Police in Kole District are holding 45 civil servants and local councillors over alleged mismanagement and diversion of funds meant for the government cattle restocking programme.
The suspects, including area councillors, parish chiefs and sub-county chiefs, were arrested in a joint operation on Monday, September 21, 2026.
Samuel Odongo, the Assistant Resident District Commissioner (RDC) for Kole, confirmed the arrests, saying the officials allegedly diverted Shs5 million each meant for vulnerable beneficiaries and instead paid the money to themselves, relatives and friends.
‘These are people who were entrusted to help the vulnerable benefit from the cattle restocking fund, but they instead shared the money amongst themselves. We have handed them over to police for thorough investigation,’ he said.
Mr Odongo said some of the suspects pleaded guilty and refunded the money, while others remained in custody pending repayment.
‘They were 47 in number but some refunded the money. There are about seven area councillors who were also involved and some GISOs are also among them,’ he said in a telephone interview on Monday.
The cattle restocking programme is a government initiative aimed at supporting households, particularly in Lango, Acholi and Teso, that lost livestock during past insurgencies to acquire cattle as compensation for the losses.
In the 2025/26 financial year, the government allocated more than Shs80 billion for the first phase of the programme. Beneficiaries were to be selected by parish chiefs and parish leaders, with the involvement of GISOs, sub-county chiefs and political leaders.
Under the programme guidelines, each parish was expected to select nine vulnerable households, with each household receiving Shs5 million.
Preliminary investigations indicate that some of the officials allegedly connived to select themselves, their relatives and friends as beneficiaries at the expense of vulnerable households.
North Kyoga Regional Police spokesperson confirmed receiving information about the arrests but said a formal report had not yet reached his desk.
‘I have not yet received a formal report but I heard in a meeting that some arrest in relation to restocking money was done today in Kole District,’ he said.
The arrests have been welcomed by residents who have complained about alleged corruption in the programme.
‘We applaud the RDC’s office. Let this be a lesson to others who think government money is theirs to eat,’ Richard Ongom, a resident of Lwala in Ayer Sub-county, said.
George Okwir, a resident of Alito Sub-county, called for the operation to be extended to other areas, alleging that some beneficiaries received less than the amount allocated to them.
‘I want the RDC to come here in Alito Sub-county, there are some elderly people who were given only Shs1 million after using their National IDs to process the money,’ he said.
Police investigations into the alleged diversion of the cattle restocking funds are ongoing.