Cattle Rustling, a Situation That Just Got a Whole Lot Worse
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The Monitor (Kampala)
July 27, 2005
Posted to the web July 26, 2005
Sylvester Onyang
On July 10, a battle started between the Karimojong warriors and UPDF soldiers. The warriors say it was unfair of the soldiers to chase them after they had stolen just a few goats but others say they had it coming.
We are moving through a rough narrow path meandering between dominantly flowering sorghum gardens that are near ripe. The maize stems are just starting to form cobs.
Towards the Kosike parish homesteads, the revving of the car we are travelling in is interrupting weaverbirds that are feeding on the cereals in the fields.
There is no one here to prevent these chirping birds from pillaging the tribe's staple that doubles as a source of food and a major ingredient for local breweries, even at a time when they are coping with famine due to crop failure the previous year.
Hundreds of people in Kosike have fled their homes because of a battle that took place, involving their own kin and UPDF soldiers. They have sought refuge in trading centres and in schools for fear of violent clashes between the two militant groups.
The effect of the fighting has seen villages set ablaze and granaries rid of their content.
Inside what used to be a typical Karimojong household, broken pots, calabashes and gourds litter the compound.
Death in the village
In another part of the village, the sight is worse, presenting gory images of slain people lying in a flat plain punctuated by little savannah shrubs.
At this end, just 200 metres from a central manyatta of Kosike villages, vultures are sluggishly wading through decaying bodies. Not even our approach can chase them from the remains of Karimojong warriors whose bodies may not be buried.
Army trucks had picked an unknown number of bodies of the killed soldiers.
The stench is overwhelming and we are forced to cover our noses with handkerchiefs.
Army gumboots, tyre sandals, beads, uniforms and bullet shells are scattered on every metre of this two-kilometre battlefield stretch.
Nakapiripirit RDC, Michael Bwalatum said in an interview that of the total number (up to 50 people) killed, seven were UPDF soldiers although other security agents and aid workers had put it higher.
Bwalatum said one pupil from Kosike Primary School and a cook were killed during the crossfire and the number of warriors could not be established.
He said the clashes were a result of a normal swoop to recover stolen Bokora goats from the Pian of Kosike, in Nabilatuk sub-county.
How it started
According to the warriors who survived the bloody incident, the disagreement started at midday on July 10. Warriors from the Bokara ethnic group have been attacking the Pian and have stolen thousands of cattle in the last three months.
In an effort to recover their cattle, the Pian tried to track the thieves who had stolen their cattle but failed. As a sort of compensation for themselves, they stole nine goats.
A number of soldiers tried to track the footmarks of the thieves and arrived in Kosike village.
"Fighting ensued when the soldiers attempted to drive the cattle out of the homesteads," said one of the survivors, Ekone a Koriang.
Gunfire was exchanged between the two groups throughout Wednesday and into Thursday as UPDF soldiers were reinforcing troops and superior equipment like Mambas and Armoured Personnel Carriers.
Warriors also attracted intervention from civilians from Lolachat sub-county and Pokot warriors also amassed in large numbers from the kraals to help their kin.
"How can we lose thousands of heads of cattle to the Bokora and the army reacts just because of nine goats stolen from the Bokora?" asked one elder.
The warriors were trying to question the rationality of the UPDF operation in the face of the fact that not even one cow lost to the Bokora ethnicity has been returned.
They feel that the army was acting in favour of the Bokora of Moroto District, as it was the first time they (the Pian) had stolen from the Bokora tribe after the amicable relations went sour recently.
"We have reported the stealing of our cattle to the UPDF day in day out. We were not heard and no effort was taken to recover our cattle from the Bokora," said Apa Watakau from Nabilatuk.
He said the soldiers should declare their inability to protect them from raiders and allow the cattle keepers to protect themselves.
A security official working in Nabilatuk sub-county however said it is unjustifiable for the Pian ethnic group to raid because the Bokora have stolen from them.
He says their (security officials) interventions have many times played into the games of the warriors.
"They shoot in celebration after stealing cattle. When we intervene, they hide the guns and change tactics alleging that it was a raiders' attack and their cattle have been taken. What can we do in such a situation?" lamented the source.
UPDF strategy
After a series of clashes where government forces fell victim to cattle rustlers in the mid 1990s, the military council decided to isolate soldiers from actively participating in recovering cattle.
A body called Anti Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) consisting of Karimojong youth to help the army mitigate cattle rustling and its effects was formed. The names have since then changed to vigilantes and now LDUs.
The mild military intervention was also extended to shaping the nature of operations to ensure that there was very slight or no contact at all between the soldiers and the warriors.
This therefore meant that UPDF with the help of the LDUs would surround kraals of the Karimojong they suspected had committed a crime, with the intention of rounding up cattle and driving them to their military unit where they would be held as ransom until the stolen animals were presented.
Sometimes, they demanded for the raiders.
This strategy although workable in some instances has triggered serious conflict between the army and the warriors. Such clashes as the infamous 1998 and the 2002 Panyangara fights where many soldiers were killed and armoured military buffalos burnt are reminiscent of such drastic decisions.
This move, critics have said, is a government ploy to leave raiders to kill themselves rather than protect them by allowing auxiliary forces, who have different ethnic lineage, to handle the cattle rustling business.
During the suspension of the 2001 disarmament exercise in favour of fighting the LRA rebels, soldiers were diverted to handle the more sensitive war leaving the LDUs in control of the situation. This is worse in the face of the fact that the LDUs are operating under no guiding law such that they do not attract any gratuity, or rehabilitation in case of casualty and worse still, often do not get paid.
One LDU commander said recently that at the end of July, they would not have received salaries for six months.
According to him, the anti cattle rustling - campaign should be left to the raiders themselves because they understand the intricacies of the habit.
"Raiders themselves know their enemies by name. They know that when cattle is stolen, the thief will keep them till the owner raids back but when we are put in the situation we become the victims," said the commander who asked not to be named.
Humanitarian support
The World Food Programme has carried out an assessment mission to establish the number of homes burnt and those who have been rendered homeless.
It is hoped that the people will be supplied with adequate food rations to help them cope with the disaster.
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Many injured warriors are still in the bush receiving treatment in hiding. According to the LDU commander, on July 16, soldiers attacked a village suspected of harbouring casualties and killed one woman.
The injured are being treated with herbs and severe cases accessed medicine from drug shops secretly.
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