Why Museveni is threatening to expel Kenyan Turkanas from Uganda

Uganda President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has threatened to expel all Kenyan Turkanas over unending and deadly cattle rustling incidents in the country's Northeastern parts.

In an executive order released on Wednesday, May 24, President Museveni said that his government had committed to ending the perennial cattle rustling once and for all, and that the armed Turkanas from Kenya were another "destabilising factor".

According to Museveni, his government allowed Turkanas from Kenya to graze their livestock in Uganda on account of "our Pan-Africanist ideology", but they have breached that goodwill time and again by carrying their guns to Uganda and causing mayhem to the local community.

"I ordered these Turkanas to never bring guns in Uganda. They should just come and graze their cattle minus being armed. They, however, do not listen. Instead, they raid our disarmed Karamojong, kill people, rape etc.

"They are said to have raided 2245 cattle from the Jie. They killed our 3 geologists, one officer and a soldier, that were guarding them. I now direct that this Turkana nonsense must stop," Museveni says in his third executive order of 2023.

Museveni's directive

Going forward, Museveni has given directives that must be implemented and followed concerning Kenyan Turkanas going to graze in Uganda.

1. The Turkana must never come to Uganda with guns. Anybody who does so must be arrested and charged with terrorism by a Court Martial
2. The killers of the geologists must be handed to us for trial for murder. The guns were handed to the government of Uganda, but not the killers.
3. Through the co-ordination of the governments of Kenya and Uganda, the Turkana must bring back to the victim communities the number of cattle equal to the cattle they stole from them. Here caution should be exercised because our own people could be exaggerating the numbers. In order to ease the task of cattle identification, the Kenya and Uganda governments should co-ordinate on cattle-branding to show district and sub-county of the respective cattle populations.

Museveni has since given the Turkana population six months to implement his directives, and if the aforementioned grievances are not resolved, "I will have no alternative but to expel all the Kenyan Turkanas and their cattle and they will never be allowed to re-enter Uganda with their cattle."