The Karamojong people are an ethnic group of agro-pastoral herders living mainly in the north-east of Uganda. The northern Kenya and eastern Uganda regions are very insecure areas. For years now, there has been a number of cattle raids going on, terrorising the civilian population and killing hundreds of people. In eastern Uganda, in the Karamoja region, there are nomadic cattle herders called the Karamojong. These people are believed to be responsible for a number of the raids into Kenya.
The main livelihood activity of the Karamojong is herding livestock, which has social and cultural importance. Crop cultivation is a secondary activity, undertaken only in areas where it is practicable.
Due to the arid climate of the region, the Karamojong have always practiced a sort of pastoral transhumance, where for 3-4 months in a year, they move their livestock to the neighboring districts in search of water and pasture for their animals.
The availability of food and water is always a concern and has an impact on the Karamojong's interaction with other ethnic groups.
The Karamojong have been involved in various conflicts centered on the practice of cattle raids.
The Karamojong are in constant conflict with their neighbors in Uganda, Sudan and Kenya due to frequent cattle raids. This could be partly due to a traditional belief that the Karamojong own all the cattle by a divine right, but also because cattle are also an important element in the negotiations for a bride and young men use the raids as a rite of passage and way of increasing their herds to gain status. In recent years the nature and the outcome of the raids have become increasingly violent with the acquisition of AK47s by the Karamojong.
The Ugandan government have attempted to broker deals for weapons amnesties, but the number of cattle the Karamojong have wanted per gun has proved too steep for any meaningful agreement to be made. [source: wikipedia]
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The Malaysian Star
written by James Macharia, Reuters
Monday November 12, 2012
NAIROBI - At least 32 Kenyan police officers were confirmed killed when armed cattle rustlers ambushed them in the remote northern county of Samburu on Saturday, a government official said on Monday.
Officials had previously put the death toll at 12.
"We have recovered more bodies, we now have 32 in total. They were ambushed by attackers bearing sophisticated weapons, including machine guns," Osman Warfa, provincial commissioner for the vast Rift Valley province, told Reuters.
Warfa said authorities were searching for more bodies.
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