Twelve Kenyans missing at disputed island

Twelve Kenyan fishermen have gone missing and are said to be in custody of Ugandan soldiers manning the disputed Migingo Island in western Kenyan.

Sources said the missing fishermen were in a group of 24 Kenyans arrested by heavily armed Ugandan UPDF soldiers who have sealed off all entries to the island.

According to Muhuru Bay Councilor Tobias Warentho, the fishermen are said to have been arrested on Wednesday as they were going on with their fishing activities.

Twelve of them were temporarily detained in the lake, relieved of their catches, and fuel drained from their boats before being left inside the lake forcing them to row to the shore.

Warentho said some of the fishermen said they had been tortured by the Ugandans. The 12 fishermen who were still missing by Thursday afternoon were said to be detained at a tiny cell on the island. Reasons for the arrests were not yet clear.

The news of the arrests came as angry youths in Kisumu town tried to barricade the Kisumu-Busia road to block Ugandan trucks from using the road over the Migingo row.

Kisumu police chief Simon Kiragu said the youths tried to block the road at Kachock but were dispersed by police. The youths, most of them taxi operators, said they would stop movement of Uganda bound goods through Kisumu.

The Ugandan soldiers are also now forcing Kenyans operating businesses on the island to display portraits of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni instead of that of Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.

Besides the portrait, they also want the island renamed Kaguta, after Museveni's middle name. "Things have suddenly changed. This people appear to be preparing for war," said Mark Ouma, a fisherman.

In Muhuru, Warentho said hundreds of fishermen held demonstrations to protest the arrest of their colleagues and illegal occupation of Migingo by Ugandan forces.

"This is just another way of frustrating the Kenyans to make them leave the island," Warentho said, adding that cases of fishermen being detained on the lake and losing the catch had been on the increase since the Ugandans begun their occupation of the island.

Warentho has now appealed to the Kenyan government to help in tracing the missing fishermen saying it was causing great worry to their families.

"We are still not yet aware of where our brothers are," he said, adding that if the Kenyans had committed any offence, then they had to be held in the country and charged in Kenyan courts.

Ugandan securities have always arrested Kenyans and moved them over to Bugiri district, over 200 kilometers away where some of them have been charged in the Ugandan courts with trespass.

Kenyan lawmaker representing the region, Edick Anyanga has in the meanwhile angrily reacted to the news of arrest, terming it as "unacceptable".

Speaking on phone, Anyanga said it was time Kenyan security authorities took a "decisive" action against the Ugandans to stop the arrests ion the Kenyans operating on the island.

"The country's first and foremost duty is to protect its citizens," Anyanga said.

At the same time, the six to six curfew imposed a day ago still stands as the Ugandan continue to flex their muscle on the island.

This follows a meeting held on the island between a Ugandan army Brigadier who is in charge of the island and fishermen operating on the island.

Under the new rules, occupants of the island will be expected to remain in doors from six in the evening until six in the morning the following day.

The soldiers, who are armed with machine guns and artilleries among other weapons moved in on Tuesday morning and surrounded the entire island, sealing off all the entry routes.

According to the local Beach Management Unit official Juma Ombori, the action has caused a lot of panic among the fishermen making it unable for them to go on with their normal fishing activities.

"Its is impossible to go on with our activities when the entire island is sealed with armed soldiers," Ombori said, adding that the island was like a battle zone. Ombori also criticized the decision to put a time limit saying the action will greatly affect fishing on the island.

He said some types of fish were only caught at night and telling the fishermen to be in the houses by six in the evening was tantamount to killing their business.

Ugandan soldiers have also introduced new charges to Kenyan fishermen who must now pay 500 shillings (about 6.3 U.S. dollars) daily for docking their boats on the beaches. Those who refused to pay the charges have already been notified to either leave the island for "Kenya" or put up with the Ugandans rules as they were in a "Ugandan territory".

Speaking immediately after the new charges were announced, Ombori said the Kenyan fishermen will however not pay the charges because there was an agreement that one was to pay anything until the ownership issue was resolved.