What Rose Akori’s six goats actually represent

Last week, the President of Uganda His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was in Lango Sub-region, continuing his nationwide assessment tours of the performance of the Parish Development Model. Among his stops, he visited Mzeei Okori and his wife Madrose Akai aka Rose, in Atakai Debe Ward 1 in Kole District. It was at their farm that his picture was taken, featuring Mrs Okori, her goats, the president and other officials. This photo caused upheaval from many social media enthusiasts, who judged the picture rather than its representation, due to a lack of context that this article will endeavour to address.

Mrs Rose Okori is a PDM beneficiary, registered under the piggery rearing enterprise. She is a member of the Cai Ponya Enterprise Group and belongs to Atakai Debe 1 PDM SACCO. In July 2023, she received her PRF loan of 1million shillings, having gone through all the required registration and vetting procedures. With her husband, they invested the money into piggery, buying 4 pigs; 3 sows and a boar. They lost one of the sows, and the remaining three pigs hit maturity. For security, they also bought two nanny goats, which later produced 4 kids each.

They used to hire out the boar to mate with the neighbourhood sows in exchange for a piglet for every litter it sired. It mated 8 times and the family received 8 piglets. The two sows each had one birth, with 8 and 9 piglets respectively. This gave them 25 piglets, and a total of 28 pigs. In the market in Kole district, piglets usually fetch around 80,000/= to 100,000/= each, while adult pigs sell for around 400,000 to 500,000/=. Rose sold the two mature sows and 22 of the piglets, earning in excess of 2.9 million shillings. From this money, Rose picked 800,000/= and bought a young bull which she uses for ploughing. She plans tohire it out later for mating and finally sell it for beef.

As of today, in just about 18 months, they have been able to reap the benefits, expanding their enterprises from just the piggery to goat rearing as well as cattle keeping. They have 3 pigs, 10 goats and a bull, have been able to significantly take care of their home and to clear school necessities for their children.

The other context online users were lacking is that the six goats they saw represented someone who had nothing 18 months ago. Mr and Mrs Okori were producing only for the stomach and their children were without most necessities for both school and home. Thanks to PDM, they have already done business, acquired livestock, diversified their agriculture and generally improved their livelihood.

The six goats represent many other Ugandan households like that of Mr and Mrs Okori, who appreciated and heeded government’s initiative of wealth creation and are taking the baby steps to make their lives better. They include Nakamya Esther, a PWD in Luweero District who is improving her house after using PRF for two years, Kenneth Ayesigwa of the famous Parish Development Model restaurant in Kanungu or Lokure Agnes in Nakapiripirit who is using the PRF to show that bananas can also flourish in Karamoja, and 2.2 million others who have received the PRF.

So no, the president didnt use a big budget to travel to Lango to visit the six goats. He went to see how the 128,068 beneficiaries in the region who had received PRF so far had used the money. Rose Akori and Vicky Apio are just some of them. On top of that, he held meetings with local leaders, media, launched an industrial hub and interacted with Ugandans.

Coming from having nothing, to selling 24 pigs, buying a bull and starting a goat farm in 18 months is a great story of transformation. That is the PDM story every Ugandan should focus on and embrace.