More Uganda officers moved from Migingo

Ugandan marine police officers based at the disputed Migingo Island in Lake Victoria have been replaced by a new team.

The latest move came barely three days after three senior officers were recalled to Bugiri District on suspicion of having shot and seriously injured two Kenyan fishermen on the island.

The new officers arrived aboard a motor boat. The boat left with eight officers who were previously manning the island.

Although the Ugandan national flag has not been hoisted on the island for several months since it was brought down following protests from the Kenyan authorities, fishermen questioned what became of the joint technical survey team picked by the two East African nations.

“Everything has gone quite since the Ugandan experts left to ostensibly consult their seniors in Kampala. Our Government on the other hand is not saying anything as far as the island ownership is concerned,” says a fisherman Mr Patrick Onyango who has worked in the lake for nine years.

But the makeshift police camp manned by the Ugandans is still intact with a functional radio room for transmitting signals to their seniors on the mainland and a cell.

Offenders are usually taken in for “interrogation” at the camp.

Kenyan fishermen and traders said they were tired of operating at the mercy of the Ugandans whom they accused of intimidating and extorting cash from them daily.

The three officers transferred earlier were said to have been on the forefront of intimidating and harassing Kenyan fishermen and traders operating on the island. The officers were recalled back to Bugiri District as Kenyans celebrated their exit. Their removal came barely a few days after the Ugandan authorities launched investigations into the shooting of the two Kenyan fishermen.

The team led by a commandant of marine police identified only as Mr Opache arrived on the island in Lake Victoria last week to establish under what circumstances the Ugandan police shot the victims.

He interrogated the officers manning the island before recording statements from the suspects who reportedly pulled the trigger.

The Migori District police chief Eric Mugambi had led the Kenyan team to the island and described his meeting with the Ugandan counterparts as “very important”.“ We reached a raft of resolutions aimed at defusing tension on the island before the two Governments finally resolve the pending ownership dispute,” he said.

The chairman of the Migingo beach management unit Mr Juma Ombori said Kenyan fishermen were tired of consistent harassment and intimidation by the Ugandan police and called for their removal from the fish-rich one – acre island.

The two fishermen were said to have been shot accidentally by stray bullets when the officers tried to separate two fighting fishermen.

One was shot on the hand and the other on his abdomen although medical workers said they were out of danger. The Ugandan officers were reported to have fired to scare the fighting duo – a Kenyan and a Ugandan, when the stray bullets injured the victims who were several metres away in their boats mending fishing nets.

Kenyans questioned why the officers pulled the trigger horizontally instead of pointing in the air. “And it was a minor fight that did not warrant wastage of bullets. These Ugandans officers have become a menace and it was time our Government kicked them out,” said a fisherman Mr Malachi Owiyo.

Just last month, tension gripped the island following a fight between a Ugandan fisherman and a Kenyan female trader.

The two had differed over what was termed as “personal issues”, before going for each other’s throat. Kenyan fishermen present joined in the fracas thereby seriously injuring the Ugandan national who was later rushed by boat to a Bugiri District hospital for treatment. In the same month, a Kenyan fisherman Mr Benson Otieno Bunde was reportedly tortured by the Ugandan officers for demanding his Sh800 in change from a Ugandan trader.

The incident sparked off bitter protests from Kenyans, thereby bringing fishing operation at the busy island to a standstill. Leaders from South Nyanza demanded State security for fishermen operating on the island. MPs Edick Anyanga (Nyatike) and John Pesa (Migori) said the Kenyans must be protected from arbitrary arrests and intimidation by the Ugandan security forces guarding the island.

Mr Bunde had just eaten a meal of beans, chapati and beef worth Sh200 and produced a Sh1,000 note to pay the bill. But since the trader did not have the change, he asked the fisherman to come later, only to be arrested when he returned a few hours later.