Residents of Panyangara trading centre in Kotido municipality in Kotido district have lynched two Karimojong rustlers who were seen loitering with a gun in the town centre.
The two were killed on Friday around 7pm after the community members saw one of them armed as they were moving together looking for a boda boda to take them to an unknown destination.
Peter Lokiru one of the witnesses told our reporter that the concerned members grabbed the warriors and started beating them.
“By the time Police and the army reached at the scene, the two were already dead,” he said.
Marry Loukai ,another resident, said the community is tired of people being killed by armed rustlers.
She said one week ago a businessman was shot dead while going to his home in Panyangara trading centre.
“I believed these people had a mission either to go and kill someone or even to raid that is why the community had to kill them,” she said.
Moses Akena, the District Police Commander(DPC) Kotido, confirmed the incident saying the police reached the scene but found the two suspects already dead.
“What we got from the community members was only a gun with two bullets in it,” he said.
Akena appealed to the community not to take the law into their hands.
“Like now these two people killed, they have died with vital information, they would have told us where they were going and to do what, and also they would have revealed to us their other group members,” he said.
According to Akena, one warrior was dressed in an army uniform and he was the one armed.
Currently, some cattle rustlers are now wearing military fatigues to pass off as soldiers while committing crimes.
The rustlers get access to the military clothes by killing soldiers and removing the uniforms from them.