The Karamoja Peace and Technology University [KAPATU] Project has been incorporated into Uganda’s 10-Year Karamoja Regional Development Master Plan (KRDP) by the Uganda National Planning Authority (NPA). National Planning Authority [NPA] is the Government of Uganda parastatal in charge of national planning and development. This has placed the KAPATU Project at the centre of the Uganda Government’s transformative agenda for the Karamoja Region.
This decision was delivered to the Rt. Rev. Dominic Eibu MCCJ, Bishop of Kotido Catholic Diocese and University President by the Chairperson National Planning Authority Prof. Dr. Pamela Mbabazi PhD.
The National Planning Authority [NPA] Executive Director Dr. Joseph Muvawala signed the letter dated 6 August 2024, containing the decision.
“The Karamoja Peace and Technology University has already been incorporated into the development plan. Specifically, it falls under Intervention 7.4 and Action 7.4.4. This inclusion underscores our commitment to advancing education and technology in the Karamoja Sub Region as part of our broader development strategy,” the letter reads in part.
The incorporation of the KAPATU Project in the 10-Year KRDP has not only boosted the efforts of establishing the first University in the Sub-Region in 194 years but has officially positioned the project into Uganda’s National Transformative Agenda.
As a result, Ministers and Members of Parliament from the Karamoja Parliamentary Group [KPG] serving in Uganda’s Cabinet and the 11th Parliament have as a result become members of the KAPATU’s Strategic Leadership Committee, which is the supreme organ responsible for operationalizing the university. H.E.Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the President of the Republic of Uganda as the founding Chancellor chairs this strategic Leadership Committee. H.E. Jessica Rose Epel Alupo, the Vice President of the Republic of Uganda as the Founding Deputy Chancellor and the University Chief Promoter, deputizes him.
The university is set to offer the President’s affirmative action scholarships to students from all Nine Districts of Karamoja Region under the Presidential Education for Peace Scholarship Program for Karamoja and Ateker (PEPSKA).
PEPSKA is underpinned by the Philosophy of getting all persons of school-going age, the street and displaced children, child mothers, the Karachunas, former warriors and warriors in the Greater Ateker Region to go to school. It seeks to leave no one behind.
Having fully complied with all the requirements of the law, the KAPATU Project was granted a letter of interim authority by the National Council of Higher Education (NCHE). The KAPATU Project has begun operationalizing the university. Its main campus is in Jie County in Kotido Municipality at Christ the King Catholic Parish, Losilang, Kotido District, Karamoja Sub-Region, North Eastern Uganda, East Africa.
The KAPATU Project is the first fully-fledged public University in the Karamoja sub-region. It is a joint venture of the Roman Catholic Church represented by the Kotido Catholic Diocese, The Catholic Lawyers Society International and the Government of the Republic of Uganda.