A section of inhabitants in Loteere, Loima Constituency, Turkana County, are calling out for justice after assailants suspected to be members of the Ugandan army launched attacks on the pastoralist group.
The brutal ambush reportedly took place on Saturday, 27th March 2021, only hours after the Commander in Chief of the Ugandan Land Forces, General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, sent out a provoking social media post claiming that some members of the Turkana community were responsible for the death of his soldiers just a few days earlier.
“As Land Forces, we are giving an ultimatum to the Turkana! They were partly responsible for the death of m soldiers (and our geologists) a few days ago! If they do not leave Uganda immediately they will get what they are looking for! We have warned them!” Muhoozi tweeted on March 26, 2022.
Hours after issuing the ultimatum, and without even attempting talks with Kenyan authorities, the border village was invaded by suspected Ugandan ground troopers.
The attacks left scores dead and tens of others nursing serious injuries.
As per our sources on the ground, by Monday, 28 March 2022, none of Kenya’s state agencies were yet to respond to their multiple distress calls.
Not even Loima Member of Parliament (MP) Jeremiah Ekamais has said a word on the onslaught against his people.
“Hello, Nyakundi
There is this Issue the Commander in Chief of the Ugandan Land Forces raised suspecting that the Turkana who are in Kenya and Uganda border; that is Loteere, in Loima Constituency, might be the ones responsible for the murder of his soldiers.
Hours after issuing the ultimatum even without calling for talks with authorities, his army has already invaded our and started the attacks against the Turkana on the broader.
People are being tortured because of speculations something they have not done any investigation to prove it.
Our Kenyan authorities have not responded yet our people are being murdered.
This totally unfair and Sometimes back Museveni made an agreement with Kenya to allow the pastoralists to graze in Uganda or within the border.
It’s sad to see people cry for help and I’m sure the Kenyan authorities are aware but they have not acted.
This Museveni’s boy is so egocentric Imagine such a diplomatic matter he’s already issuing threats to the Kenyan gov’t.” our source wrote to us in distress.
Also attached to his message was the video embedded from Twitter below.
Loteere ,Loima and Uganda Boarder.
To: @mkainerugaba You will never get over This, I now declare you enemy number one of the Turkana Nation.We will not massage your ego And your Never ending hatred towards Ng'iturkana. Stop this 🛑 This is not the solution.@EAukot@GovernorNanok pic.twitter.com/Yka1fSk1qi— Ali Michael (@Turk_voices) March 26, 2022
This man General Muhoozi
At 47, General Muhoozi has spent half his life hitting out at claims that he plans to succeed his father.
His critics have been beaten, jailed or forced into exile.
Museveni’s only son, Muhoozi first came to wider attention in 1998.
Then a fresh-faced graduate, he began recruiting students for the presidential guard, raising questions about whether his father was trying to build a political dynasty.
Museveni brushed off the speculation but Kainerugaba rose swiftly through Uganda’s army ranks, training at Britain’s elite military academy Sandhurst, as well as in Egypt, the United States and South Africa.
With senior command courses lined up, one after another, promotions after another, it was clear Muhoozi was being prepared for higher positions in the military.
Whereas his colleagues were attending junior military officers’ courses, Muhoozi was sent to do more senior military command courses above his rank to accelerate his promotions and the family agenda.
His dizzying career trajectory saw him promoted to brigadier and put in charge of Uganda’s all-powerful Special Forces Command, before his elevation to major general in 2016.
He was deployed in South Sudan and Somalia as part of Ugandan interventions to shore up governments in those countries and played a prominent role in campaigns against the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia.
Muhoozi currently serves as a high-profile presidential adviser on special operations; a role that extends into the political sphere.
To many Ugandans, his position as heir apparent was increasingly obvious, but the government took a harsh line against anyone discussing the matter.
In 2013, police shut two independent newspapers and two radio stations for 10 days after they published a leaked confidential memo by a senior general alleging that Museveni was grooming Kainerugaba to succeed him.
The general (former intelligence chief David Sejusa) fled to Britain and said anyone opposed to the so-called “Muhoozi project” risked being assassinated.
Many of Museveni’s former allies, including his personal doctor Kizza Besigye, have fallen out of favour with the president over Kainerugaba’s elevation, which has also aroused the ire of opposition politicians and government critics.
Unlike his father, who has ruled Uganda since 1986 and relishes public attention, Muhoozi prefers to keep a low profile, occasionally appearing at sports events or the rare social gathering with friends.
But on social media, he is not shy about expressing his often strong opinions.
He has offered his views on everything from last year’s coup in Guinea to the brutal war in northern Ethiopia, praising Tigrayan rebels for their “unconquerable spirit.”
At the beginning of March, Muhoozi became the first senior army officer in Africa to publicly show support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The military, which exercises huge power in the country, has been quick to defend him saying he was only exercising his personal rights, but the tweets have sparked unease in Kampala.
Kainerugaba’s foreign policy interventions have not been limited to social media.
He is said to have been instrumental in the recent rapprochement between Uganda and Rwanda and was also rumoured to have played a key role in a joint operation launched last year by Ugandan and Congolese forces against the ADF in the eastern DR Congo.
He remains a polarising figure at home, feared by many, but also praised for his philanthropic acts, such as paying students’ medical costs or footing the hotel bill for the cash-strapped Ugandan national basketball team during last year’s AfroBasket championships.
Married to Charlotte, a businesswoman, the father-of-three is widely believed to be next-in-line for the top job, yet has repeatedly insisted that he has no presidential ambitions.
“Uganda is not a monarchy where leadership is passed on from father to son,” he once said.
But to many, his succession is a foregone conclusion.
