A cement company that arrived in Karamoja with the blessing of the President is now facing a very different reception from the region’s people — not over its factory, but over an advert.
Yaobai International, the holding company behind the Yaobai Cement plant in Nadunget Sub-County, Moroto District, is under pressure to withdraw a promotional campaign that community members say grossly misrepresents Ngikarimojong culture. At the centre of the controversy is a decision by an unidentified advertising agency to dress a male model — named in community communications as Eddie Kiwanuka, a non-Karimojong — in multi-coloured beaded necklaces and headgear that are, by cultural convention, worn exclusively by Ngikarimojong women.
The backlash has been swift and organised. A formal document titled “Yaobai Cement Karamoja Advert — A Call for Cultural Accuracy and Respect” is now circulating widely across WhatsApp groups in the region, signed by “Concerned Sons and Daughters of Karamoja,” though its authors have not been publicly identified.
The controversy follows what was, by all accounts, a landmark moment for Karamoja. In April this year, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni commissioned a clinker factory in Moroto District — the first of its kind in the sub-region. The plant, operated by Yaobai International, processes local limestone into clinker, the primary ingredient in cement, accounting for approximately 85 percent of its composition. The clinker is then transported to a grinding station in Njeru, Buikwe District, where it is bagged and distributed across Uganda and into neighbouring countries.
The investment was widely welcomed as a signal that Karamoja’s long-marginalised resource wealth could finally be channelled into local industrial development. Shortly after the launch, Yaobai International contracted an advertising agency — yet to be named — to develop a campaign promoting the Karamoja plant.
That agency’s creative choices are now the problem.
The community document is measured in tone but firm in its demands. It opens by acknowledging the investment: “We welcome investment, job creation, and industrial development in Moroto and across Karamoja.” But it draws a sharp line.
“The advert in question uses Mr. Eddie Kiwanuka, a non-Karimojong, dressed in regalia that misrepresents Ngikarimojong culture,” the document states. “The multi-coloured beaded necklaces and the headgear depicted are traditionally and specifically worn by Ngikarimojong women — not men. Presenting a male figure in female attire and branding it as ‘Karamoja’ is culturally inaccurate, misleading to the public, and offensive to our people.”
The authors are careful to contextualise why the error is not a minor one. In Ngikarimojong culture, beadwork is not decorative in any general sense — it is a precise language. Each bead, each colour, and each arrangement carries information about a wearer’s age-set, marital status, and social standing. To combine these elements carelessly, or to place them on the wrong body, is not just aesthetically wrong — it scrambles a cultural code that has been maintained across generations.
“Culture is not a costume,” the document reads. “Each bead, each colour, each piece of attire carries meaning tied to age-sets, marital status, and social roles. To distort that meaning is to erase the knowledge of our elders and confuse our children.”
Beyond the specific error, community members say the advert reflects a pattern that Karamoja has grown tired of — being used as a backdrop without being consulted as a partner.
“This advert reveals a troubling pattern: decisions about Karamoja being made without Karamoja,” the document states. “Our region is rich with talented models, photographers, cultural experts, and elders. We have men and women who can represent us with accuracy and pride. To overlook them while extracting from our land sends a message that our people are good enough to mine, but not good enough to represent.”
The framing is pointed. Karamoja sits on significant mineral wealth — limestone, marble, gold, and other resources — that has for decades attracted external interest while leaving local communities feeling bypassed. The Yaobai plant was supposed to signal a departure from that pattern. To then commission an advert that imports a non-Karimojong model and dresses him in the wrong cultural attire, the community argues, reopens exactly the wound the investment was meant to help heal.
The document lays out a clear set of expectations for Yaobai Cement. The community is calling for:
the immediate withdrawal of the current advert from all print, digital, and broadcast platforms; a formal public apology to the Ngikarimojong people for the cultural misrepresentation; meaningful engagement with Karimojong cultural leaders, elders, and creatives before any future campaign involving the community’s identity; and a commitment to local content — specifically, prioritising Karimojong talent in any future advertisements that claim to represent the region.
The document is notably restrained in how it characterises intent. “We believe this error was made out of lack of consultation, not ill intent,” it states. “Now that it has been brought to your attention, we expect Yaobai Cement to act swiftly and responsibly.”
As of the time of publication, Yaobai Cement Uganda had not issued a public statement on the matter. The advertising agency responsible for the campaign has also not been named or identified by any party. Eddie Kiwanuka, the model cited in the document, has not been publicly quoted on the controversy.
The community document closes with a line that doubles as both an appeal and a warning: “True partnership is built on respect. The same way cement must be mixed to the right standard, messaging about people must be grounded in truth. Let us build Karamoja together — with concrete and with respect.”
