Pokot To Keep Guns

By David Ochami in Nairobi. The Pokot in Kenya will not surrender illegal firearms to the government unless their neighbours, the Karimojong in Uganda, are disarmed. Christopher Lonyala, the Kapenguria mayor, cited this as a precondition for the Pokot to surrender their highly sophisticated weapons. Lonyala said on Monday at Kapenguria that it would be disastrous for the Pokot to surrender their guns while the Karimojong were using theirs "like walking sticks." He proposed that a barrier like the Berlin Wall be erected from Katikomor to Nauyapong to separate the Karimojong and the Pokot "before our people can return their arms." Lonyala requested that the one-month presidential decree for the Pokot to surrender illegal firearms be extended. He criticised the west-Pokot District Commissioner, Nkoidila Ole Lankas's statement last week that the government would seize guns from the Pokot when the presidential amnesty expired. Stephen Kewasis, the Anglican Church Bishop of Kitale diocese, also said most of the residents in the region were not ready to return their guns. He said judging from the previous experiences, the amnesty issued in Tot division by President Daniel arap Moi on April 17th, would achieve little results. He regretted the influx of of illegal firearms in the region. He said guns owned by the Karimojong in Uganda and other communities in the war-torn neighbouring countries should be retrieved so as to return peace to the region. Lonyala put the number of firearms illegally owned by the Pokot at more than 10,000. Local leaders differed with Ole, saying to return the guns would be to invite trouble from Uganda's Karimojong cattle rustlers. Moi's directive followed the increasing cattle rustling and banditry. Ends