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Kwar Adhola calls for end to land fragmentation

Leader of the Luo delegation from Kenya hands HRH Kwar Adhola a message at the 20th coronation anniversary celebrations held in Tororo on Wednesday.  PHOTOS LOUIS JADWONG

Tororo, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | HRH Kwar Adhola Moses Stephen Owor has challenged the Jopadhola to end land fragmentation, which he says has made it difficult for large scale commercial agriculture to be undertaken in Padhola.

The cultural leader of the Jopadhola said the region will not benefit from the modern agricultural economy unless a culture in which land is divided continuously for children of the deceased stops. He blamed the high rate of population growth and land fragmentation for declining crop yields, and low house-hold income.

“The culture of dividing land into small plots to the children of the deceased has led to serious fragmentation of Land, which now on average stands at less than an acre per household. This makes it difficult for large scale commercial agriculture to be undertaken in Padhola,” Kwar Adhola,93, said on Wednesday.

Kwar Adhola Owor said this as tens of thousands of his subjects and friends from across the world gathered in Achilet, Tororo to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his coronation.

“With high rate of population growth, there is high pressure on land utilization which has led to soil exhaustion, poor crop-yields, and low house-hold income, ” he said, adding that, ” The overall result of all these is poverty increase among the people of Padhola.”

He said that while the Tieng Adhola Cultural Institution (TACI) has united the Jopadhola in Uganda and the diaspora, several challenges have persisted since his coronation in 1999. He listed other challenges as being poor standards of education especially outside the towns, unemployment and poor funding of the Tieng Adhola Cultural Institution activities.

CULTURE: Dance, song and oral tales were some of the highlights at the Kwar Adhola coronation anniversary celebrations in Tororo, Eastern Uganda on Wednesday.

Celebrating 20 years

The theme of the celebration was “Twenty years, a milestone of unity, peace, development and nation building” and attracted Jopadhola delegations from across the country and Kenya, cultural leaders and a team from the Luo elders council plus a group of governors and their deputies from Siaya and Kisumu in Kenya.

Ali Kirunda Kivejinja, the Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of East African Community Affairs, represented President Yoweri Museveni at the colourful ceremony attended also by cultural leaders from Buganda, Busoga, Lango, Acholi, Bugwere, Masaba and Bunyoro. (MORE ON PAGE 2)

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