Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers accused of shooting Mosopisyek man in the head
Kibet Emanuel was peacefully grazing his cows on his community’s ancestral lands when numerous witnesses say that they saw him being shot at a distance by UWA rangers from Kapsekek UWA station in Bukwo.
The Mosopisyek continue to suffer severe violence and abuse at the hands of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).
UWA are pursuing an outdated colonial conservation practice that is discredited throughout the world as being both counter-productive in terms of conservation and abusive in terms of human rights.
A recent example of this violent approach was on the 12th June 2025. The Mosopisyek explain that a UWA ranger shot a young 25 year old Mosopisyek man in the head.
Kibet Emanuel is critically ill in hospital. UWA does not admit responsibility but has paid $275 towards his medical costs. The Mosopisyek are clear that this signals UWA’s implicit acceptance that they are responsible. However, it is normal for UWA to both deny any responsibility and yet - in cases where UWA has been accused of killing a community member - pay about $1,000 towards that person’s funeral costs.
The Mosopisyek's struggle for land and recognition
The Mosopisyek of Benet Indigenous People have lived in the moorland of Mount Elgon, Uganda, since time immemorial, numbering about 12,500 in about 1,600 households. They live in four clusters whose boundaries are rivers.
The Mosopisyek wish for the same relationship with UWA that the Elgon Ogiek on the other side of the mountain in Kenya have with the Kenya Wildlife Service. The Elgon Ogiek are living on the ancestral lands and protecting the wildlife and forest. The Mosopisyek want their rights to their lands secured, and their decision-making structures recognised, so that they can together protect the environment they cherish. Where the Ogiek are on their lands on the Kenya side, the elephant numbers flourish. On the Uganda side where UWA has evicted the Mosopisyek, the elephants have disappeared.
When the National Park was created, the moorland that the Mosopisyek depend on for grazing their cattle, for honey, for cultural sites and for living, was made out of bounds for settlement and grazing.
The government forcefully evicted the Indigenous moorland owners (the Mosopisyek), with the aid of the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
This led to the impounding of cows, arbitrary arrests for illegal entry, and no access to resources such as honey and cultural sites. While this was being done against the Mosopisyek, some UWA officials were colluding with the Sabinys (the dominant ethnic group) who were doing timber logging under the pretext of conserving and protecting the forest.
Since then the Mosopisyek have suffered severely at the hands of UWA: not only evictions and impounding of cattle, but beatings, rape and murder.
Overview
- Resource Type:
- News
- Publication date:
- 25 June 2025
- Programmes:
- Conservation and human rights
