farewell ceremony are more schools in his name,” Ms Amongin Aporu said.
Bishop Ilukor is said to have been an inspiration in the establishment of several institutions in Teso like Kumi University, Soroti University of science and Technology and many secondary schools. As a leader in his prime days, he was also prized for his role in promoting feeding in schools in Teso.
A mourner adorns a 99% Teso and 1% Uganda T-shirt as a tribute to Bishop Ilukor
According to the retired bishop of Bukedi, Rev. Okile Nicodemus Engwalas, there was need for the Teso parliamentarians and leaders to do something to promote education in the area as little progress was being realized in the quality of education offered by Teso schools.
“In the days of Ilukor, professors from Teso were many but today they are countable and fast ageing. We only pray that people like professor Omaswa don’t die otherwise something must be done,” Bishop Okile said. He also encouraged leaders in Teso to promote education by telling their people to sell both cows and goats in order to send children to school.
On the same note, the Kumi district local government has proposed to name a road and health centre after the late bishop. This motion was proposed and passed in the hands of the Kumi district speaker, Mr Victor Opeede at the weekend.
Disunity And Poor Performance Amongst Political Leaders Linked To Slow Development in Teso
Members of the Kumi Mothers’ Union Pay their last respects to the Late Rev. Bishop Gershom Ilukor at St. Stephen Church of Uganda in Kumi
Teso members of parliament expressing their solidarity before the casket of the late Bishop Gershom Ilukor at st. Stephen COU, Kumi. They pledged to strengthen his economic abnd education legacies
By Emmanuel Okwii
Politicians in the Teso sub region have been blamed for poor political performance and disunity, factors that are said to have been retarding progress and development in the sub region in the last six decades. This blame was voiced out by the retired bishop emeritus for Bukedi Diocese, Rev. Bishop Nicodemus Engwalas Okile.
While speaking at the funeral ceremony of the late Bishop Gershom Ilukor on Friday, Okile said that most politicians had abandoned their roles and instead left what they ought to have done in the hands of the church leaders in the area to effect.
“When the likes of Ecweru and Omeda were fighting in the bush those days, the task to save the people was left in the hands of people like the late Bishop Ilukor and me. You should not say that you were there unless you were in a vacuum,” Bishop Okile said. He also added that the same disunity which was still amongst political leaders in Teso was a factor retarding development in the area.
“The late and I have been greatly involved in bringing politicians in Teso to around table but we can’t continue doing this every time. You should promote unity and work harder for a better Teso,” Bishop Okile said
He said that he himself participated in peace negotiations between the government and UPA rebels while most prominent leaders in the area had gone to sleep.
“You politicians simply want to talk a lot but you are not active. Bishop Ilukor was involved in the supply of food to the arrow boys while you able-bodied leaders in Teso simply watched. This is not god for development,” Okile went on.
However, the Minster of Teso Affairs, Hon. Christine Amongin Aporu said that although there were still pockets of disunity amongst the leaders in the area, they as Teso parliamentarians would work to promote peace and unity that the late bishop had often preached.
“We will promote what he started because he was not only a great adviser but a very good counselor to Teso parliamentarians,” Ms. Amongin Aporu said.
Hon. Musa Ecweru speaking at the burial of the Late Gershom Ilukor in Kumi
Kumi Secondary School Teachers Finally Lay Down Tools
By Emmanuel Okwii
KUMI – Secondary School teachers in Kumi are currently on day two of a sit down strike over non payment of April and July salaries. The strike that officially began on Monday is an attempt by teachers to arm-twist district leaders and the government to respond to their cry before resumption of duty. When Daily Monitor visited Mukongoro, Ngero, Kanyumu and Ongino secondary schools, teachers simply sat under trees and staff rooms as they watched over their students who loitered all over the school compounds.
According to the teachers, the CAO and the Principal Personnel Officer should exp0lain why April salary had not been paid and ensure that their July salary is paid before they take up their tools of trade. They also claim that there were rumours to the effect that the April salary had been wired into someone’s personal account, a matter daily monitor cpuld not independently verify.
The teachers say that the district’s local government leadership seems not to be responsive and concerned about their plight.
“We alerted the principal personnel officer in April about the non payment but he didn’t respond although he promised to communicate to us after consulting the ministry of public service,” Mr Ogwang Michael said adding that they waited for the communication in vain.
Mr Gideon Orena, a teacher at Mukongoro senior secondary school said that the situation needed industrial action.
“I have told my colleagues that all we can do is to sit down. We may give Mock exams on grounds of sympathy,” Orena said.
The teachers say that although most districts in Teso had been affected between April and June, salary arrears of the affected districts were cleared together with salary for July, with an exception of Kumi.
“Someone must cough out this money. We can’t just surrender our earnings after toiling for these several months,” Nicholas Atwaeta, one of the teachers in the district said. He also said that there was nothing special or peculiar about Kumi and if they continue ignoring their cries, they will not set and administer end of term two examinations.
The teachers also say that their Principal personnel Officer is rude and doesn’t always want to communicate to them issues pertaining non payment of salary.
“When you go to his office, he doesn’t want to explain to explain things. He told us that April pay slips were ready but how can pay slips be printed without salary payment,” Okwii Emmanuel, a concerned teacher said.
Primary school teachers in Kumi and Secondary school teachers in Ngora last week received two salaries in a space of for days, a matter that provoked the Kumi teachers to strike.
Blame game
When a delegation of head teachers from Kumi sought advice over the matter from the personnel’s office on Monday, he told them that the anomaly arose out of a deficit in the district’s wage bill.
“Our district’s wage bill has been less by Shs192Million and this is where the shortfall comes in. I have communicated to the headquarters and I am awaiting their response,” Mr Okiria Julius reportedly told the delegation of headteachers that visited his office. He however added that although the district had done its part, much of the responsibility lay with the public service.
“We are mostly responsible for the recruitment of primary school teachers and ensuring that they are paid. We only help secondary school teachers to access the payroll and we have less control over their timely payment,” Okiria went on.
The Kumi district’s CAO, Mr Joseph Balisanyuka said that there was still no cause for alarm.
“It is still too early to raise an alarm. Your salaries will be paid and I don’t think government can deny you what you have worked for,” Balisanyuka told the teachers’ representatives that visited his office.
Mr Richard Okiria, The Chairperson of Eastern region headteachers’ association as well as the headteacher of Ngora high school has said that the teachers deserve an explanation.
“It is criminal to hold someone’s salary even after he has worked for it. Whoever is concerned about this should give an explanation about this matter such that the teachers’ hope is restored,” Mr Okiria said. He adds that there has been deletion of ghost teachers from the payroll by the public service and this had affected many teachers. “A whole district can’t be full of only ghost teachers. Much as I love peaceful resolution of conflicts, teachers should go back to class after being given an assurance of their april and July salaries,” Okiria went on.
However, Ms Alice Muwanguzi, the RDC Kumi said that the matter had been reported at his office and appealed to teachers to be patient.
“I have been telling them to be patient because the president has directed that their salaries be paid although I can’t specifically tell when,” Ms Alice Muwanguzi said.
Shunned By Employers Because He Is Lame
By Emmanuel Okwii
Although many graduates dream of sitting in a comfy office and driving a posh car soon after graduating, this has not been the case for Engwalas David. His life has been reduced to that of a pauper because he is not employed, courtesy of his disability. The man’s legs are twined, one on the other and he wears clipped shoes. His movement his aided by a pair of crutches that he says have enabled him move from a life of seclusion to public life.
Born in Ojalasi Village in Kumi district 35 years ago, his parents couldn’t find a better name for him other than Engwalas, an Ateso synonym for ‘lame man’ Little did he know that this reference to him would permanently remain a name with which he would be identified with stigma for the rest of his life.
Born to Mrs. Ityamat Theresa and Mr. Icakol Augustine in 1978, David never had any blemish on his body. However as years went by, he developed complications of fever that would leave him permanently lame.
“It started like fever and he was admitted at Kumi hospital. This was when he was three years old,” Mrs. Ityamat the mother of the disabled youth says. She adds that as years went by, they noticed that the boy’s legs had started becoming crooked and he could not crawl and later on walk.
“It was regarded a curse for one to have a lame child those days. However, I tried my best to take him to school hoping he would at least attain some knowledge and become at least a cobbler,” Augustine Icakol 65, said. He adds that he had to accommodate the derisions from the society and the badmouthing intended to hurt his determination to educate a disabled child.
“They would tell me I was wasting my time but I ignored their scorn because I had hopes my son would make it in the world of academics,” Icakol said.
David Engwalas went to Atuitui Primary School in Ongino Sub County between 1988 to 1994. He later joined Ngora High school for Ordinary Level Secondary education from 1995-1998. Soon after completing O’Level, he was not in position to continue with his studies owing to his poor family background.
“My parents, being peasants, were unable to afford A ‘Level fees at Ngora High School so I had to sit home for some time,” Engwalas recalls. However, after saving some money from the proceeds of his father’s fishing and agricultural activity; he later joined Mbale Progressive Secondary School between 2002 to 2003.
In 2005, having scored good grades, he was admitted to pursue a course in Secretarial Studies at Makerere University and he graduated in 2008. He then worked with Otipe Micro Investments, a secretarial bureau in Kumi town, soon after graduating with a bachelor in Secretarial studies.
“This business didn’t last. The owner relocated because he had not realized viable profits and this automatically rendered me jobless,” Engwalas says. He adds that from that time to date, he has never secured a paying job despite being qualified.
Stigmatized By Employers
David didn’t keep down his hunt for a job. He kept on dropping job applications to several organizations and offices to no avail.
“I applied for a job with institutions and companies like Kumi District local government, Kumi University, Nile Breweries and NEMA but I was never shortlisted. Most of them told me that I would never manage street life and more so move from storey to storey,” He said. He remembers a particular situation in which he was shortlisted by Kumi District Local Government but was not interviewed because a ‘technical person’ had not been got to interview him.
“There is a very negative attitude by employers that lame men like me can’t get any job done,” David said. He adds that many companies he approached think that he “can’t manage to live and work in town or a busy environment on crutches”
Although he expected support from employers, they instead offer to be sympathetic with him.
“My uncle in Juba once told me that he would have got me a job there had I not been lame,” the youth says. He told him that with the security situation in Juba, he wouldn’t be able to escape incase of any unrest.
“Many employers think that I don’t have the skills needed in the job market which is not true. They should know that just as a disabled person can be educated, he can equally be employed to do any job,” Engwalas said. David adds that employers should consider people with disability as people who can perform normally because disability is not inability.
Economic Hard-ups
Being the eldest of the five children in his family, he is in most looked upon as a savior because of his success in education.
“At the moment my mother is in hospital. She was bitten by a dog and she is suspected to be having rabies but I can’t afford her treatment,” He says. He adds that several of his brothers and sisters have dropped out of school because of financial reasons, a situation he could have salvaged if he had a job.
“All my parents are still alive but I can’t help them. I need a job to be able to earn something and intervene in my family’s situation,”
Due to frustration, the youth has sought refuge at the dilapidated Kumi Railway Station’s buildings though he vows he won’t stop praying and looking for a job.
“I can’t stay in the same compound and watch my parents suffer. I will stay here until I acquire a job,” He said.
Engwalas calls upon all employers out there to change their mindsets and offer him a job. He especially sends a special request to National Union for Disabled Persons in Uganda [NUDIPU] to come to his rescue and support him.
“Please tell them I have a bachelor of Secretarial Studies from Makerere University,” he said
He can be reached on mobile 0750619445 or 0783367416
Boda Boda Flogged For Impersonation
By Emmanuel Okwi
There was drama and rib-cracking at Wiggins Secondary School in Kumi on Tuesday when a man impersonating as an uncle to one of the students at the school was flogged. The man identified as Okurut Desderio 39, is a motorcycle driver attached to Kanyumu Road stage in Kumi Town. The rider had allegedly been promised a reward of Shs2000 incase he successfully represented the errant student as a relative before the school’s disciplinary committee.
The Student identified as Otwani Paul [S5] had allegedly spent his school fees and feared going back to his parents for the same yet he had already been given money for school dues.
“Since I feared going to my parents, a friend of mine told me that he would help me get someone to stand in as a guardian so that we could sort the issue out without my parents’ knowledge,” Paul Otwani said.
However, little did he know that the issue would backfire since the impressionist could not tell the disciplinary committee what the name of the boy he purported to be his nephew was. The parents of the boy were alerted and when they arrived, the impersonator was flogged terribly. He later on accepted to receive Christ when the pastor prayed for him.
“This young boy put me into trouble but I will not be tempted to do this again. From today onwards, I have accepted to get saved,” the tear drenched father of three said.
The Deputy Head teacher in charge discipline, Mrs Grace Ikanut said that since the man had accepted to receive Jesus Christ as his personal savior, it wouldn’t be good to hand him over to police.
“You are free to go now since you have admitted and repented of your wrongs,” Ikanut said
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