By Steven Ariong
When Karamoja region was full of cattle conflicts among the Karimojong ethnicity, thousands of people died including non Karimojongs and nobody ever wished to step in Karamoja land and every body’s prayer was that peace be in Karamoja and the disarmament exercise in Karamoja has ushered in into Karamoja.
Although some criminal elements are still carrying out cattle theft but the situation is not as bad as it used to be where criminals could go as far as ambushing vehicles along the roads.
Since the government started disarming the Karimojongs in 2002, a total of 48,000 illegal guns have so far been collected from the hands of the Karimojong pastoralists and the disarmament operations still on going.
Before, Karimojongs didn’t know the value of land but they were on looking at cattle which have also gotten finished due to cattle rustling.
An acre of land in Moroto was being sold Shs13,000 to Shs30,000 in was in 2008 to 2010 but right now the piece of land in Karamoja is between Shs10m to 80million depending on the location.
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The discovery of land importance in Karamoja after animals getting finished has caused death due to land struggles. Last week, four people were killed in Moroto municipality in a single day because of land conflicts.
The people who were killed are from the same family, one of the deceased was pregnant with twins with her mother and were killed using a spear at night and police is yet to arrest the killer.
Patrick Lote, one of the elders in Moroto district urged the ministry of lands to take up the task to sensitize the community in Karamoja on the best way to manage land. He further said many people are likely to die due to land wrangle if nothing is done.
“The Karimojongs have known the value of land and that’s why you find out that those who sell there’s and the buyer delays to develop it, they again secretly go and sell it to another person and this causes conflicts”-Lote says.
Timothy Akorio another elder says the Karimojongs thought riches were only from the cows now they have opened up their eyes realizing that land was more important when the few Karimojong elites have already taken over the land.
“Many people are likely to die due to land conflicts if something is not done because everyone is now struggling to secure a piece of land”- he said.
According to Akorio even the land that the community in Karamoja had regarded as communal land grazing has been secretly surveyed by few elites in Karamoja and that the region was sitting on time bomb.
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