President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has endorsed a new, uniform cattle restocking plan for the Teso sub-region, calling it realistic, inclusive, and a major step toward healing and economic recovery.
The President made the announcement on September 17, 2025, at State House Entebbe while receiving a comprehensive consultation report presented by a committee led by Vice President Jessica Alupo. The team comprised Members of Parliament, cultural leaders, and religious figures who held extensive consultations across Teso amid concerns over corruption and inefficiency in the cattle compensation program.
“I’m very happy with the substance of the report because it’s more realistic, all-inclusive, and transformative,” President Museveni said. “The other format was wasting a lot of resources and excluding many people. We shall discuss this report in Cabinet and also listen to what the people of Lango and Acholi are saying.”
The report reaffirmed the President’s proposal for a uniform restocking plan of five cows per household. According to the 2024 census, Teso’s 12 districts have about 489,000 households. Usuk County MP Hon. Okiror Bosco, who presented the findings, said the consultations also proposed cash equivalents for households to buy their own cattle, with prices ranging between UGX 1.5 million and UGX 2 million per cow.
President Museveni supported the proposal and acknowledged challenges with polygamous households. “For me, I would be comfortable with each male-headed unit, whether polygamous or not, first getting their share. Once the cows multiply, those families will be agents of change, and the cows can then be shared. The question is affordability—five cows per family in installments, and then we can look at the extended families,” he said.
He clarified that Butebo and Pallisa districts, which petitioned to join the program, would be handled separately.
During the meeting, Museveni also addressed growing tension over Balaalo herders in Teso. “They should go. I solved this problem long ago. They have no good reason to stay in those areas illegally. If they were to move legally, it would be easy after acquiring the necessary procedures and ensuring the safety of their animals and the community,” he said.
Vice President Alupo commended the consultation process, praising cultural leaders for their input. “All the people of Teso unanimously supported the restocking program for every household in the region. Everybody was thanking you for appreciating that all people deserve to be empowered with a uniform formula,” she said.
Cultural leaders Emorimor Paul Sande Emolot and Papa Kumam Raphael Otaya thanked Museveni for involving traditional institutions in shaping national development programs and pledged continued support for government initiatives aimed at economic transformation.
The meeting was also attended by Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, religious leaders, and political representatives from the region.
The cattle compensation program, launched in March 2022 with a budget of UGX 200 billion, seeks to compensate residents of Acholi, Lango, and Teso who lost livestock and property during past insurgencies and cattle raids. Museveni reiterated that the initiative is an exceptional measure to promote peace, reconciliation, and recovery in war-affected areas, not a routine government program.
