K’jong Raid Kenya, Kill 8

By Felix Osike and Agencies SUSPECTED Karimojong cattle rustlers have raided a neighbouring Kenyan village, killing eight people and stealing over 1,000 head of cattle and goats. A Kenyan newspaper, Daily Nation, quoted Francis Ewaton, the Ruling Kenya Africa National Union (KANU) MP for Turkana South, as saying the raiders who invaded his constituency last week were escaping disarmament in Karamoja. Both defence state minister Ruth Nankabirwa and army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said they had no information about the attack. “I don’t have information about what happened there,” said Bantariza. The Karimojong disarmament exercise, launched by President Yoweri Museveni on December 2, has been successful with over 7,000 illegal guns handed in. Ugandan authorities recently said Pokot warriors had fled to Kenya with their guns to evade the disarmament. Ewaton said people had fled their homes for fear of their lives. The MP said some of the stolen animals had been hidden in West Pokot and East Baringo districts. He said his constituents had been overpowered because they had surrendered their arms to the Kenyan government and the raiders had outnumbered police reservists. Kenya Police spokesman Peter Kimanthi told The New Vision yesterday, “We are happy the Karimojong are being disarmed and we hope that Kenya will do the same.” The New Vision reported yesterday that Uganda had deployed about six battalions along the borders with Kenya and Sudan to contain the cross-border cattle rustling and illicit gun trafficking in Karamoja. Meanwhile, Kenyan police yesterday reported the killing of 53 Turkana pastoralists in northwestern Kenya by armed cattle rustlers believed to be from “a neighbouring country”. The UN Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) quoting The East African Standard, said the raid took place in Lokitaung in Turkana district. The Kenyan deputy police spokesman, Dola Indidis, told The Standard that the herdsmen were killed when 200 Turkana migrating from Lopotikor to Koringany in Nagapal location of Lokitaung in search of pasture encountered over 400 heavily-armed cattle rustlers. Another 10 Turkana were wounded in a fierce exchange of fire between the pastoralists and the rustlers, Indidis said. Six donkeys and 10 goats were grabbed while 23 head of cattle had bullet wounds, he added. Security agencies were pursuing the attackers but no arrests had been made, the report quoted Indidis as saying. Ends