Amudat MP, Francis Kiyonga, has finally bitten the bullet. As the representative of the Pokot people in Parliament, he is the most credible voice where the affairs of the area are concerned; more than any pretender to national conscience.

But where was he before?Three months ago after a tour of the Karamoja region, UPC president, Dr. Olara Otunnu, in a press conference, boldly came out with the story of the castration of Karimojong men in the "disarmament" exercise by the UPDF.

Later the former ESO boss, David Pulkol, in an address at a rally in Gulu talked of the "Trinity of Evil" operating against the people in Karamoja. A little after that, donors led by the EU Head of Mission, Vincent de Visscher, visited the place to "see" for themselves.

I now read in the Monitor that the chairman of Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), Medi Kaggwa, saying: "... preliminary findings confirm that a number of people, including children and the elderly, were killed in various operations...." So how can an armchair army spokesman.

Lt. Col. Felix Kulaigye, contradict somebody among whose docket is the situation in Karamoja?The Karimojong elder, Losipole Aromutor, makes Kulaigye's protestations nonsense when his own Commander-in-Chief compensates the old man for the rustling of his cows by the UPDF.

What Aromutor said was most poignant: that the UPDF has turned a "tribe of cattle rustlers".

Even before Otunnu exposed the UPDF brigandage in the area, information had been leaking that the operation, presumably led by the UPDF Special Forces .

Under the command of none other than first son, Lt. Col. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, was causing havoc.

What happened to the Anti-Stock Theft Unit, again, presumably an elite Police force, that it had to be replaced by an elite UPDF army? Where is the issue of policing in this country?

It is understandable that Kiyonga could not have come up with the information earlier.

The full force of the military would have swamped his voice. On several occasions, it is understood that Kiyonga has been threatened not to reveal what has been happening in the area.

Indeed, ambushes against his vehicle have been laid against him, not most likely by the same cattle rustlers, whom he has been accused to be a part of.

It is doubtful to what extent of usefulness the UHRC can go in "investigating" and "reporting" or "recommending" action against the perpetrators.

That is why it is understood that when some time ago Otunnu was going to the US, he took along with him to the United Nations Security Council a number of picture cassette tapes his team had shot of people against whom the atrocities had been committed.

This came against the background of the ICC conference that was hosted here. The ICC Public Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, had been adamant that any human rights abuses committed against the people of Uganda by the UPDF after July 2002 had to have concrete evidence;

And that anything before that was as a result of altercation with the LRA. Ocampo appeared to want to get the UPDF off the hook from what has taken place in Uganda in the last 25 years.

In other words that had to be excusable or put at the doorstep of the LRA. A number of observers of the political scene claimed that Ocampo talked like a man who had been "compromised".

But with this expose, it is interesting to see how Ocampo will react. Will he ignore the "evidence", because it came from the "Opposition"?

If that were the case would he not visit the records of the UHRC to verify the truth? It is probably diplomatically "difficult" to have the EU to give its own account of what has been going on in Karamoja to the ICC, but if there is any organization internationally credible, it would be it.

It would be cavalier to arrest Kiyonga for stating the "truth" about the killing and "cattle rustling" perpetrated against the people of Karamoja that everybody knows about.

The issue is actually accepting and facing up to the truth. What is more, it is incumbent upon any investigator to find out the other reasons behind the "disarmament exercise" in Karamoja.      
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