A group of Karimojong elders has performed rituals to curse the armed cattle rustlers who are terrorizing the communities in the Karamoja sub-region.
The rituals were performed at the traditional shrine locally known as ‘’Akiriket’’ last Friday in Nakapiripirit district during a peace caravan meeting.
The assembly marked the end of the peace dialogues the Karamoja MPs have been conducting across the region to seek possible solutions to end cattle raids.
Peter Lokeris, the State Minister for Minerals and MP for Chekwii County in Nakapiripirit district who led the ceremony said they are resorting to using their traditional methods to hunt for the warriors who have failed to embrace peace.
Lokeris said they have decided to lay their curses on their own children to die in the raids following their evil acts of raiding and killing innocent people.
He noted that the region has remained under development because of the wrong elements who have continued terrorizing the region despite several calls made to stop what he termed an evil act.
Apaa Modo Lomer, one of the elders who participated in the rituals says he does not regret cursing their children because they have pleaded enough and the only alternative is to lose them.
‘’We cannot continue babysitting people who don’t want to listen but are busy causing destruction, never, and whatever we have pronounced in our prayer will happen, just a matter of time,”Lomer said.
But, Joseph Abura the Bishop Karamoja Diocese says he is s skeptical about the elder’s utterances and whether they will have any effects on the warriors.
Abura said the curses used to work in the old days when the elders were still holy. He says that the elders have been lured by their own children who raid and use the money to drink crude waragi together with the elders.
Paul Lote Komol, the LCV Chairperson Kotido says that elders do not possess such powers anymore and the curse will never work, describing it as a joke.
He adds that it is surprising that the warriors even beat elders and nothing has happened to them as it used to be in the early days.
The Karimojong believe in God who is believed to reside in the sky, overseeing and responsible for everything that is happening on earth. the hierarchical status of individuals prominent in the society reflects their relative’s proximity to the sacred and the divine.
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