UGANDA

COMPENDIUM OF CONFLICTS IN UGANDA
participants in Tororo stated that poverty is the main reason why conflicts over land
escalate.
In Arua, one participant said;
“Because of poverty, people are selling land that belongs to
other families, especially where there are no elders. This is
causing a lot of conflict within the community.”
Poverty was considered to have a number of other effects that undermine peace in
society. One particularly abhorrent practice mentioned across the country was ritual
child sacrifice, promoted by witchdoctors as the fastest way to riches. Further direct
effects of poverty mentioned across the country included alcohol and drug abuse,
domestic violence, prostitution, defilement, HIV/AIDS, looting, theft and other
types of criminality. In Nakasongola, poverty was seen as the cause of conflict
between the youth and elders. The former hold the latter responsible for their
poverty, as they supported the coming to power of the current regime.
Participants also described a conflict between the rich and the poor, qualified
by some as conflict between classes. Across the country, concerns were
expressed that the gap between the rich and poor has been widening over
the last decades, and tension and resentment has been growing. Throughout
the country, it was said that poverty often goes hand in hand with a lack
of access to education, health services and formal justice systems, and
that these factors, whether singly or in combination, result in even fewer
opportunities for upward mobility, as people are kept in ignorance and a state
of disempowerment, and are thus vulnerable to manipulation.
In Kitgum, it was said poor people are easy to manipulate before and during
elections. Their votes are bought with simple items like soap. The education
system was regarded not as a tool for emancipation, but as instrumental
in widening the gap between rich and poor. In Tororo, it was argued that
the education system is used deliberately to perpetuate a class structure
in society. Children of poor families go to schools of poor quality, while
children of the rich access quality education and continue to university on
Government scholarships.
A participant commented;
“In Uganda now, the gap between the rich and the poor is
going to be very wide. Give it just two years from now. The
rich man will remain rich for life, the poor man will remain
poor for life. That is where Uganda is headed to. It is a very
big time bomb. That thing in history brought a lot of wars.”
The section on land conflicts above elaborates further on conflict between
rich and poor.
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