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‘Army, police kill one Karimojong each day’
Then Col Francis Chemo (now Brig) checks the fitness of former Karimojong cattle rustlers who turned up for the Local Defence Unit recruitment in Moroto District in 2021. Photo/File
What you need to know:
- There is a disparity in the numbers of suspected warriors and firearms recovered.
State security agencies have over the past two years killed 619 Karimojong they claim to have been warriors, meaning members of the armed forces take the life of a native a day.
Our analysis of the police crime report for the period June 2021 to June 2023 also shows that up to 30,500 Karimojong were taken into custody during swoops by joint operations to fight cattle rustling and violence.
With official statistics showing that the Karimojong number no more than 1.4 million, or about 3 percent of Uganda’s estimated 45 million population, the fatalities captured in the police report suggests high prevailing violence.
Karamoja in the north-east of Uganda is a semi-arid enclave, bordering Kenya and South Sudan, and inhabited by a pastoralist community often targeted by the Turkana of Kenya.
In contrast, the Karimojong have been accused at home of making incursions into neighbouring regions to raid cattle or using the gun to grab livestock from one another, prompting a UPDF-led operation to disarm them during which local leaders allege widespread rights abuses.
Our analysis of the police records show that only 3,309 of the 30,000 suspected Karimojong warriors arrested by security forces were ever taken to court, making it unclear if the rest were freed for lack of evidence or are still in incarceration.
Police spokesman Fred Enanga said the suspected warriors were killed by the Anti-Stock Theft Unit, a police branch, and the army during operations to end cattle rustling.
“619 warriors were put out of action during the battles and counter operations. The warriors that were arrested are 30,484 and those taken to court are 3,309,” Senior Commissioner of Police Enanga said.
Cattle rustling and armed violence in the Karamoja region have continued to rise despite the government’s investments in security to crack down on criminality in the sub-region.
Last year, President Museveni vowed to put up tough measures against cattle rustlers so that holding illegal firearms, even five metres away, would become risky.
Mr Enanga said they have recovered 852 guns from suspected warriors within the same period, leaving unanswered questions about the wide disparity in figures between the number of suspected warriors and the actual firearms recovered.
The police spokesman said security forces in the past week alone shot eight suspected Karimojong warriors dead.
“In the course of last week, we registered eight raids of livestock in the Karamoja region. But nine guns and 40 [pieces of] ammunition were recovered from warriors. Eight warriors were put out of action. And we managed to recover 427 cattle out of the 515 that were raided. We recovered all the 11 goats that were raided,” Mr Enanga said.
These figures exclude Karimojong killed for reasons other than cattle rustling or in communal feuds.
Members of Parliament from Karamoja voiced differing comments on the police statistics, showing the potentially the elimination of their voters without due court process.
Ms Sylvia Vicky Awas, the Nabilatuk District Woman MP, said she doubts whether all the arrests were due to criminality because many innocent people were detained by security personnel in cordon-and-search for guns in the community.
“They would just pick up every man they get in the village and take them to the prisons while others were taken to court martial. There was no proper screening to find out who was a student, who was not a raider, but they would just arrest everyone,” she said.
The conduct of security forces in Karamoja, which has long been a subject of condemnation by rights groups, came into sharper focus after 198 Karimojong youth were freed from prison in skeletal bodies.
In yesterday’s comments, MP Awas said the high numbers of arrests in the police statistics suggested probable improper detentions.
“The way disarmament was being conducted was very harsh in a way that people were just picked and even those innocent were prosecuted and found guilty for the crimes they did not commit,” she said, adding, “My appeal as a leader would be that people should be given amnesty because many have not released since they were arrested,” she said.
On her part, Kotido District Woman MP Margaret Achila said the region was too wide for her to get figures of every warrior killed within the referenced period.
“Where did they say they killed these warriors from? I cannot make a comment because I am not aware of these killings and the figures. The security people should be able to explain and tell you where they killed them from,” she said by telephone yesterday.
When this publication contacted the spokesman of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces 3rd Division in Karamoja region, Major Isaac Oware, to verify the police figures, he declined to comment saying he was out his operational zone.
“I am in Kigali, Rwanda. So I can’t comment on those figure unless I am in my operational zone,” Maj Oware said.
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By press time, we were also unable to get a comment from the UPDF spokesperson Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye and his deputy Col Deo Akiiki.
Districts in Karamoja region were ranked among the highest with cases of murder by shooting and assault last year.
According to the police crime report of 2022, at least 118 people were shot dead in Karamoja.
Kidepo region registered the highest number of cases of murder by shooting with 72 cases in the country in 2022, followed by Mt Moroto region with 46 cases. Another 28 people were murdered by assault in the Karamoja region in 2022, according to police records.
Last year, cattle rustlers ambushed and killed a team of geologists and their UPDF guards at Kubebe area, Lokisilei Parish in Lotisan Sub-county in Moroto District. Three deceased geologists were posthumously named as Richard Kigwe, an employee of the Department of Geology and Mineral Survey, Charles Olweny and Edina Musiime.
First Son, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who was then the commander of Land Forces, at the time, vowed to avenge the killing of two soldiers and three geologists.
He tweeted then that the killers of “my soldiers” would only survive retribution if they surrendered to the resident district commissioner, a presidential appointee who oversees security in a district.
“My Karimojong brothers! We have begged you to stop the life of robbery and violence. We have begged you to stop attacking your neighbours, but to no avail! You have refused all our appeals! Well, now we are coming and hell is coming with us,” Gen Muhoozi tweeted.
President Museveni dropped the son as the Commander of UPDF Land Forces last October, but simultaneously promoted him to a full four-star general and retained him as his senior advisor on Special Operations.
The President later said the soldiers and geologists were killed by Turkana from Kenya who strayed to Uganda for pasture and water for their animals, publicly disclosing that authorities in Kenya had turned over the killers’ arms.
Museveni, a retired general of the UPDF, has demanded that Kenya turns the suspects over to Uganda and that no Turkana should cross into Uganda armed.
According to police records, its Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) was in the Financial Year 2021/2022 given Shs43b to secure Karamoja. This was nearly equal to the Sh48.9b allocated for the Criminal Investigations Directorate, the Directorate of Forensic Service and the Canine Unit in the same financial year combined.
The police bought 15 armoured vehicles worth Shs10.5b to carry out patrols in areas of Chepkunya, Kolir, Katakwi, Abim, Pader, Kitgum, Lamwo, Karenga, Kaabong, Kotido, Moroto, Napak, Nabilatuk, Nakapiripirit and Amudat.
Each armoured vehicle will be bought at Shs700m, according to the budget documents.
