Three cattle owners were on Monday arrested by the commissioner of Rumbek Central County in Lakes State for allegedly grazing their cattle in village farms.
Rumbek Central County Commissioner Dut Manak told Radio Tamazuj Wednesday that he arrested the three cattle owners because they were fomenting conflict between pastoralists and cultivators on Tuesday.
“I am here to address my community of Rumbek center about the random movement of cattle into farmlands because this has become a problem between the farmers and pastoralists. As a government, we stand with the farmers to protect their crops to make sure that they are not destroyed,” he said. “We customary law and the Public Order Act which was passed by the Lakes State parliament and government. This Public Order Act 2022 was launched this year by our governor and Section 25 in Chapter 4 talks about the random movement of cattle and says whoever intentionally drives cattle into a farm has the intention of provoking a crisis and has committed an offense punishable by one year in jail.”
“This is one of our laws and we are using it as the state and county governments to make sure our laws are not just kept in the drawers are implemented,” Commissioner Manak added.
He said the three youths who have been arrested are waiting for a fair trial according to customary law and Section 25 of the Public Order Act 2022.
“I would like to advise and give an order to all payam and boma administrators that there is no compromise for grazing on gardens,” Manak said. “So, my message is for all administrators to abide by this order and give us reports of what is happening.”
The commissioner also said Governor Rin Tueny Mabor has ordered that crops will not be sold outside Lakes State this year.
“We will implement the order by our governor that there will be no sale of agricultural produce outside Lakes State this year because the state experienced a shortage of rainfall this year and there will be hunger,” Manak said. “It is also another order to be observed that there are no crops to be sold in the market. This is to make sure that we mitigate hunger.”