Residents of Lugulu sub location in Butula sub county, Busia county have decried increased cases of theft of livestock especially cattle.
Led by James Ouma and Protus Oduori Ofwae, the locals said they have lost hundreds of cattle in the last three months to the thieves who they allege use pickups and lorries to ferry the animals at night to unknown place.
“When they steal in one home today, tomorrow they go to the neighborhood and the following day to the next.”
According to the locals, their efforts to nab the thieves have bore no fruits and are blaming the police for doing nothing to arrest the thieves who have become a nuisance.
“We have laid traps severally but the thieves dodge us every day. When we lay a trap at a point, they move to another to steal the cattle.” Mr Ouma said.
“We are being disturbed by thieves and we have AP camps around here, there is an administration police post at Malambisia and the officers are doing nothing to help us curb this manice of cattle theft.” He added.
Apart from livestock theft, Ouma who is the chairperson of bodaboda operators at Lugulu market has complained about the escalating cases of killings of bodabodas by thugs.
“Each night we are killed by robbers who take away our motorbikes. Every morning when we wake up we find our colleagues killed and their bodies dumped on the roadside but again the police are doing little to apprehend the thugs.”
They have also called on the county and national government to work together and upgrade Butula to Nambale road which is in deplorable state.
“We are having hard time going about our business because this road from Butula to Nambale is in poor state especially at Malanga market.” They said.
“We use a lot of fuel and time and at the end of the day we incur loss. When we ask the county government it refers us to the national government, when we request the national government through our MPs to repair the road, they say it’s under county government, so we are left confused,” they stated.
