Minister survives lynching in Mbale

The angry residents exchanging words with officials at Namatala swamp Below is the vehicle belonging to JICA officials after the mob pelted stones at it. PHOTO BY DAVID MAFABI.

What you need to know:

The angry mob alleged that the minister and district officials were trying to steal their land.

MBALE.

Chaos ensued as a minister and district officials fled in different directions from a charged crowd that claimed the officials had come to grab their land.

Gunfire rocked Kibiniko village in Bungokho Sub-county in Mbale District as residents armed with spears, clubs and stones chased the Environment state minister, Ms Flavia Nabugera Munaaba, and her entourage from a disputed swamp outside Mbale Municipality.

The minister, accompanied by LC5 chairpersons, RDCs, CAOs, wetland and environment officials from the districts of Budaka, Manafwa, Bududa, Kibuku, Pallisa and Tororo, had come to launch the Doho – Namatala Wetland System Framework Management Plan.

The JICA project is meant to promote the growing of rice and protection of the wetland in the swampy land that has been a source of conflict between the Bagisu and neibouring Bagwere tribes.

As the minister’s entourage toured the area, residents started shouting, brandishing clubs and pangas, demanding that the minister and officials leave. “You will not grab our land.” “Get off our land,” the residents shouted as others undressed, nude to express their dissatisfaction. On sensing danger, the minister and her team began a retreat towards their waiting vehicles.

Charged, the mob threw stones at them as they chased, necessitating the team to run for dear life. Efforts by the Regional Police Commander, Jacob Opolot, together with the eight policemen who had been deployed, to calm down the enraged residents were futile. They continued hurling insults and pelting stones at the minister and her entourage.

In the process Ms Munaaba’s official vehicle UG 1864A was hit and damaged on the sides while another vehicle Reg No UG 1840S belonging to JICA, where the Japanese team leader, Mr Yasuhiko Muramapsu, was seated had its hind windscreen shattered. Mr Muramapsu is also the deputy head national wetlands project.

It’s at this moment that the RPC ordered his men to shoot in the air to scare off the advancing crowd. Whichever official managed to locate his vehicle ordered the driver to speed off. Eva Kyeyune, Programme Officer in charge of Water and Environment at JICA scampered past the vehicle and was picked later from the nearby bush.

The mob didn’t discriminate between the officials and journalists covering the event. Uganda Radio Network’s Dennis Olaka was hit with a brick on a shoulder and was given first aid at a clinic in Mbale.

After trudging back to Bungokho Sub-county, the minister looked tired and distraught. Ms Munaaba described the action by the residents as “uncouth behavior.” “Nobody was going to carry away their land. We just want to implement a project from which all the residents will benefit,” Munaaba later told the Daily Monitor.

RPC Opolot blamed the fracas on failure by the local government leaders to sensitise the locals about the planned project, ahead of the visit, as had been agreed.

The Mbale RDC, Umaru Nangoli, his deputy Emmy Mitala and the LC5 chairperson, Benard Mujaasi, were conspicuously absent. Their colleagues grumbled that they could have had prior knowledge of what would befall them.

The Director of Environment Affairs in the ministry of Water and Environment, Paul Mafabi, observed that the $4m (about Shs8b) project was meant to teach residents sustainable use of the environment. “This would enable them fight poverty by growing rice which fetches a good yield and price. It’s time for them to rethink whether they like the project or not,” Mafabi advised.

There are 20 other such pilot projects that are being implemented by government and JICA in the country. Manafwa RDC, Henry Nalyanya vowed that all those who assaulted the minister and Local Government leaders will be arrested. “We know them,” Nalyanya said.

Earlier, before the incident, Munaaba had handed over computers, cameras, GPS gadgets and internet modems to the CAOs of the eight districts to launch the project.