District, NFA clash over evictions

Rakai.

A row is brewing between leaders in Rakai District and National Forestry Authority (NFA) officials over the latter’s move to evict residents on Lake Kijjanebalora catchment area.
According to NFA officials, more than 20,000 residents in the sub-counties of Kagamba, Kyalulangira, Kacheera and Kiziba are occupying the area illegally and must vacate to allow the forestry body to recover forest reserves in the area.
Mr Denis Ssebugwawo, the NFA manager in-charge of Sango Bay Range, says the move is part of their wider plan to restore all depleted forest reserves across the country.
“After the boundary opening and reconnaissance, we have planned a series of stakeholder engagements to prepare the affected encroachers for the eventual evacuation from these protected areas,” he says.
Mr Ssebugwawo adds that they will be looking at the size of the land each resident owns, number of households in the area, when they occupied the land, government installations including schools and health units, among others.
He further notes that the National Forestry and Tree Planting Act, 2003 only grants permission to communities to do forest-based activities such as bee keeping, tree planting and eco-tourism upon approval from the Authority.
The forest reserves NFA seeks to recover measure between 5,000 and 8,000 hectares.
“We are not targeting those people as individuals but this is a nationwide campaign to allow all our forests regenerate naturally and save the country from future negative impacts of climate change,” Ssebugwawo says.
However, politicians in the district protest the move, saying the evictions will render residents homeless yet they have stayed on the land for more than 50 years.
Mr Amos Mandela, the Buyamba County MP, castigates NFA, saying they lack proper knowledge of their boundaries, insisting that the disputed land never had forests before.
“What makes a forest are the trees, but they have never existed in all those areas they claim to protect. If NFA wants to promote afforestation, let them sensitise residents and give them tree seedlings to plant rather than threatening them with eviction,” he says, wondering how government could set up infrastructure such as roads, schools and health centres in gazetted forest reserves if such areas are not for human settlement.
Mr Mandela cites Buyamba Sub-county which he says has seven and 12 government and private schools respectively, 17 churches, three public and nine health facilities.
“Does NFA want to tell us that those facilities were put in place for snakes and animals to enjoy? he asks.
Ms Juliet Ssuubi Kinyamatama, the Rakai Woman MP, advises NFA to reconsider their decision and look for idle land within the said reserves where they can plant trees instead of inconveniencing locals.