Africa-Press – Uganda. AGAGO/ABIM
– National Unity Platform (NUP) presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, has if elected into power, ensure that civilians are disarmed as a way of ending the problem of cattle rustling in Karamoja Sub-region.
“The problem is Mr Museveni has been lying to you that he has removed guns from the civilians; we shall make sure that guns return where they belong. Your 2021 votes will guarantee that your young people will give you protection for your cattle,” Bobi Wine said while campaigning in Agago District yesterday.
Mr Kyagulanyi was responding to residents who said cattle rustling has become rampant in the area. Agago neighbours Karamoja Sub-region where cattle rustling has persisted.
Mr Alfred Ogwaro, the chairperson of Main Market Kalongo Village in Agago District, said they have resorted to forming vigilante groups to protect themselves from the Karimojong cattle rustlers.
“We don’t have guns and those from Karamoja have guns; the army is always around but they don’t protect us from our people. So we need protection from the next government so that people can be safe and their cattle,” Mr Ogwaro said.
Bobi Wine, who campaigned in Agago, Abim and Kapelebyong districts, explained that the problem of cattle rustling and conflicts among different tribes in the area will be solved through dialogue.
Dialogue“There is a need for the different tribes to treat each other as brothers and sisters. The reason Mr Museveni tries to create tribes is because he wants these fights to continue. When we include every tribe in national development, there will be harmony and some of these problems will be solved,” he said.
The disarmament programme in Karamoja Sub-region started in 2001. The government managed to collect about 50,000 guns in Karimojong and Teso sub-regions.
Karimojong and the surrounding districts had enjoyed some relative peace until October last year when armed cattle raids resumed. The raids have now intensified, with warriors clashing with UPDF soldiers almost on a weekly basis.
Since January, the army say they have recovered 68 guns while 195 cattle rustlers have been killed and 293 arrested.Mr Kyagulanyi also accused the current government of abandoning the people in the area.
“There is a lot of raw materials such as minerals here. This land is rich and you have a lot of capital in the young people but why are the roads not tarmacked? The reason is because Museveni has kept you in poverty and he wants you to remain poor,” he said.
The proportion of Karimojong trapped in chronic poverty is at 24 per cent, twice higher than the national average of 10 per cent, according to the National Household Survey of 2016/[email protected]
