Who is Joseph Kony

Joseph Kony

Joseph Rao Kony born in 1961, is a native of Odek, a village north of Uganda. He belongs to the Acholi tribe.and the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) initially called the United Holy Salvation Army (UHSA), a Ugandan guerrilla group.

Kony was born into a christian family as his father was a lay catechist of the Catholic Church and his mother an Anglican. He served as an altar boy till the age of 15.

Joseph Kony was first known in 1986 when he became the leader of the United Holy Salvation Army, (UHSA), which was later to be know as Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The UHSA emerged in Acholi land after Yoweri Museveni overthrew President Tito Okello of Acholi tribe.

Kony claims to be a spokesperson of God and a spirit medium. The ideology of his group is a mixture of Acholi nationalism, Islam, Mysticism and Christian fundamentalism and the group aspires to establish a religious state based on Ten Commandments and local Acholi tradition.

He is accused of abducting children as child-soldiers and child-sex-slaves. Kony's method of operation is to have the families and neighbours of the children his group wants to abduct killed, leaving the children with no choice but to follow and fight for him. An estimated 66,000 children was said to have been conscripted into LRA since 1986 and over 2 million people displaced by Kony and his group. The LRA carries out its nefarious activities in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan. 

 

Joseph Kony was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Crimainal Court   ( ICC ) in the Hague, Netherlands in 2005. However, Kony has managed to remain elusive.