Three people narrowly escaped death at the hands of an angry mob who accused them of buying more than 100 Chapatis in Namalu trading centre, Nakapiripirit district.
The trouble started when the three unidentified men suspected to be Pokot pastoralists went on Sunday evening to Namalu trading centre and bought an excessive number of chapattis which drew concerns from the people who were observing them.
After they packed chapattis, the people around the center who picked interest and interrogated the trio as to why they were buying so many chapatis, before starting to beat them up.
Prasede Aleper, a female councilor representing Namalu Sub County told URN that the trio survived being lynched by the angry mob who suspected them to be taking chapattis to the rustlers hiding in the bush.
According to Aleper, the angry residents turned Rudy against the trio but she contacted police that immediately intervened and rescued the situation.
‘’Although we suspect them to be among the raiders hiding in the bush, we could not allow the angry mob to lynch them because we were not sure,’’ Aleper said.
Aleper noted there have been cases of warriors hiding in the bushes using some of their allies to buy food for them, preferably chapattis and local brew, for survival in the bush.
She said this has made the communities more vigilant and anyone buying more than 10 Chapattis becomes a suspect of collaborating with cattle rustlers.
Tom Olaka, the LC3 chairperson of Namalu Town Council accused Pokot pastoralists of making incursions into the district with their cattle that destroy people’s gardens.
Olaka also noted that there has been rampant theft of animals by suspected Pokot raiders disguised us pastoralists looking for pasture for their cattle.
Michael Longole, the Mt Moroto regional police spokesperson confirmed the incident, also saying they found the community staging an illegal demonstration aimed at chasing away the Pokot community from Namalu over rising insecurity.
Longole said that the Joint forces responded in time to disperse the angry mob and also removed the Illegal road block that was mounted at Namalu Bridge.
‘’Currently the situation has calmed down and people have resumed their normal businesses,” Longole said.
Longole said they registered a complaint from residents who accuse Pokot for frequently raiding the Pian communities using guns, bow and arrows since they were not disarmed.
In August 2021, the police and its sister Forces announced that they would start arresting and interrogating anyone found buying more than five Chapattis.
The security claimed their intelligence shows that some of the people who buy more than 5 chapattis take them to rustlers hiding in bushes after abandoning their homes to elude security.
-URN
