Kitgum NGO Forum – KINGFO was founded in 2002 as a voluntary umbrella body of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) operating in Kitgum and Lamwo Districts, to provide an advocacy platform for the CSOs and promote Human Rights and Good Governance. For the purpose of advocacy, the forum has formed itself into three sector working groups (SWGs) – Social Sector; Production and Local Economic Development Sector and Justice, Law and Order Sector - each of which focuses on identifying advocacy issues in that sector and escalating it to attract required actions.  

In its second quarterly meeting held in Kitgum on 1st June 2023, a cross section of member CSOs under the Social Sector Working Group identified the ongoing cattle rustling in Acholi sub-region by Karamojong warriors as an urgent advocacy issue. The discussion at the meeting noted that the Karamojong cattle rustling and attacks on the civilian population are particularly concentrated in the most eastern parts of Kitgum and Agago districts bordering Karamoja sub-region, namely: Orom, Kiteny, Akurumo, Okuti, Namokora and Omiya Anyima in Kitgum District and Omiya Pacwa, Adilang and Paimol in Agago District. These persistent attacks reported widely in the local and to some extent in national media, have resulted into huge and regrettable loss of lives and property.    

In further deliberations regarding the issue, the member CSOs also resolved to inform your office that:

§  Hundreds of households in the directly-affected sub-counties have   been internally displaced to places which they think are safer for them and their livestock, effectively turning these places into IDP camps, reminiscent of the war years of the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda. Some residents of the raid-prone areas, particularly children and women, commute daily to spend nights in the cold in nearby schools, churches, trading centers and government health facilities, putting them at risk of more attacks by the Karamojong cattle rustlers since these “safe havens” are not under guard. The poor sanitation and hygiene as well as extreme weather conditions have led to increased incidence of illnesses like malaria and cough. 

§  The communities live in a lot of fear and anxiety because of the continued surprise/unexpected attacks by the rustlers. The local leadership report that residents of the affected areas are traumatized and in need of psychosocial support.

§  The armed Karamojong rustlers do not only raid animals but also sexually harass and abuse women and girls. There have also been some few yet-to-be verified reports of acts of sodomy of male residents by the warriors in a bid to emasculate them. 

§  During the last school term, attendance fell drastically as teachers and pupils/students stayed away from school due to the fear of Karomojong warrior attacks on the schools or along the roads and paths leading into and out of the schools. This will definitely lead to very poor school performance or, in the extreme, increased drop out.  

§  To avoid losing all, many households which are unable to migrate away with their livestock to safer places, have resorted to selling them off at giveaway prices. This forced transaction is going to cause difficult-to-reverse impact on the traditional economic and social livelihood of the affected people.  

§  Currently people are not farming or tending to their gardens for fear of being waylaid and/or killed by the Karamojong raiders. This will not only lead to famine and outbreak of related diseases but also to loss of income streams that came from farming as a business. 

§  The affected communities, mostly subsistence farming households, are already in dire need of humanitarian support. They lack fundamental/basic needs like food and non-food items. 

§  Politically, there is a feeling spreading among the people in the directly affected sub-counties and the sub-region of Acholi that government is deliberately not prioritizing their safety and wellbeing as it is mandated by the national constitution. To a limited extent, there is also a growing feeling of suspicion among some local communities that some of the raiders are actually “agents” of some other selfish forces or parties who do not wish the Acholi people and sub-region well. The emergence of such “conspiracy theories” does not augur well for the hoped-for national cohesion.   

 

 

The record of losses of lives and property, and the magnitude of the human displacement that the raiders have occasioned on the sub-counties from January 2022 to date was also received by the member CSOs at the meeting. 

The local authorities also note with grave concern that, while a few of the rustled animals have been recovered by either the security forces or through counteroffensives organized by the local people themselves, more than 90% of the rustled animals have not been recovered and returned.

Note: The member CSOs noted that the affected households fall under various clusters including, but not limited to: 

• Households that have temporarily migrated away to nearby urban centres for safety with added living and other costs;
• Those whose household property and crops were pillaged/looted; 
• Those whose livestock and poultry were rustled by the raiders and never recovered (or reported to have been recovered but not returned to them);
• Families whose daily cultivation activities have been disrupted or completely stopped by the insecurity in the farming areas;
• Economically valuable time lost in moving of animals from kraal to kraal every morning and evening; 
• Food and non-food items sold off cheaply for fear of losing them to the raiders or to the fires they set to houses and granaries;
• Local inhabitants who have fled to other neighboring areas and are now hiring gardens for cultivation or selling their manual labor for survival;
• The children and the very elderly who have fallen sick due to poor sleeping/living conditions at the facilities (classrooms, churches, health centres, etc.) where they fled for safety;
• The mentally/psychologically affected displaced people as well as those who continue to live with insecurity in their homes;
• Those whose economic activities like the weekly savings and loaning activities of village saving and loan associations (VSLAs) have been disrupted and the local shopkeepers who have lost business due to implementation of curfews;
• The local people suffering the burden of spending more resources to meet transport and other expenses during follow-up of raided/rustled livestock. 

The member CSOs also recognized the valuable contributions/efforts various individuals, groups and institutions have put in to cause action against cross-border cattle rustling by armed Karamojong warriors in the sub-counties of Acholi bordering Karamoja. In particular, the meeting noted with appreciation the following actions already taken to add voice or cause action:

• His Excellency the President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni himself, met leaders from across the Acholi sub-region at Bar-legi State Lodge in Otuke District in May 2023 where he promised to deal away with the problem in two months. He warned the security forces against laxity and urged them to use modern technology in their response strategies. He assured the people of Acholi sub-region of government’s commitment to end cattle raids perpetrated by Karamojong cattle rustlers;
• Several Members of Parliament (MPs) from Acholi sub-region, individually or under the aegis of the Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG),  have used every opportunity they have had in plenary and other parliamentary platforms as well as many other official and unofficial platforms to add their voices to the call for urgent and decisive government response to the persistent raids by Karamojong raiders;
• The Parliament of the Republic of Uganda dispatched its Committee on Defence and Security, headed by Committee Vice Chairperson, Hon William Museveni (MP) to East Acholi to physically meet the people and leadership of the affected areas, assess the situation and recommend appropriate response;  
• In March this year, the Senior Presidential Advisor in charge of Special Operations, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, travelled to Kitgum and Agago districts to have a first-hand interaction with the grassroots leaders of the affected areas. He, too, promised rapid and decisive military offensive against the raiders. Consequently more than 1,000 soldiers of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) were deployed in several hot spots to counter the cattle raids;  
• The respective district security committees of the two worst affected districts, Kitgum and Agago, report that they continue to hold regular special situational review meetings together with the UPDF and other security organs with a view of bringing to a complete end the cattle raids and associated offenses by the warriors. 

Right Honorable Speaker, with a mixture of wonder, disappointment and creeping frustration, the member CSOs hereby inform your office that, despite all these statements of national importance made on the issue by various voices of national institutions and the actual deployment of units of the UPDF on the ground as outlined above, the raids by the Karamojong warriors may have reduced in intensity and frequency but continue to date. Every single morning from the raid-prone areas come news of cattle rustling, destruction of property, injury to persons and loss of lives, all occasioned by the invading warriors. The worsening dry spell over the region seems to provide a fertile environment for the invaders to operate far and wide.      

Consequently, aware and aggrieved by the current condition of the affected communities; referring to the various relevant sections of the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Ugandan (for example, Article 22, 110, 189 Schedule IV and 222) which clearly mandate government and its institutions the responsibility to maintain law and order, and guarantee citizens the right to protection from deprivation of life and property, we hereby, in pursuit of  our duty as advocates and on behalf of the people affected by the Karamojong menace, appeal to your office to add your voice and action and:

 

1.   Cause the House to call for increased deployment of adequate security personnel in and around the raid-prone areas and authorize the disbursements of the resources required to facilitate such re-invigorated military operations;  

2.   Direct the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), working together with the disaster management committees (DMCs) in the two worst affected districts and eleven sub-counties, to provide the affected communities emergency humanitarian aid to including, but not limited to, food and non-food items such as tents and tarpaulins, clean water and soap, cooking and eating utensils. 

3.   Call on the appropriate units of government to provide the people in the worst affected eleven sub-counties emergency health and education services, depending on the rapid assessment studies they would make to inform their specific interventions.

4.   Cause the house to resolve that the affected people who lost persons and/or property like animals, houses/huts, granaries and those who sustained related injuries be compensated by government and authorize the disbursement of funds to make the compensation possible.

5.   Propose to the President and Cabinet that government declares a state of emergency not only in the affected areas in Acholi sub-region but also in the neighboring areas in the Karamoja districts from which the warriors come and return to with their loot. This state of emergency would enable the security forces to work together with the local leadership on both sides to purge the areas of wrong elements and the weapons in their hands.

6.   Specifically urge the local leaders and members of parliament (MPs) from the Karamoja districts that border Acholi sub-region to make public and honest calls against the activities of the Karamojong warriors. 

This appeal builds on the work that Parliament through its members and committees has been doing to find short- and long-term solutions to the historical problem of cattle rustling by the Karamojong. We are confident your office has all the powers and will to cause what we are appealing for. We therefore look ahead with hope and trust. Thank you

Yours Sincerely,

Otto Ventorino

Chairperson, Executive Committee

Kitgum NGO Forum (KINGFO)

Tel. +256779443769/704550004

Email: ottoventorino444@gmail.com

 

C.C. Area Members of Parliament

C.C. Resident District Commissioners (Kitgum & Agago)

C.C. Chairpersons L.C V (Kitgum and Agago)

C.C. Chief Administrative Officers (Kitgum & Agago)