A senior officer of the Uganda People Defense Forces-UPDF in Nakapiripirit district is to spend the next ten years in jail for killing a civilian. Captain Michael Walumbe pleaded guilty for the murder of Moses Asio, a resident of Kopetatum village in Nakale parish in Loregai Sub County in Nakapiripirit district.
In her judgment, Justice Wolayo convicted Lokudumu to four and half years in jail, saying the sentence would act as a deterrent to other would be offenders.
Irene Aceng, the Karamoja police spokesperson attributes the rise to excessive consumption of alcohol. She also identifies little or no respect for women in most areas of Karamoja saying these are the main causes of rampant violence against women.
Three Sudanese nationals are detained at Moroto Central Police Station for illegal entry into Uganda. The suspects were arrested on June 29 along Moroto-Kenya having trekked over 100 kilometres from Lodwar town in Turkana.
Although outlawed in Uganda in 2009, FGM is still practiced among the Pokot, Sabiny and Tepeth tribes in the districts of Kapchorwa, Kween, Amudat and Bukwo in the Karamoja Sub Region.
Refugees who cross into Karamoja region into the border districts of Kaabong, Kotido and Amudat will be rounded up and taken to Naakabat, a former gold mining camp located in Moroto, about 30 kilometers to the Uganda-Kenya border.
Wilson Katamigwa, the in charge Bokora-Matheniko Game Reserve, says the attackers killed one of them at the camp but declined to divulge details. He says the motive of the attackers is still unknown.
One Komoro elder told Uganda Radio Network, that the Mursi still adhere to a strict tradition. He adds that these include wearing traditional dresses and decorations. According to the elder, women begin wearing the accessories at 15 years of age, adding that a woman who has a big clay plate in his lip fetches substantial dowry for the family.
Patience Ojok, a senior nursing officer at the hospital acknowledges the presence of bed bugs in the wards, saying they have tried to fumigate the wards in vain.
With no drop of rain over the last eight weeks, crops have withered, shallow-wells are low on water while others have run dry due to the sweltering heat. Migrations have also started earlier than expected as pastoralists search for water away from the land of the nomads once characterized by armed conflict and cattle rustling.
A survey conducted by Uganda Radio Network indicated heightened poverty, illiteracy and disease amongst villages in Moroto district. Most people in the area lack access to education, gender equality remains a nightmare and health facilities are pitiable.
Capt. Isaac Oware, the UPDF 3rd Division spokesperson, says Olum is being held together with seven other soldiers at the 407 brigade headquarters in Moruita, Nakapiripirit district. He declined to divulge more information for fear of jeopardizing investigations.
Richard Aruk Maruk, the South Karamoja Regional Police Commander, says his office has received intelligence reports indicating that many of the refugees may cross and settle in various areas in Karamoja once both camps are closed.
