Two people from the same family have been brutally murdered in a family land wrangle in Katanga, Moroto Municipality. The incident which happened at 9am today has left Moroto residents in shock.
“Why would you kill someone just because of the piece of land?” Timothy Koriang, a resident of Rupa wondered.
“This is so painful. Was there no other way of solving this issue?”, Lobur Mark Burman, another resident said.
At the time of the incident, 60-year-old Maritina Lopido and her heavily pregnant daughter, Nakoru Anna were in the garden before they were speared to death by a suspect identified by police as Losike Peter.
Lopido and her daughter had recently triumphed in court after they opposed the splitting up of family land.
The suspect Peter Losike, who is also a nephew in the family, wanted the land in question divided so that he could he claim his own portion. The family rejected this and ended up in court.
The wider Moroto residents have blamed the land board and court for failing to resolve land conflicts in time.
“This land conflict has been in court for a long time. Sometimes people lose hope when institutions intended to help people are not playing their role,” Aleper Celestino a resident of Katanga told Nile Post
Police has promised to bring the culprit to book.
“We visited the crime scene and cordoned it off. We have established the identity of the suspect and it is only a matter of time before we arrest him,” Mike Longole, Karamoja Police Spokesperson said.
