[1][5] The Karamojong live in the southern part of the region in the north-east of Uganda, occupying an area equivalent to one tenth of the country.

The Lango in Uganda are also ethnically and genetically close to the ŋiKarimojong, evidenced by similar names among other things, though they adopted a dialect of the Luo language.

[8] Due to the arid climate of the region, the Karamojong have always practised a sort of pastoral transhumance, where for 3–4 months in a year, they move their livestock to the neighboring districts in search of water and pasture for their animals.

As successive generations have an increasing overlap in age, this leads logically to a breakdown of the system, which appears to have occurred after rules were relaxed in the nineteenth century among their close Neighbours, the Jie.

When this can no longer be resolved peacefully, the breakdown in order leads to a switch in power from the ruling generation to their successors and a new status quo.

This is because cattle are an important element in the negotiations for a bride and young men use the raids as a rite of passage and way of increasing their herds to gain status.

The Ugandan government has attempted to disarm the Karamojong but they have been reluctant to give up their weapons due to a need to defend themselves against cross-border cattle raids.

[1] The Department for Karamoja Affairs was established by the Ugandan government to address the special needs of the area; in 2000, it was estimated that the Karamojong people had between 100,000 and 150,000 weapons.

[11] The Karamojong have been continually discriminated against in the modern era, first for resisting British colonizers in what is now Uganda, and in the late 20th and 21st centuries for maintaining underdeveloped villages compared to more urban parts of the country.

[12] Then-Prime Minister Milton Obote famously said in 1963 "We shall not wait for Karamoja to develop," advocating for the Ugandan government to effectively abandon their fellow countrymen.