WEST NILE! Locals Asked To Support Widows, Orphans 

ARUA. Locals in the West Nile sub-region have been urged to support widows and orphans who are facing challenges over property inheritance.

The appeal was made by Denis Komakech Atine, the Programs Manager of Redeem International, Arua Field Office, following numerous reports of hardship widows are going through in the hands of their deceased husbands’ relatives when it comes to property inheritance.

Speaking during the restoration of Ketura Wadiko, 48, a widow in Kua Cell, Ayivu West Division in Arua City on Wednesday March 12, 2025, Komakech said instead of mistreating widows and orphans, people should support them to have full control of their late husbands’ estates.

Wadiko, a mother of one, was forced out of her marital home by her step-children shortly after the death of her husband in 2022.

Wadiko’s household property, land and trees left behind by her husband with whom they had lived for 22 years were grabbed by the step-children before kicking her out of the family in 2023.

Wadiko reported the matter to elders and later to police but after realizing no help, she was then referred to Redeem International by a friend.

According to Komakech, they took up Wadiko’s case last year and followed it up until her tormentors were arrested and put in jail.

“Along the way, they decided to change their plea and they pleaded guilty and asked that we should be able to compromise the situation so that they can get back together. And willingly, they offered to return her land which they had actually taken away from her. All along, she has not been staying home here,” Komakech said.

“This is the function that we are planning to do a restoration for her to come back. With the stakeholders that we have been working with, we managed to have her secure the land back. This is one among the many cases that we are helping and a function like this, is a sort of celebration to mark a milestone in her life, mark a milestone in the community so that communities are able to understand what went wrong and how can they do better in the long run,” Komakech explained.

He further appealed to the public to protect such widows in terms of property management when the head of the family dies.

“The law protects each and every one, it doesn’t segregate whether a man or a woman, old, young, boy, girl, but it protects without boundaries. So, that kind of protection is what we should be able to offer the women especially widows and orphans. Helping a woman is like helping a nation because the children will be able to grow, they are able to go to school, live healthy and they are able to support the country at a later stage. So, we should be able to support women in such scenarios because they breathe life,” Komakech remarked.

Stephen Anguyo, the area Community Development Officer, encouraged the locals to send their children to school so that they will be able to document their land in future.

“As we talk now, we are not doing well when it comes to family relations. Many of our girls marry early and they can’t sustain the marriage. At the end of the day, they get back to their parents with the children which of course will increase the number of the population in that family which automatically promotes a vicious circle of poverty,” Anguyo stated.

ASP Giluer Turyahabwe, the Officer in charge of Lia Customs who represented the Ayivu Division DPC, warned against mistreatment of widows, saying the widows are mandated by law to inherit the property of their deceased husbands.

He stressed that police will not hesitate to arrest family members who mistreat widows and orphans over the property left by their deceased family heads.

While presiding over the function, Godfrey Mbigiti Jonah, the Deputy RCC in charge of Ayivu Division, commended Redeem International for partnering with the government to fight domestic violence.

“Like for this case of Mama Ketura, it is one of the signs that would destabilize this area especially the family where she comes from. When a woman leaves her parents and comes to us, she has crossed, she has become part of us. So, let us support them even after the death of their husbands, let us stop chasing them away because they are now part of us,” Mbigiti advised.

William Madira, a resident of Kua Cell welcomed Wadiko back home, and equally thanked Redeem International for sensitizing his clansmen on the need to stay in harmony with widows and orphans.

Madira said most of the people in the area mistreat widows out of ignorance, adding that time has now come for them to know that the law can catch up with anybody who abuses the rights of widows and orphans.

In her remarks, Wadiko expressed gratitude to Redeem International for helping her regain access to her late husband’s property.

She attributed her restoration to God, who paved for her the way through Redeem International to come back home.

Redeem International officials later donated a mattress, flask, source pans and other household items to help Wadiko to start a new life.

In December last year, Redeem International also resettled Anna Ezaru, 63, a widow in Nyai-Kasua cell, Pokea Parish, Ayivu Division in Arua city.

This is after the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) took over the case in which Ezaru dragged her son, Bernard Anduma to police for selling her only remaining piece of land.

Anduma was later arrested and jailed for six months in Arua government prison after pleading guilty to the offense of selling his mother’s land without her consent.

While in court, Anduma pleaded guilty before the magistrate and asked for forgiveness from his mother, a reason the court gave him a lighter sentence of six months imprisonment for not wasting court’s time.

The land in question was then reverted to Ezaru who was fully resettled by Redeem International during a colorful function also attended by the locals in the village.