Her fans and supporters fondly call her Mego-Larem. Mego is a Luo word meaning mother. Larem is a name ascribed to her bus transport business—the Larem buses which ply the Kampala- Gulu route. Christine Lanyero aka Larem is a household name in Acholi community and the Greater North. She has built an enduring legacy stemming from the seeds of love, sacrifice and support she has grown up offering diverse people.
Indeed Christine is a mother to so many children and adults alike. Wherever she has gone, she has surrounded herself with people of different backgrounds some of whom total strangers to her. But she would go an extra mile with a heart of sacrifice reaching out to them with whatever kind of support. Her magnanimity and love flows effortlessly. Throughout the time she has spent on earth, the 61-year-old mother and businesswoman has devoted her time, energy and resources to benefit others.
As early as 12 years of age, Christine started taking care of her young siblings. She pointed this writer to a small two-bedroom house somewhere in Ntinda where she would take care of over 30 children including other relatives. This was during the time of the war in the North. By that time there was no development to talk of in Ntinda…no electricity, water or tarmac. They would fetch water from swamps.
“I would tell people in my house that the house was big enough for everybody. For as long as you found just a little space to lay your head, that was enough. We shared the little food and resources as a family and God took us through,” she narrates with a sigh of satisfaction. “My neighbours would ask me if I had parents because they would only see me as a young girl burdened with the huge responsibility of taking care of my brothers and sisters. To them [neighbours], they thought it was a burden, but to me this was what God had destined me for, and I did it with love to this very day,” she says with laugher.
Like the fate that would befall many young school girls in Africa, Christine got pregnant in Senior Two while studying at St. Monica School in Gulu. Following the pregnancy, her father, the late Savio Ojok, forced her into early marriage where she produced two children. The marriage couldn’t work since it was forced, and she decided to go back home.
Business life
She started doing small business while at home including baking chapatti, mandazi, and later on upgraded to farm produce where she would buy stock from Mbale. Her father supported her by giving her a store in Anaka Trading Centre. She expanded her business to West Nile where she continued to prosper.
Christine’s courage and steadfastness in venturing into business is unrivaled. She has broken through the ceiling to go into some enterprises which are considered “business for the men”. Owing to her business acumen, some people say that she does business like a man. “But when you look at it, there is no men’s business neither women’s business, business is business irrespective of gender. But what stands out is that I do business like a man,” she explains. “I don’t fear venturing into things. I don’t believe in other people doing things for me,” she says, revealing that God has favoured her throughout her business life where at times she has done business with big multi-national companies like British American Tobbaco (BAT). Under BAT, she was supplying farm inputs to tobacco out growers in West Nile. In 1994, she bought a Tata lorry to ferry tobacco from farms to BAT stores in Arua. Later, BAT entrusted her with a contract of transporting tobacco to Nairobi. She continued in tobacco business until 2005 when she left Arua.
In 2006, following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in South Sudan, she won a sub-contract from TRANSAMI to supply food stuffs to all the 10 states of South Sudan. “I hired trucks from all the neighbouring countries to transport food. There was great need for food by that time. That is why they called me International Lady,” she says.
Around the same time, Christine further reveals that she got a contract with the UN to repatriate the UN Battalion from South Sudan including equipment from Malakal.
She was also contracted by the Chinese road constructors to transport material to Juba and other areas of South Sudan.
She decided to leave the cargo business in 2015 when the government introduced the weigh-bridges that limited the loads, also not mentioning highway robberies.
She joined Pepsi-cola as a distributor where she worked for three years, and quit to again venture into tobacco growing in Nwoya District. Unfortunately, the Alliance One company which contracted her and other tobacco farmers left the country without paying them.
Being a woman who doesn’t give up easily, Christine approached Metu Bus Company in Namanve and procured one bus. With this bus, she began her passenger transport company under the flagship of Larem Transporters. She has so far bought a total of four busses from Metu plying the Kampala-Gulu road. She relieved her people of Nwoya by placing one of her buses to carry passengers from Nwoya to Gulu and vice-versa. This is the first time in history Nwoya is having a bus service.
When President Museveni and his NRA took over power in 1986, Christine was 19 years. Her elder brother Gen Otema Charles Awany was among the NRA officers who captured power with Museveni, and he was instrumental in installing the NRA/M in the North, particularly Acholi. By that time, Museveni was facing stiff resistance to enter the northern region. Christine’s family members including her parents and siblings were trapped in the village in Purungo, they were living in the bush, just like a number of families at the time. They would later on move slowly on foot to Gulu for safety.
Christine joined her brother in the struggle as a non-combatant to supply food stuffs and other essentials to the soldiers. She won the trust of army officers and soon she got other connections to supply the combatants of SPLA in Sudan, and in DR Congo where the Ugandan forces were fighting rebel elements. While in Congo, Christine says that she encountered high-profile rebel personalities including Jean-Pierre Bemba, Wamba dia Wamba, Mbusa Nyamwisi and among others. “As a businesswoman, I found myself being in favour with these rebel commanders, Congo was a difficult and dangerous area to do any business, especially as a foreigner, but with time those people [rebels] considered me a friendly force and they started offering me support including security,” she narrates.
Christine considers herself as a freedom fighter. She wasn’t doing the good things she did for the sake of money, but for the common good. “I have always been driven by the desire to make a positive contribution without expecting any reward. When I risked my life to go to the jungles of Congo to supply our forces with food, I considered it as part of my patriotic duty,” she says.
In her life of business, she has come face to face with death. She survived the numerous Kony ambushes and landmines in South Sudan. There was also a time when Bashir’s army would bombard areas of South Sudan with the famous Antenov. One time the Antenov almost buried her in the ground but she survived by the miracle of God. While in Congo, she would see dead bodies littered all over the roadside, including pregnant women who would be split open. “I didn’t fear all this, I developed the heart of a warrior,” she says.
Joining politics
Christine says she was approached by a number of people in Nwoya with a view of representing them in the next parliament in 2026. “I was going about my daily business and I started receiving numerous phone calls and messages including delegations begging me to offer my candidature for district woman representative for Nwoya District. I took time to think about it, but now I have agreed to the demand of my people,” she says.
“I used to encourage people who would join politics and support them. I didn’t wish to join politics back in the day because of the responsibilities I had at the time including lots of children to take care of,” she says adding, “For me I look at politics from a different angle; that you are in politics to serve mankind. But these days, politics is a career as most people who join politics are looking for survival.”
She argues that for the time she has spent in business and working closely with people and various leaders at all levels, she has gained considerable experience. “Given my background, I feel I have attained enough experience. The experience I will use to offer solutions to the problems of my people,” she adds.
“My people know that I am not going to parliament to enrich myself. They would look at me as a saviour. I am not going to look for a man in parliament to marry me but to serve my people.”
Christine’s love and admiration for President Yoweri Museveni is crystal bold. “This government has made me what I am. I feel embarrassed when I hear young people of today talking ill of the NRM government, some of them don’t know the crude life we went through back in the days,” she says.
Once in parliament, Christine says her focus shall be on education of her people. “Schools and education standards in Nwoya are collapsing. I want to see more children enrolled in school. The child mothers should also go back to school to be trained in vocational skills.”
Maternal health remains a serious problem in Nwoya District. She has registered an NGO to help mothers who may not afford to go to hospital, including empowering them with socio-economic support.
On the side of agriculture, the businesswoman and farmer hopes to help organize farmers to produce what they are good at and add value to their produce. Already she is linking them to markets.
Of recent, she has been training the young people on mindset change and financial literacy and management.
Towards the end of 2023, just in one week, Christine helped thousands of people in Nwoya District to access the PDM cash. Most people couldn’t get money because they didn’t have national IDs. But when she went to the NIRA offices at the District, she found three suitcases full of unclaimed national IDs. “The NIRA officials told me that they didn’t have transport logistics to go distribute the national IDs to the owners, so I offered to give them my vehicles including fuel so that they distribute the cards. As soon as the people got their national IDs, I contacted the PDM office and money was disbursed immediately. Within one week, about Shs 1billion had been given out to the eligible beneficiaries,” she says.
Christine has been appreciated by the Government and various organisations for her contribution to the betterment of society. For instance, Vision Group awarded her as Woman Achiever in 2008 for taking care of children who aren’t hers without help from anybody.
She was also awarded a Hero’s Medal by Government in 2016 for outstanding contribution in peace and development.
