Tororo, Uganda | LOUIS JADWONG | Jopadhola in Tororo today celebrate the 25th Coronation anniversary of their cultural leader, the Kwar Adhola HRH Moses Stephen Owor.
According to the Tieng Adhola Cultural Institution (TACI), the climax of the celebrations will be held at Achilet grounds. President Yoweri Museveni is expected to officiate at the function.
Kwar Adhola kicked off the celebrations with a ‘Royal Tour’ of West Budama and Tororo Municipality in May and June, before hosting a dinner Tuesday night for delegations including King of Alur HE Philip Oliver Rauni the 3rd , Acholi’s Rwoth Achana, King of Bamba, and Keri Luo of the Luo elders council from Kenya.
Moses Owor, 98 in his Royal Tour reiterated commitment to unity in the historial Bukedi district.
“Before the inception of Tieng Adhola, the people of Padhola were breeding and feeding on divisionism, mutual mistrust, suspicion and lack of confidence and patriotism for Padhola and their country, Uganda,” Kwar Adhola said.
“The people of Padhola are therefore, committed to co-exist peacefully with other ethnicities and to reciprocate every gesture of respect and fraternity.”
At celebations of the 20th anniversary in 2019, President Museveni had also stressed that the restoration of the monarchies by the NRM government was “one of the biggest achievements of our time and a sign of good governance.”
“With the revival of our cultural roots, Uganda is proud of her heritage. Our kingdoms are much older than the political unit – Uganda; their role in the history of Uganda is, therefore, of great importance,” Museveni concluded.
Kwar Adhola had responded that, “Tieng Adhola is also committed to work hand in hand with government in a symbiotic relationship with the view of achieving positive transformation and development in Uganda. We are, therefore, partners in development and not rivals.”
Who is Kwar Adhola Moses Stephen Owor?
Moses Stephen Owor was born to the late Mzee Wilbrod Othieno and Norah Nyanganda, a daughter of Chief Majanga, at Nagongera in February, 1926.
He started his early schooling at Nagongera Primary School, from where he proceeded to St. Peter’s College Tororo for his early secondary schooling, before joining Namilyango College for further studies.
He joined the Civil service in 1950 and rose through the ranks to become Permanent Secretary in the then Ministry of Labour where he played a key role sowing the seeds for the formation of NSSF, and retired from Government Service in 1977.
Upon retirement, he served the Federation of Uganda Employers as Executive Director, up to 1979, from where he joined the International Labour Organization based in Nairobi, Kenya as Chief Technical Advisor from 1980 to 1983.
He was among others, Chairperson of the Boards of Kilembe Mines Ltd and Produce Marketing Board and served on various other committees of government such as that one which made in 1987 recommendations to rationalize the public service of Uganda.
In other spheres, he was the first African Head of the Laity of Christ the King Parish in the seventies, was Charter President of Tororo Rotary Club, Member of board of Governors of St. Anthony Hospital, Tororo, the Benedictine Eye Hospital, also in Tororo and St. Peter’s College, Tororo. He has several children, serving the society in various public and private capacities.
Kwar Adhola Moses Owor is currently the chairman of the Council of Traditional Leaders in Africa (COTLA) Uganda Chapter.
When government allowed cultural institutions to operate according the law and norms of various peoples in Uganda; the Jopadhola clans elected him the first ‘Kwar Adhola’.
Historic 1999
On the 7th August 1999, Owor was installed as the cultural leader of the Jopadhola. The historic event took place in King George V stadium in Tororo Town after a cultural ritual performed by a one Opeti Obieto (RIP) and His Grace Yona Okoth (RIP), the then Archbishop of the Church of Uganda.
The leader of the Jopadhola was elected by consensus by an electoral college of the 52 registered clans in 1998. Hitherto each clan separately had its own clan leader called Kwar Nono (clan grandfather). And whereas the clan leaders had close association on account of common origin, none of them superintended over the others.
The new cultural leader was given the title Kwar Adhola (grandfather of the Jopadhola), and the new Union of the original and affiliated clans was christened Tieng Adhola Cultural Institution (TACI).
The Jopadhola can trace their origin through the migration of the Luo from Southern Sudan, following the Nile, to approximately 700 years.
According to Prof. P.G. Okoth and Dr. Yokana Ogolla, the Jopadhola were part of migrant groups of Luo people who moved from Bar-El-Ghazel in South Sudan and eventually pressed their way southwards through Teso and Kaberamaido till they reached Budama in present Tororo district, around 1500.
Adhola moved with his brother Owiny, who led a group through Tororo, to western Kenya. They are the present day Luo. The group that remained in Tororo under Adhola later constituted the present Jopadhola ethnic group
Owiny and Adhola settled on the land now known as Padhola (West and East Budama) between 1500 and 1550. It is from Tororo that Owiny the brother of Adhola, led another Luo group to Kenya.
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