The technical consultant for Karamoja Peace and Technology University, David Pulkol, has called on governments and heads of states in the Ateker region to create borderless communities along with the international borders of member countries if the Ateker people are to develop like the Masai.

He said this on November 27, 2024, while at the Soroti Sports grounds in Soroti City during the Ateker cultural reunion festival.

“We urge our governments to facilitate the creation of borderless communities along with the international borders of member countries and also in the tri-junction occupied by the Ateker communities through the harmonising of trade policies, irregulation, establishment of safe, orderly, and peaceful resource-sharing mechanisms, and integration of Ateker communities like it is now happening among the Masai of Kenya and the Masai of Tanzania, who do not raid each other. They embarked on cattle keeping as a commercial activity and are now keeping better breeds of livestock. They are fully integrated into the cash economy, and we want to follow the path of the Masai,” Pulkol said.

He called upon the governments to completely embark on disarmament of all the communities with illegal guns in the Ateker region as a foundation to a peaceful and prosperous future where the East African people and economies can thrive.

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Pulkol also asked the governments to construct water retention facilities to allow the Ateker people to settle in one place rather than continue living nomadic lives.

“Governments should look at the construction of major bulk water retention facilities or structures where potential sites exist for bulk water and where rivers converge to hold water along the Ateker access to settle most of these communities with lifetime water for human settlement, animals, and plant development, which is critical to enable the Ateker communities to transform from nomadism to commercially productive societies,” Pulkol said.

He asked the governments to invest in education facilities within Ateker communities that have lagged behind and offer compulsory free boarding education as a mechanism to stop children from being turned into warriors, hence becoming professionals and productive citizens in order to support a peaceful, prosperous future.

Pulkol asked governments to support the annual Ateker cultural festival through financing and the creation of regional coordinating secretariats in order to achieve socio-economic transformation.

“Governments in the region should support and finance the Ateker reunion as an annual event on a rotational basis. This cultural festival will promote and foster the unity, trade investment, and accelerated regional integration,” he said.

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Pulkol continued and said, “We propose the creation and provisional support for the Ateker regional coordinating secretariat with communities and country chapters, which will enable the Ateker people to participate in research, policy advocacy, coordination, and mobilisation among the different stakeholders in support of the government socio-economic transformation agenda. Such coordination will provide support to the Ateker parliamentary patrons to uplift the living conditions of the Ateker people.”

The 2024 edition of the Ateker reunion festival is being held in Uganda for the first time, under the theme, “Celebrating Shared Heritage; Forging a Path Towards Peace, Prosperity, and Cultural Renaissance.”