Can compensation bring permanent peace...

Can compensation bring permanent peace...

Joseph Ochieno

Last Sunday afternoon at St Mathews Church, Stratford in East London, was no ordinary afternoon. Ugandans and friends were celebrating the life of one of their young ones, Bruce Okello who had passed on but the cause of whose death on or around January 1, 2009, was yet, according to the Coroners, ‘not certain’. He was only 28.

In the words of his uncle Richard Onek, the young man briefly attended Kyaggwe Road Primary School in Kampala before being forced into exile in Britain with his parents. Many Ugandans have gone through that route.

Unlike his struggling colleagues in UPE schools at home, Bruce never had those academic problems. Instead, at both ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels his problems were which subjects not to take, he was apparently good at all of them. Now a graduate, he died too young.

But as the Rev. Modicum Okello said in his moving summon, God’s case seemingly has no appeal so the best his parents did to him was to show him ‘Jesus’.
Yes, all parents should introduce their children to God because in Uganda we really need God, all the time.

How else, would one explain the story of another fallen son of Uganda for whom there was another service in the same church, the previous day?
Dr John Ayeni, who was laid to rest in Aloi, Lira District earlier this week had passed on in Watford on January 8, 2009. Dr Ayeni was an exemplary leader, a friend and tested member of UPC. What is striking though, is how he had brushed with death before, but God still kept him alive for another 32 years.
That the Langi and Acholi communities bore the brunt of Idi Amin’s brutality is not in doubt.

For instance, on February 11, 1977 in Fort Portal, four Ugandan young professionals were out drinking. They were Provincial Education Officer Charles Ogwal Agea, a Langi, Town Clerk Lakayana Icika, a Langi, Personnel Manager of Kilembe Copper Mines, Samuel Olobo an Acholi and a famous young doctor in the government hospital, John Ayeni, a Langi. As John went for a short call, Amin’s State Research agents came and picked the other three. They have never been seen again.

Dr Ayeni escaped and ended up in DRC (then Zaire), where he set up a clinic which helped thousands of ordinary people. He later ended up in the UK. During the summons, the Rev. Okello reminded everyone that not only did Dr Ayeni leave an exemplary curriculum vitae but also, in God’s eyes, he had a file. The file included everything Dr Ayeni did in his professional capacity, in private and, of course God’s expectations of him in the most spiritual sense.

Pondering through this, I watched on television mid week, how in an attempt to help permanently resolve the conflicts in Northern Ireland, a report which recommends , amongst others, compensation for victims of the over 30-year conflict was received with protest from some families. That families of each victim should be paid £12,000 (approx. Shs32 million).

Not only were some suggesting that this was derisory, others argued that it was wrong that it be paid across the board – for all those who died, whether victims of bombs, bombers themselves , or those who were shot. In this way, it was like comparing the lives of ‘terrorists’ and victims to be alike.

The guns and bombs are silent in Northern Ireland. I was in the region recently and still heard stories of how the British troops treated ordinary Irish people, some not even suspects.

Now I wonder, for the wasted lives of Ugandans in the hands of the State and or ‘rebels, criminals, bandits or terrorists’, should we seek reconciliation or compensation, how much and from whom?

Mr Ochieno is UPC’s special presidential envoy to the UK &
Ireland. Jop3upc@yahoo.co.uk