I have just read the manifestos of National Unity Platform (NUP) and Joseph Kabuleta’s Reclaiming Our Country and Kin (ROCK) and as a Karimojong and a Veterinarian, I am doubly slighted.
It had to do with cattle.
Both manifestos talk about agriculture but mention nothing at all on livestock. Not. Even. Once.
1/3 of all livestock in Uganda are in Karamoja. That livestock does not feature anywhere in the plans means that we have effectively been erased.
Someone close to NUP and ROCK should tell them that I am willing to help them come up with a plan for the livestock sector in Uganda. I have a ready draft. I can even research it for them. Otherwise as it stands, their manifestos are, quite honestly, embarrassing and painfully exclusive to the entire cattle corridor, and to the veterinarians who uphold and refine the sector.
As veterinarians we work to improve the health and welfare of animals so that their productivity can be increased. This we do at all levels; at the level of the individual animal, at herd level, at regional level and then finally at national level and beyond. The contribution of veterinarians is so immense that it is bewildering that it even has to be explained.
From the farmer getting treatment and caesarian section for his sole Friesian cow when it is having difficult birth, to the old lady in the village whose goats are treated so that they remain healthy and alive before she can sell them to get school fees for her grandchildren; to the Karimojong herdsman obtaining mass treatments and vaccination for his herd without which it could be wiped out in its entirety, there simply is no other way these services can be brokered without veterinarians. Western Uganda is the biggest source of milk in Uganda and that industry stands on the support of veterinarians.
Food safety, livestock disease control, farmer extension services, pharmaceuticals, clinics and surgery, public health, tick and tsetse fly control, research, livestock breeding and genetics, zoonotic diseases (Marburg, Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, Brucellosis, Zika virus, COVID-19, the list is endless). People are joking. The day veterinarians lay down their tools, it will be a national disaster.
I have a very unpopular opinion as to why the livestock sector and effectively veterinarians and the Karimojong were not represented but I will not talk about it today. In fact, I am not even disappointed in NUP or in Joseph Kabuleta. It is the concerned parties that I am disappointed in. This, also, I will not talk about today. Or ever. I prefer to do something about problems instead of just talking about them. I will only tell of what I have learned from this.
I have learned that regardless of how well-intentioned any person might be towards another, it is imperative that us individuals, groups and societies, still work to look out for our own interests. We should always strive to be represented in the spaces that matter. We should not wait for invitations first.
Secondly, we should stop playing small and understand that our contribution is not light whoever we are, wherever we are. How many young veterinarians may have disqualified themselves from engagement in politics thinking they were too young or not qualified? I understand that being part of movements like people power may be costly but now see how this manifesto basically erases us.
So, I am still reading Museveni’s manifesto and it is a large one but I did see cattle and milk somewhere which is not surprising seeing he keeps them in his backyard. Also, it sounds like another policy document, the kind that normally comes to my desk but that I never really read; but I will work hard to finish reading it.
Anyway, one of these days, I will be proposing why Karamoja needs its own manifesto because a generalized national one just might not work for us.
In the meantime, you can download the manifesto of NUP (47pages) here, Joseph Kabuleta’s ROCK (27 pages) here, and Museveni’s (294 pages) (sigh) from here
Yours truly,
Anna Grace
