UGANDA

THEMATIC ISSUES
as being a ‘divide and rule’ policy packaged in a promise of ‘decentralizing power and
services’. An elder in Arua commented;
“It is not decentralizing services. It is decentralizing poverty
and blame.”
In Tororo, it was also said that the policy did not lead to a decentralisation of power, but
that instead “conflict has been decentralized.” People become engaged in ethnic conflict
over who “owns” the district and who is to access district jobs. A youth who belonged
to the Bakonzo ethnic minority in Bundibugyo complained that
“As long as we are still in Bundibugyo, no Mukonzo will ever
become Local Council V Chairman.”
For this reason, many Bakonzo promote the creation of a new district in Bundibugyo –
as do other district minorities around the country – in the hope that they too may gain
access to employment at the district.
People are thus caught in a paradox: on the one hand, they can see the negative impacts
of the policy of decentralisation, but on the other, wherever they find themselves the
ethnic minority in any particular district, they favour the creation of new districts. This
contradiction was perhaps heard most clearly in Tororo, where it was argued that now
that the decentralisation policy was going on anyway, people might as well try to benefit
on an individual, clan and ethnic level, even though this would not benefit the country as
a whole. It was argued that decentralisation as a ‘divide and rule’ policy has been highly
effective. A participant in Tororo explained
“We have killed the nationalism in Uganda through
decentralisation. … Uganda, there is no way you can call it
a country now.”
IDENTITY, OWNERSHIP AND BELONGING IN CONFLICT
The concerns with the decentralisation policy tie in with the conflicted and complex
relationship between identity, ownership and belonging that surfaced in discussions
around the country. A closer look at the complexity of this relationship reveals that
sentiments of ownership and belonging generally tie in much more closely with ethnic
identity than with notions of citizenship and nationality. The district was considered the
most common ‘battle ground’ where conflict over identity, ownership and belonging is
waged.
Politicized ethnic identity appeared a popular tool to claim belonging in - and ownership
of - a particular district, to the detriment of people with different identities and different
links to ownership and belonging. Inclusion and exclusion in different areas of public life
in relation to ownership and belonging appeared closely linked to (ethnic) identity. This
type of conflict over identity, ownership and belonging at the district level appeared
most prominently in Kasese and Bundibugyo, both of which are districts within the
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