Uganda Prisons spokesperson Frank Beine has confirmed that they have dispatched a team of investigators to establish the cause of prisoners’ escape from Moroto government prison but said they were not surprised that the escapees ran away with guns.
On Wednesday, 219 inmates including Karamojongs overpowered two prison guards who had gone to serve them supper and escaped from prison but broke into the prisons armory before they could ran away and took over 14 guns.
The prisoners are said to have taken off their uniforms to avoid detection as they fled naked to the nearby hills in Moutain Moroto.
Baine says although the government has largely been successful in its disarmament exercise, it’s almost impossible to completely withdraw all guns from Karamojongs.
In the early 2000’s, government started a program of disarming Karamojongs who for over 20 years had lived with guns with almost every Karamojong owning a gun which they used to fight other cattle keeping communities in Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan which in many times led to deaths.
