Cattle rustling: Inside the gun problem in Karamoja

While the involvement of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has led to some improvements in the security situation in Karamoja Sub-region, the proliferation of firearms from neighbouring regions continues to fuel insecurity.

“In response to the pressing issue of cattle rustling and armed conflict, the President of Uganda issued an Executive Order No.3 of 2023 but the unresolved border dispute between Uganda and South Sudan poses a significant threat to security and has the potential to strain their relationship further,” Mr Linos Ngompek, the chairperson of the Parliament Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs, revealed.

“Despite disarmament progress in Uganda, the pastoral communities in neighbouring Kenya and South Sudan have not been disarmed, leading to a continued flow of firearms into Karamoja,” Mr Ngompek added. 

It is often common for members of a community to know who possesses illicit guns, but it is unusual for such incidents to be reported to the authorities. This is especially true if the weapons are used for defensive purposes or stealing cattle from rival groups, he stated. 

“The unresolved border conflicts continue to facilitate the proliferation of firearms from South Sudan, which end up with the Karachunas (youth) in Karamoja. The prevalent insecurity in Karamoja results from persistent armed conflicts between sub-clans within the region and neighbouring pastoral groups in Kenya and Sudan,” Mr Ngompek said.

According to Mr Ngompek, the problem is further exacerbated by deeply rooted raiding cultural practices driven by competition among pastoral communities. 

This leaves non-raiding communities defenceless against the raiders. The possession of firearms gives the Karachunas increased power to conspire and attack their rivals or the state military indiscriminately. 

Perpetrators fingered

Last month, the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs tabled before Parliament a report on the state of security in the districts of Moroto, Kaabong and Abim.

The report fingered South Sudan as a key source of illicit firearms in the region. The trade reportedly goes through the Toposa clans. These are said to have close connections with the Dodoth Karimojong of Kaabong District. 

“The Turkana region (of Kenya) is also a significant source of arms trafficking in the Karamoja [Sub-]region, with several unofficial crossing points along the border between Uganda and Sudan, despite there being only one controlled border point in Amudat,” the report reads in part. 

Since cattle theft in the region, to date, is primarily motivated by money, unlike in the past, it is established that pastoralists continue to own firearms to protect their livestock, especially during long dry spells of drought when valley dams dry up. 

Around this period of the year, the Pokot herding communities of Kenya often cross into Uganda to graze animals and compete with the Karimojong of Uganda for scarce water sources. This usually puts the Pokots and the Karamojong on a collision path. 

The House report further reveals that the people from Turkana remain armed. The situation has continued to fuel the need for the Karachunas to acquire weapons for protection against the invading Turkanas. 

To avert the problem, the report recommends that security roads be maintained and a military brigade be established in Kaabong District. This is due to its strategic location within the porous borders of South Sudan and Kenya. 

“Opening security roads, especially those leading to Sudan and Kenya, will facilitate effective territorial policing and joint monitoring operations by security forces to curb the proliferation of guns in the Karamoja cluster,” the report states.

Armed conflicts 

The report also emphasised the importance of an urgent implementation of a compulsory boarding education programme for Karamoja to provide crucial education for its children and reshape an entire generation’s mindset while effectively reducing the cultural sentiment of “warriorism”.

As well as intensifying UPDF and police patrols along the porous borders, the report also challenges the government to allocate funds for the de-silting of the Morungole and Longoromit dams. This as they are crucial water reservoirs in the Karamoja Sub-region. 

Having sufficient water sources also helps to minimise conflicts that could escalate into armed conflicts among pastoralists. 

Mr Ngompek told Saturday Monitor that the government should increase the quota allocation for Karamoja in the UPDF recruitments to integrate more Karimojong people into the army. 

“The Karimojong are natural warriors,” he said, adding, “Assimilating their natural abilities into the army, where they can best contribute, would reduce redundancy and potentially discourage cattle raiding and armed conflicts in Karamoja.” 

Armed conflict is considered the most common cause of insecurity in the Karamoja Sub-region. It is said raiding remains a complex traditional practice.

The Dodoth in Kaabong District see the southern Jie as their main enemies. The Turkana, who live in Kenya near the border, are also a significant threat. 

The conflict is similar across Karamoja, with different sub-clans forming and breaking alliances. The Pokot and Turkana from Kenya get involved when there's a drought on the Kenyan side of the border. 

The warriors attacked the non-raiding communities in Abim and Agago and spread their operations widely to the greater Lango and Acholi lands.

Interventions

With an adequate presence of the UPDF in the Karamoja, Lango, Teso and Acholi sub-regions, the intensity of armed raids has ably been thwarted. 

This is especially so with the rollout of the UPDF’s Usalama Kwa Wote campaign. This operation focused on pursuing the raiders, disarming criminals, and recovering stolen livestock for the communities. 

It, however, has the unintended effect of leaving the non-raiding neighbourhoods vulnerable. There are reported incidents of internal thefts in the non-raiding communities of Acholi, Lango, Teso, Bugisu, and Sebei. 

For example, incidents of cattle theft and killings in the most affected districts of Lamwo, Kitgum, Agago, and Abim by the armed Jie warriors and the Toposa criminal elements from South Sudan are on record. 

Between May 2023 and August 2024, the UPDF 5th Division reported recovering 923 cattle. Currently, the Jie warriors' hideouts are in Ogili, Lapono, and Kuludwong in Agago District and Orom Hills in Kitgum District.

“It is important that even if the government has deployed the army, the livelihoods of the people have to be boosted by creating alternatives for the raiding youth and men, like introducing mechanised commercial agriculture and also promoting life skills in the youth,” Mr David Moding, the Longaroe Sub-county chief, opines. 

To Ms Faith Nakut, the Napak Woman lawmaker, the government should establish more skilling centres across the Sub-region and also rehabilitate valley dams. 

She also reckons that the idea of industrial hubs in the country is good because it enables people without formal education to be skilled

She, however, says the 20 individuals per district considered for each season is low. 

“The dams that need to be de-silted in the entire region. So, identifying two dams and leaving out the other 38 will still pose a problem to the region,” Ms Nakut added. 

On May 19, President Museveni also authorised the recruitment of 12 Local Defence Unit personnel (LDUs) per parish for all the parishes that border Karamoja in Acholi, Lango, Teso, Bugisu and Sebei sub-regions to tackle sporadic cattle rustling by armed Karimojong raiders. 

In the order, Mr Museveni also ordered that any Turkana pastoralists who get into Uganda with guns must be arrested and charged with terrorism by the (military) Court Martial since they have turned into a threat to Uganda’s security. 

Museveni said whereas the Uganda government in the past ordered the Turkana nomads not to carry guns with them while entering Uganda to graze their cattle, they have paid a deaf ear to the advice. 

To beef up the anti-cattle rustling efforts in north and northeastern Uganda, the President also directed that key security roads around the Karamoja Sub-region be worked on. 

For example from Lake Bisina to Abim and Orom in Kitgum, and the one along the Kenya border from Amudat and hitting Mount Moroto at its southern portion, skirting Mount Moroto to the West, among others. 

Wins, losses

Between 2021 and June 2024, a total of 1,170 firearms have been recovered from the rustlers by the UPDF. 

Last month, Lt Col Gaston Mugarura, commander 45th Infantry Battalion, Kaabong District told the NTV Uganda in an interview that while the UPDF operations remain a success, the existence of porous borders remain a serious challenge for the UPDF to deal with. 

“The Usalama-Kwa-Wote operation in the district has recovered 207 rifles and 683ammunitions. We have recovered very many guns through voluntary means, others by forceful means. The major purpose of the operations is to arrest the wanted persons, capture documents, recover guns or ammunition and most of these operations are guided by intelligence,” Lt Col Mugarura stated. 

However, while appearing before Parliament on September 18, Lt Gen Peter Elwelu, the UPDF House Representative, said works on the security roads were slow-paced and that tackling the rustling problem in the region is bigger than the UPDF. 

“The challenge in Karamoja is a very big one that the UPDF alone cannot manage. What we need to deal with first is education; where the report has proposed compulsory boarding education because we need a new generation in Karamoja, which does not understand these issues of raids, otherwise, we shall continue with that problem,” he said.

“About the issue of the standard of education, this is what we decided; that a private soldier should have completed Senior Four and that is it,” he added.

In August, during the Regional Parliamentary Sitting held in Gulu City, lawmakers from the Karamoja Sub-region petitioned Parliament seeking its resolution tasking the government to establish free and compulsory boarding school education in the Karamoja Sub-region. 

They argued that the Sub-region has traditionally experienced low literacy levels with 66 percent of its people having no formal education and that the government should formulate a policy on free compulsory boarding school education for the Karamoja Sub-region.

They said once the learners drop out of school, their communities recruit them into warriors to raid cattle from neighbouring communities and defend their territories.