FALSE RUMOURS ABOUT ‘OTONG TONG’ CUTTING OFF PEOPLE’S HEADS

 Otong tong is a word used to describe the group of people who cut people's heads or other body parts for human sacrifice.

Today at Kumalo Daily, we bring to you a letter titled "FALSE RUMOURS ABOUT ‘OTONG TONG’ CUTTING OFF PEOPLE’S HEADS" which was issued by the security personnels, enjoy reading it and stay informed.

Over a month now, people of Northern Uganda especially those neighbouring Karuma Bridge, have been awashed with misinformation- that groups of people are allegedly baying for people’s heads. That they want over ‘400 heads’ to appease the reconstruction of the bridge. This falsehood has inadvertently affected people of all walks of life including school going children, night travelers, business community and of course security agencies.

Please this must stop, it is purely a rumour in circulation. We need to sensitize our people to disregard these falsehoods and continue carrying out their daily routine activities freely.

This reminds me of the type of conflict resolution referred to as ‘Iceberg conflict resolution’. The causes of this rumour has both the physical and the underlying factors.

The physical causes of the false rumour is the misinformation video which happened in Bukonjo sub region in Kasese. An accident involving a victim (Boda Boda) hit the roadside pavers cutting off his neck. The head was seen carried by a police officer and put in the back of cabin vehicle.

Another physical cause of this rumour is the social media abusers mostly the elites meddling in propaganda in unsubstantiated matter without regard to the negative impact of their falsehoods. Without investigation, someone just posts on platform.

Meanwhile the underlying causes of these falsehoods are the impact of the two decades insurgence in Northern Uganda. This region is still recovering from the impact of the ravaged war- recalling bombs in terms of landmines, maimings, abductions, killings, ambushes and other forms of atrocities meted on the population. People of Northern Uganda are facing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Therefore we believe that these are imaginary nostalgic (the bad side) affecting the masses.

We were all victims at some point and it will take time for us to heal. Indeed the masses have concerns and need answers about the threat. But after investigation, these claims were found to be hogwash, unfounded and baseless.

Therefore, we call upon all stakeholders and people of goodwill to give clarity to our people so that the speculation stops. As security, we have thoroughly carried out investigation but found out that these were truly baseless. Nobody has been arrested in this regard and the head or heads shown in social media are not entirely from Northern Uganda but incidents which happened in far distant places. 

Otherwise as security we remain vigilant, observant and alert to contain any situation causing animosity among our population.