Army turns heat on Teso rebels over cattle raids

Brig Stephen Mugerwa has blamed rebel groups for masterminding the 1992 cattle raids in Teso Sub-region.

While appearing before the resident judge of Soroti High Court, Justice Henry Peter Adonyo, to give defence testimony on Teso war claims against government, Brig Mugerwa said locals in the then-rebel group called Uganda People’s Army, traded cows with Kenyans in exchange for guns.

 “My mission was to lay an ambush on a group of people who drove cows from Uganda to Kenya for guns,” he told the court last Thursday.

 According to him, he was the in-charge at Chepsikunya in Kapchorwa when his bosses assigned him to lay an ambush against people raiding animals from Teso in Uganda to Kenya and smuggling ammunition from Kenya to Uganda.

 “Fortunately, they landed in my ambush and we followed them for four days to Asamuk through Wera. When they reached Teso Asamuk, they split into smaller groups but we decided to follow them after a crossfire,” Mr Mugerwa said.

 “Between 1986 and 1992, I only fought one battle. That is the one where my company and I engaged in crossfire with Habibu (one of the rebels), the one we captured alive but as far as I can recall, the insurgency and the animal raids in Teso were started by the sons of Teso,” he said.

 He named the commanders of the UPA as Peter Otai and one Jesus, who have since passed on.

 According to him, during his mission of operations in Teso, he encountered neither Karimojong cattle rustlers nor National Resistance Army (NRA) soldiers in the bush driving cattle.

 He also denied participating in other battles that led to the death of other innocent civilians.

 Brig Mugerwa was quizzed by lawyer Richard Omongole, who is representing Teso war claimants.  Senior State Attorney Diana Mudola and Mr Erick Mukisa, the acting principal state attorney are representing the State.

The war claimants, according to court records, are 215,000. There are three cases filed at the court. They are Julius Ochen and 205,000 others, John Oluka and nine others, and Paphrus Imodot and 105 others. The claimants want government to compensate them.  The claims total more than Shs4 trillion.

 Mr Miklos Kirya, one of the claimants, followed the court proceedings last week.

 He said his cows, whose number was not disclosed by press time, were stolen during the insurgency and his claim was verified by the UPDF for compensation but to date, he has not been paid.

In 2017, Justice David Batema, following the request by the Attorney General to settle the matter out of court, gave the government a chance to verify and compensate the rightful claimants.

 However, it never yielded results as the government verified a small group under TAPCO and advanced some money to benefit some claimants, prompting many claimants to return to court.  They presented 33 witnesses to testify against the government.

The Attorney General has presented Lt Gen Fred Ssegamwenge, Brig Mugerwa and the chief of legal services of the UPDF Brig Gen Prof Godard Busingye as witnesses. 

 The witnesses have denied government participation in the cattle raids.