Kenya weapons haul destroyed

Kenya weapons haul destroyed

Ready for incineration, 1,000 illegal weapons

The authorities in Kenya have put to the torch 1,000 firearms confiscated from urban criminals and nomadic cattle herders.

The weapons went up in smoke on a giant bonfire in Nairobi.

It is to be the first of many - nearly 7,000 more semi-automatic rifles and handguns are to be destroyed in the same way.

They have been collected over the past few years as part of a regional drive against violent crime in east Africa.

The bonfire was lit by the Kenyan vice-president Michael Wamalwa, who called the weapons destruction a milestone in efforts to create an arms-free region.

"Let us look at the pain humanity has been spared by putting these weapons out of circulation," he said.

The illegal weapons stack goes up in flames

The move follows an agreement reached in 2000 by the leaders of 10 states in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region to try to stamp out small arms proliferation.

Weapons from the many conflicts in the region find their way into the hands of criminal gangs and cattle rustlers.

The driving force for implementing the agreement in Kenya was the Pastoralist Peace and Development Initiative.

One of its co-ordinators, Hussein Yusuf, explained that more than 1,000 people had been killed in fighting over water, pasture and land over the past two years.

"This kind of thing we are seeing today sends a message to the people who are bringing in these guns," he said.

National plan

"Before this, they never took any action seriously."

Next week, the Kenyan authorities plan to identify the parts of the country where weapons proliferation is most serious, particularly in the northern pastoral regions bordering Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia.

A government minister has said a national action plan against violent cattle rustling will be launched.

It will include campaigns against "outdated cultural practices" such as cattle theft and promote economic diversification.