Napak District Struggles To Deliver Services To Its People Twelve Years After Its Inception

27 August 2023, 4:01 pm

By Joshua Imalingat

Napak district is struggling to deliver services to its people twelve years after it was curved out of the greater Moroto district.

The district became independent on 1^st July 2010. It currently has a population of 168,000 people spread across the 14 local administrative units covering 4,978 square kilometers.

Despite registering a rise in the level of urbanization and growth that are evident as one moves along its major routes and near the key institutions, the district is still grappling with a number of challenges that have retarded growth and made it difficult to deliver services to the local populace.

Paul Kodet the LCV chairperson Napak district told our reporters at his office a few days ago that insecurity, poverty, alcoholism, illiteracy and the boarder question are responsible for the retarded growth in the region.

He explained that out of the 59 parishes in the district only 22 parishes have government schools leaving the balance of 37 parishes without schools. To address the problem, the district is now advocating for compulsory free boarding education and have since sent a total of 21 community schools to the ministry for coding.

On the boarder question Kodet explained that the district borders 7 other districts that all claim a portion of the district land affecting service delivery especially for the people at the disputed borders. He says the problem is exacerbated by the fact that out of the 4,978 square kilometers of the district land, about 68 square kilometers is under forest reserves, while 2,068 is under UWA manning the two games reserves Bokora-Matheniko game reserve and Pian-Upe game reserve leaving the population struggling for the remaining portion of land.

Available information also indicates that only nine out of the 14 lower local administrative units have health facilities.

Lochap Alfred Lowot the deputy CAO Napak told our reporters that despite the said challenges, the district has been able to recruit all heads of department, put in place infrastructure and it has been ranked among the best performing in the region.