In March 1962 by the wells at Lopukthke on River Tarach in Kakuma, hundreds of Turkanas, mostly old men, were brutally tortured, leading to the death of five. The victims had been rounded up by the 7th platoon of ‘C’ Company, 4th (Uganda) Battalion Kings African Rifles, under the command of Lieutenant Idi Amin, in an operation code-named “Utah” to deal with cattle rustling.
The victims’ wrists were tied with ropes and they were made to lie down on the ground naked, either face-down or on their backs, before soldiers beat them. According to new details in the previously classified records, one headman known as Nyanyiro, who was part of the operation, claimed Amin, who later became Uganda’s President after staging a coup in 1971, instructed soldiers: “Kamata WaTurkana. Walete hapa. Piga.” (Arrest the Turkana , bring them here, and beat them up).
The beating was so intense that the victims still bore wounds five months after the operation. A report by a physician found the marks to be consistent with beating, while a skeletal examination on the dead by pathologist Dr Maurice Rogoff found bone fractures caused by “sufficient violence.”
Those who died as a result of torture were Locheriyang Aliyo, Lorinyok Lokichu, Nachakul Abolem, Ebure Lochodo and Nyiro Achekede. Most of them were old as the young men had fled. For example, Lochodo was 60 years old and unwell. He had just been removed from his manyatta and made to walk in a column of prisoners to the makeshift detention centre at Loputhke when, for no proper reason, Private Charles Ngurya opened fire on a detainee called Lopeto Porok, shooting him in the arm.
The sound of the gun made the detainees flee to the bushes, leaving Ebure Lochodo, who was too weak to escape, behind. Soldiers, incensed by the escape, unleashed their anger on Ebure Lochodo, beating him to death on the same day. According to one victim’s account as recorded by the CID, the soldiers beat him on the way to a nearby lorry and later under the shade of a big tree at Loputhke. At one point he fell from the moving lorry.
14 fractures
Following the exhumation of the dead as ordered by a court, a pathologist’s report revealed that Ebure Lochodo’s skeleton had a total of 14 fractures in various bones due to violent torture. There was also evidence of some bodies being eaten by wild animals, especially which of Lorinyak Lokichu, which was found in a dry stream, headless and with no lower parts of the legs.
The background of the operation is as follows: Cattle raiding was part of the pattern of Turkana men’s way of life. In the words of Robin Williamson, the District Officer Turkana, “it was as important to them as marriage and dancing”. These raidings took them across the border to the Ugandan Karamojong, Ethiopian Gelubbe, or Sudanese Toposa, who would also launch retaliatory raids. The long boundaries and the terrain of the area made close border control and administration impracticable.
By 1960, the raids by the Turkana against the Karamojong in Uganda had reached alarming proportions. On June 30, 1960, while a meeting between the chiefs of the Dodoth section of Karamojong and those of Turkana at Moroto was taking place, a force of Turkana warriors crossed the border and killed 26 Dodoth and fled to Kenya with many head of cattle.
According to a report filed at Lokichoggio by the District Commissioner, the raids were led by the Ngwatella clan of the Turkana and were conducted using Steyr 8mm rifles obtained from Southern Ethiopia. Following the attack, there was a successful joint military and police operation, which disarmed the Turkana and 216 rifles were discovered in August 1960.
Disarming operation
But this did not stop Turkanas from conducting further raids against the Karamoja’s Dodoth. Between August 1960 and December 1961, they conducted a number of raids against them and made away with many cattle, which one report put at 26,000. During this period, some 300 people from both Uganda and Kenya were believed to have been killed.
Because of the frequency of the raids and skirmishes, Kenya and Uganda, in consultation with the Colonial Office, agreed that another disarming operation was necessary. However, heavy rain in June and “Operation Vantage” in Kuwait in July forced the authorities to postpone the operation.
By October 1961, the Ugandan government was again piling pressure on the Kenya Government to take action. This led to a conference at Lodwar between Ugandan Minister for Internal Security Mr G Oda and Sir Geoffrey Ellerton, Kenya’s Permanent Secretary for Defence, during which it was decided that the Ngwatella section of the Turkana should be disarmed.
But it was not going to be an easy exercise. The Ngwatella were the largest Turkana clan covering a large area stretching from the Ethiopian border round to West Uganda. It was also believed that it had about 800 guns “as the mainspring of its aggressive and truculent behaviour.”
Battalion Kings African Rifle
On December 22, 1961, the Northern Frontier Provincial Security Committee met at Lodwar and decided that the operation should be launched in February 1962. The Committee asked for military assistance and the 5th (Kenya) Battalion Kings African Rifle under the command of Lieutenant Colonel APH Hartely was put at their disposal. This battalion recruited most of its soldiers from Kenya where it was also stationed. Since the battalion didn’t have enough soldiers for the operations, the 4th Battalion Kings African Rifles, which was recruited and stationed in Uganda, agreed to lend its ‘C’ company for the operation.
On February 14,1962, Kenya formally launched the operation by making orders under Section 7 of the Special Districts Administration Ordinance . The order declared that the Ngwatella were in possession of illegal weapons which they used to conduct raids, and that they had intimidated other sections of the Turkanas to join them in the raids.
The government was of the opinion that these acts were incompatible with the due exercise of law and order and were acts of hostility. Accordingly, it ordered “the arrest of all members of Ngwatella section of the Turkana, the seizure of all property of the said section, and the detention in safe custody of all persons and property so arrested and seized.
The operation had been named “Cabin Room” but for unknown reasons it was changed to “Operation Utah.” The 7th platoon of C Company made up of 27 men under the command of Lt Amin arrived on February 18 and were briefed the next evening by Lt-Col Hartley, the Commanding Officer of the 5th (Kenya) Battalion KAR. They were assigned to the Kakuma area.
Expressed ignorance
“Operation Utah” formally began on February 20 , but Amin’s platoon never made any headway in the first five days. This was because all the young Turkana tribesmen had fled to the hills with guns, leaving women and elderly members who expressed ignorance of anything to do with rifles or ammunition.
Idi Amin’s platoon subsequently rounded up 231 men, 313 women, 450 children and many heads of stock from the surrounding manyattas and marched them to Loputhke.
The men were detained in a zareba, a thorn enclosure about 400 by 50 square feet, while women and children found their own shelter under small bushes. The zareba was so crammed with detainees that the ground could not be seen between them.
According to witness accounts, the Turkana were put in the scorching sun for days. On a number of occasions they were made to lie on their backs staring up into the sun, which led to headaches, temporary blindness, sore eyes and vomiting. Witnesses also said that inside and outside the zareba soldiers hit them with rifle buts, clubs, spears and sticks.
The operation ended on March 11, 1962 with the release of all Turkana prisoners. But soon allegations of brutality began to emerge in the area covered by Amin’s platoon. BY DAILY NATION