By Admin
The parliament committee on legal and parliamentary affairs has started scrutinize moves to amend the Constitution to include the Malagori as a Ugandan indigenous community
Kibanda south MP Jack Odur, today justified to the parliamentary committee on legal parliamentary affairs, the proposal to amend the Constitution to include Malagori on the list of indigenous communities.
According to MP Odur, the Malagori’s from Kenya came to Uganda in 1903 as causal laborers in the construction of the Uganda Railway, hence they are recognized as a tribe.
The 1995 constitution of Uganda as amended recognizes 65 indigenous communities that were in Uganda by 1st February 1926. The Malagori community which is found in Bunyoro is one of the marginalized communities that have been seeking recognition for a long time.
Malagori people migrated from Kenya and entered Uganda in 1903 during the construction of Uganda Railway; it alleged that they were later officially invited by the Omukama of Bunyoro who settled them in his Kingdom.
By now they make a population of 30000 people, concentrated in districts of Masindi, Kiryandongo, and Kigumba among others.
Hon Odur told the committee that the group has been marginalized in terms of service delivery, to the extent that they were denied national Identify cards.
But committee members expressed concerns that recognition of this minority group could open a Pandora box of conflicts with neighboring communities and suggested social integration as the best alternative.
But Hon. Odur assured the committee that the community is positive with the demands of the Malagoris and emphasized that it’s their constitutional rights to be identified and recognized as an indigenous Uganda community which was in place by 1st February 1926.
The legal committee is set to visit the group on a fact finding mission to interact with the communities and dig out facts to justify or down play the necessity of the constitutional amendment.
The Indian community has also made a prayer to be recognized by as Ugandan indigenous tribes. The last amendment of schedule three of the Constitution saw the Burundi and Banyarwanda recognized as indigenous communities that f Uganda.
