Sunday, July 25, 2010
By Richard Otim
“We fled the violence in Somalia so many years ago and here it has followed us. The al Shabaab terrorists are enemies of peace we are not part of them, I don’t want them,” Mr Ali, a veteran businessman in Moroto District, says.
Mr Ali has learnt to speak the Nga’Karimojong dialect with such distinction of a local Karimojong that you would only tell he is a foreigner by just his complexion.
“I married my wife here (in Karamoja) and all my children have been born and bred in Uganda,” Mr Ali says.
For Somali residents of Moroto town where scores of the refugees have lived for over five decades, the 7/11 bloodbath has been perceived as a spoiler to the peaceful coexistence they have enjoyed in Uganda.
Karamoja has possibly the biggest number of Somali immigrants spread across the region with most of the communities living in Moroto. “I used to think that I was a Ugandan, but my nationality has now been questioned (since the 7/11 bomb blasts). Not all Somalis are involved in terrorist activities. Somalis are grateful for the hospitality they have enjoyed in Uganda,” Hassan Isilow, a Ugandan journalist of Somali origin, wrote recently.
According to facts available on Somali immigration in Uganda, most of the refugees living in Karamoja entered the region through the northern border of Kenya with Uganda that for years has also been a conduit for arms trafficking.
“The porous border of Uganda with Kenya has been a longstanding issue on security in Karamoja. Much of the gun trafficking into the region is through the border,” the UPDF 3rd Division spokesperson, Capt. Henry Obbo, said.
Porous border
The entire eastern region border has since been named one of the most porous through which terrorists sneaked into the country and bombed football fans in Kabalagala and Kyadondo.
At least 86 people were killed in the twin blasts that have since been associated with the militant Somali bred al Shabaab insurgents fighting to dislodge the Transitional Government of Somalia.
The attacks sparked suspicion of Somalis in Kampala and across the country who have been blamed for allegedly harbouring the militants. “The biggest problem is to tell a genuine Somali from a criminal one. That is why it is important for people to closely watch their neighbours,” Police crime intelligence officer for Mid-Eastern region, Mr Patrick Aboku, says.
Somalis living in Uganda have mainly been surviving on small businesses ranging from operation of restaurants to passenger service vehicles across the country.
Inter-marriages set in
“Some of the Somalis in Karamoja have been married to Karimojong. They speak fluent Nga’Karimojong and I would not think they can take part in such shocking act against the people who have hosted them for all that time,” Moroto chairperson Peter Ken Lochap said.
He said businesses run by the Somalis in Moroto have been disrupted from the time the bombs exploded in Kampala about a fortnight ago.
Source: Daily Monitor