small arms and light weapons among pastoral groups in the kenya ...

SALW AMONG PASTORAL GROUPS 59
There are four main routes for the movement of small arms into the border
area. The first and the most commonly used route is into Karamoja from
Sudan. The second is the Karenga–Lopoch–Kotido route which is a tributary
from the first route, supplying Karamoja via the Jie peoples. The
Acholi–Jie route is a new emerging source to the Jie and is considered in
the same section. The third route considered is the route from Sudan into
Lokichogio in Kenya. The fourth route is the ‘north-eastern route’ into
Kenya from Somalia. There used to be a route originating in Ethiopia and
connecting to Uganda via Sudan, but the eviction of the Sudan People’s
Liberation Army (SPLA) from Ethiopia led to its decline.
Large quantities of small arms are brought across the Sudan border from
Namule and Kopeta directly into Kotido town and surrounding villages.
From there, some are taken on to Pokot and Samburu areas in Kenya.
Others are taken on to Moroto and Nakapiripirit districts in Uganda.
Interviews indicated that businessmen were involved in transporting arms
and miraa (khat) from Kotido district in Uganda to Kachiliba town, West
Pokot district, in Kenya. 61 Evidence from interviews with Sudanese refugees
and high-placed sources have revealed that, during 1993–4, the SPLA
laid off several hundred officers, giving them varying quantities of small
arms as a kind of retirement package. The officers sold many of these to
sustain themselves at gun markets on the Ugandan side of the border. The
practice continues today:
[The] SPLA come in to Uganda with donkey loads of ammunition and guns and they
exchange them for grain and livestock. Livestock captured with the use of arms are
sold or exchanged for arms, which actually increases the quantities of small arms in
the hands of traders/warlords or warriors. The arms are then traded for more cattle.
The SPLA army needs food, and that is how they are getting part of their food. 62
When interviewed, the SPLA personnel denied trading arms for food or
cattle, arguing that they have no link to the arms traders moving into
Uganda. 63 With the comprehensive peace agreement signed recently
between the SPLA and the government of Sudan, this route may be coming
to a close; although without investment in security and development,
people would be looking for ways to capitalize on the huge number of arms
still in the war-torn pastoral areas, and the arms flow may continue.
The Karenga–Lopoch–Kotido route is a tributary from the above and
a major route to the Jie who are believed to then sell them to the other
Karimojong ethnic groups. 64 Interviews in Jie revealed other sources to the
61. Interviews in Karamoja, Uganda and in West Pokot, Kenya, 2001–4, and phone and
e-mail communications, 2005. In Namalu and Kangole in Karamoja, warriors could be seen
chewing miraa (Khat).
62. Interview with a SPLA soldier, name withheld, Moroto, 20 June 2001.
63. Ibid.
64. Interview with James Chere, former raider and now chief of Rupa in Rupa, 2003 and 2004.