Disarm; protect North Rift herdsmen

Clashes between Ugandan soldiers and armed Pokot herdsmen from Kenya remind us the Government has not restarted disarmament a year after promising to do so.

In the latest incident, Kenyan pastoralists killed four Uganda People’s Defence Force soldiers in a gun battle in Achorchor, a sub-county in that country that borders Pokot North District. Eighteen months ago, the crisis was at the centre of national attention after UPDF men killed three Kenyans at the border, six others in Uganda’s Moroto District and allegedly conducted ‘bombings’ from helicopter gunships against fleeing bandits in Kenya.