Karamoja’s Unfinished Promise: Neglect, Bureaucracy and the Cost of Delay

In 1963, shortly after visiting Karamoja, Prime Minister Milton Obote is widely quoted as having remarked: “We shall not wait for Karamoja to develop.” Whether apocryphal or not, the sentiment has lingered for six decades, not always in words, but often in attitude.

Today, Karamoja remains one of Uganda’s most paradoxical regions: rich in (natural) endowment (especially mineral wealth, rich soils, etc.), culture and human potential, yet endemically stuck at the bottom of all major national development indicators. With a population estimated at 1.5 million by the UBOS last census, it still struggles with limited access to quality education, healthcare, modern agriculture, and infrastructure. Over six decades since independence, Karamaja remains, to many Ugandans, less a part of this nation, having failed to integrate fully both in the national conscience and planning. For many Ugandans, Karamoja appears less like a fully integrated region of the Republic and more like a neglected frontier.

The question that refuses to go away is this: Is Karamoja’s stagnation a result of chronic national neglect, or of individual attitudes that quietly resist its transformation?

Transformation Requires Alignment

History shows that regional transformation, particularly in Africa, is neither accidental nor instantaneous. It requires political will at the highest levels, policy coherence across institutions, and regulatory frameworks that enable rather than obstruct investment.

When the Executive, Cabinet, Legislature, and regulatory bodies align around a shared development vision, the private sector, the fifth and indispensable actor, follows. Where they do not, progress stalls.

Karamoja’s story reflects both effort and frustration. Successive governments have launched multi-million-dollar initiatives to improve security, livelihoods, and infrastructure. President Museveni’s administration has invested heavily in disarmament, roads, schools, and social protection programmes. Yet the region’s gains have often been diluted by mismanagement, corruption, and bureaucratic inertia.

Good intentions have too frequently collided with weak implementation.

Education as the Long-Term Equaliser

In 2014, the Catholic Lawyers Society International (CLASI) conducted research in Karamoja to assess its structural challenges and long-term prospects. One conclusion stood out: sustainable transformation must be anchored in education.

From that research emerged the vision of the Karamoja Peace and Technology University (KAPATU), an institution intended to address not only academic gaps but also the region’s unique socio-economic realities. The initiative brought together CLASI, the Kotido Catholic Diocese, and the Government of Uganda in a rare multi-stakeholder partnership.

In April 2023, the project was formally unveiled at a ceremony presided over by President Museveni, represented by Vice President Jessica Alupo. Three months later, the foundation stone was laid at Losilang in Kotido Municipality. In 2024, the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) granted a Letter of Interim Authority, allowing promoters to recruit staff, establish administrative structures and mobilise resources ahead of full licensing.

By December 2025, NCHE officials visited Losilang to assess the university’s application for a Provisional Licence to admit students.

The symbolism of those milestones cannot be understated. For a region long associated with conflict and marginalisation, the establishment of a university is not merely an educational project; it is a statement of inclusion and a cornerstone to real empowerment and equalisation.

The Bureaucracy Question

Funding and political goodwill have not been the primary challenge. Support has come from across government and faith-based institutions. Yet progress has been slowed by procedural caution within sections of the bureaucracy, particularly in regulatory and legal approval processes.

To be clear, regulatory compliance matters. Institutions of higher learning must meet established standards. But there is a delicate balance between due diligence and excessive rigidity.

Karamoja’s circumstances are not identical to those of Kampala or Mbarara. Regions that have endured decades of insecurity and underinvestment require responsive, context-sensitive decision-making. When procedure becomes detached from purpose, it risks undermining the very transformation it seeks to safeguard.

During a visit to the proposed main campus at Losilang in December 2025, the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) team had the opportunity to see firsthand the context in which this university is being established. For many members of the delegation, it was their first time in Karamoja — and in Kotido in particular. Physical presence, more than briefing papers or compliance files, has a way of sharpening perspective.

The visit underscored the urgency and relevance of establishing the institution, not as an abstract policy proposal, but as a lived necessity. It also highlighted the broader ecosystem that supports the project, including the extended network of facilities across the region that form part of its enabling infrastructure, though these were not fully toured during the visit.

Sometimes, it is only by standing on the ground, seeing the distance, the terrain, the unmet demand, that the developmental case becomes unmistakable.

The writer is the President of Catholic Lawyers Society International (CLASI) and Chair of KAPATU Council.

ABOUT KAPATU

KAPATU is a Nucleus National Public University established jointly by the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Kotido and Moroto, the Catholic Lawyers Society International (CLASI), headed by its president, Counsel Severino Twinobusingye, and the government of Uganda. Its main campus is situated at Losilang, Kotido municipality (Karamoja). The initiative aims to foster peace and sustainable development in the region through education.

It was conceived in 2014 but actualised on 29^th April, 2023, in a colourful ceremony at Nsambya presided over by the Vice President of Uganda, H.E. Maj. Jessica Rose Epel Alupo, who represented H.E. the President. The KAPATU project is being overseen by a Strategic Leadership Committee comprising President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (Chair/Founding Chancellor), Vice President Jessica Rose Epel Alupo (Founding Deputy Chancellor), and First Lady, also Minister for Education and Sports, Maama Janet Kataha Museveni.

The government has, in the FY2025/26, allocated Shs180bn for the university’s establishment following a special cabinet sitting on 16^th December 2024, chaired by H.E. the President and also attended by H.E. the Vice President.