Kenyan Intelligence Boss Tours Karamoja

THE Kenya Army Chief of Military Intelligence, Major General Mwanyia, on Sunday visited Moroto to acquaint himself with the on-going disarmament exercise there, reports Nathan Etengu.Mwanyia accompanied by his Ugandan counter-part, Lt. Col. Noble Mayombo, visited the UPDF 3rd Division headquarters in Moroto from where they held discussions with officers involved in the exercise. The two intelligence chiefs also made an aerial tour of the Uganda-Kenya border area of Nakiloro, North East of Moroto town. Nakiloro is the spot where the Kenyan Turkana had been grazing and watering their cattle prior to the launching of the disarmament programme.The Turkana fled the area at the beginning of December when herdsmen from the kraal of Lokorikawu raided camels and killed three people in separate incidents.The UPDF spokesman, Major Shaban Bantariza, told The New Vision the purpose of the visit was for Mwanyia to study how the Uganda government had handled the disarmament exercise.President Yoweri Museveni launched the disarmament exercise in December last year.“They (Kenyans) also have the same problem of armed pastoralist groups so they want to study how we have managed to recover over 6,000 guns voluntarily so that they can also implement a similar programme on their side of the border,” Bantariza said.A source in Moroto told The New Vision that the Defence Attaché at the Kenya High Commission, Lt. Col. John Maghanga, accompanied the two military intelligence chiefs on the tour.A source at Amudat, a border town told The New Vision that a number of Kenyan Pokot had already started handing in their guns to the UPDF for fear that they would not receive any token of appreciation if they surrendered the same to their own government.The source said a prominent Kenya Pokot, Mr. Labongotun Loriyo of Konyao, had already handed in six guns to the military intelligence personnel at Amudat.Museveni, while launching the disarmament exercise, offered an ox-plough, chain and a bag of maize for each gun voluntarily handed in.A joint Uganda-Kenya disarmament exercise flopped in 1984 when the soldiers involved in the programme indiscriminately killed several Karimojong and raided several head of cattle.Ends