President Museveni has once more issued another Executive Order to evict migrant cattle keepers, or the Balaalo, from Northern Uganda.
This Executive Order No.2 of 2025 now makes four in a series of flip-flops on evict, stop, evict, and stop the Balaalo. First eviction order was in 2017, then in 2021, 2023, and now in 2025.
But this new eviction order has sparked a vicious fightback with barrage of criticisms, court suits, as well as distortions and outright lies from pro-Balaalo defenders. Chief among them is veteran journalist Andrew Mwenda.
Mwenda says the order to evict the Balaalo is a mere vote-winning hoax by President Museveni to secure the West Nile, Northern, and North-eastern Uganda ahead of the 2026 General Election.
In short, Mwenda vows the order will not hold because “… we [Balaalo] will return there [Acholi land] with our cows.”
False wealth creators
In defence of the Balaalo invasion, Mwenda and his breed advance the twisted claim that the Balaalo are prized investors and wealth creators in Acholi. The falsehoods here are that the Balaalo have done a favour to the Acholi to graze on and use their vast, open, idle but fertile land, earn more revenue for Acholi districts, and feed the Acholi on milk.
This logic is bogus because the Balaalo cart off and sell most of their milk to Elegu on the Uganda-South Sudan border, and haul off their fattened cows to city abattoirs in Kampala.
These untruths must be corrected and the record set right. Just as Acholi leaders laid it on Radio Rupiny 95.7 FM, before the NRA toted guns over Acholi, Greater Kitgum District alone stocked no less than 270,000 head of cattle. But these were raided by the NRA and the Karimojong and reduced to fewer than 3,000.
Also, the peddlers of the Balaalo alternative truths should be educated that what senior presidential assistant Moses Byrahunga once described on Capital Gang, 91.3 FM talk show, as Acholi’s vast uncultivated land with abundant fresh water streams, and green nutritious pastures, were previously well-cultivated and grazed.
This was why Owiny-Dollo once nudged President Museveni that the most profitable cash source in Acholi was livestock, which did not come with the Balaalo invasion. So, it is misguided to claim that the “progress” now seen in Acholi is because of the Balaalo invasion and occupation.
Touching old wounds
As someone grieved, “The anger that builds up when one looks at the long-horn cows [now] grazing the same land our short-horn cattle used to [is] an insult beyond comprehension … Any government with a soul or heart … should have given the Acholi space to recover from the [20] years of violence, especially from the IDP camp life.”
Sadly, these outcries become even more painful when Acholi war debts are not paid, and their property that were carted away, and cattle looted by the NRA are not compensated neither restocked for 20 years now, and more cattle raids and killings by the Karimojong and South Sudanese remain unsolved.
The swings around by President Museveni had also embarrassed NRM devotees in Acholi who have pushed the line that Mr Museveni listens and can be trusted to act in the best interest of the Acholi. This group had ignored warnings that their mismatched marriage with the NRM would end in tears.
Such a dilemma once forced psychics like Owiny-Dollo to signal the President. “If you say the Balaalo are bringing development to Acholi; then you should accept you’ve no interest to [re]develop Acholi. If you pursue this, all would accept the claims of a ‘hidden agenda.’ I will not defend [you or the government against] such claims. Your Generals and ministers are now the ones digging deeper the holes to sink the Acholi lower and lower into despair.”
Owiny-Dollo was also categorical on Radio Rupiny 95.7FM, “I cited that Gen Saleh [Pen-Mogi] report incriminates his Generals and ministers who should tell him [Museveni] the plight of Acholi but are the ones making worse the situation and are the ones failing him.”
This was amplified by Kilak North MP Anthony Akol. He cited 18 NRM Cabinet ministers, 30 MPs, and 50 top UPDF commanders as mired in the Balaalo-linked land grab in Acholi.
Given these troubling fears of the Balaalo occupation, President Museveni, Gen Saleh and hatchet men should have listened to the sober voices speaking truth to them. The Acholi, like other communities, should be left to choose what they want and don’t want, and no one should use blackmail to force the Balaalo integration in Acholi and wider Northern Uganda.
Could President Museveni have belatedly realised these stark-naked facts only in 2025?
Mr Museveni now confesses the herdsmen are armed, arrogant, and are backed by powerful relatives in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).
Settler colonialism
Undeniably, the Prof Jack Pen-Mogi report on the Balaalo, dated September 2023, alaalo, which Gen Saleh ordered, backs the claims of Balaalo settler colonialism in Acholi, Obongi, and wider northern Uganda.
The Pen-Mogi report says these Balaalo have acquired land through intimidation, manipulation and are violent against the locals. They have also destroyed swamps and gardens, and graze their cattle on people’s crops.
The report says the local councils (LCs), the police CIDs, and internal security personnel (DISOs) suppress these complaints because they are scared of the Balaalo who roam around with guns, and wear army uniforms. They also fear to offend the Generals and ministers who bankroll and work behind the Balaalo herdsmen.
The report says some of the locals, with guns held to their heads, have been forced to sell off their land cheaply and abandon their land. Even worse, it says, some Balaalo are imposing an apartheid system in Acholi and have set up their own restricted churches, drinking joints, and shops, and also forcefully castrate local bulls that stray into their kraals.
Surely, these disruptive wanderers are not the sort to inspire coexistence as Mwenda demands, just like Gen Museveni, and Gen Saleh would and had insisted. Unacceptably, the cries from the locals have been met with crafty ministerial and presidential orders, which are planned to be ignored or reversed at will.
Instead, both President Museveni and Gen Saleh had pushed the Balaalo to carve out and fence off land from such broken and wretched people. Little wonder that their broken promises had revived the deep mistrust that Mr Museveni and his NRA Generals have never meant well for northern Uganda, especially the Acholi sub-region.
Could President Museveni’s Executive Order No.2 of 2025, be his Damascus moment? Has the light been shone on the falsehoods that the Balaalo have done a favour to Acholi to graze on and trample their crops, use the so-called vast, open, idle but fertile land, earn more revenue for Acholi districts, and feed the Acholi on milk?
As the adage goes, time is the fairest and toughest judge.
We look to 2026 and beyond to return to the Balaalo question when the votes have been cast, counted, and another term safe and secure.
