K’jong Gun Deadline Pushed To February

By Nathan Etengu The deadline for voluntary surrender of illegal guns by the Karimojong and Pokot warriors has been extended from January 2 to the middle of February, the UPDF 3rd Division Commander, Col. Sula Semakula, said yesterday. He said the deadline had been extended due to the positive response shown by the Karimojong in handing in the guns. The army had by Sunday received more than 6,000 guns. “We want to maintain the voluntary period up to mid-February,” Semakula said in a telephone interview. He said the extension of the deadline would also enable the Government to issue certificates for each gun voluntarily handed in. Those who hand in their guns have each been promised an ox-plough and a bag of maize this financial year. In addition they are to receive two oxen each next financial year. Kraal leaders who help in the recovery of guns from their homesteads and grazing areas are to be given corrugated iron sheets to build homes. President Yoweri Museveni had given the Karimojong up to tomorrow to hand in the weapons. He said the UPDF would thereafter carry out operations in homesteads of people suspected to have guns. He said dogs would be used to sniff out buried guns while helicopters would flush out armed Karimojong who try to hide in the mountains and caves. Most Karimojong leaders had earlier appealed to Museveni to extend the deadline. Dodoth and Upe (Pokot) county local leaders who met Museveni at his Morulinga camp in the middle of last month, said the deadline was short. They said the warriors were in the grazing areas far away from homes. The Uganda Pokot in particular said the disarmament programme was launched when most of their warriors were on the Kenya side of the border where they went to recover cattle raided by their Kenya counterparts. Semakula said the extension of the deadline was not a sign of weakness or fear of the army or government. Ends