Residents want fishermen evicted

Settled. The fishermen have put up makeshift structures at Mayanzi Landing Site in Wakiso District. PHOTO BY EVE MUGANGA

What you need to know:

  • Although he insisted that the islanders have to swiftly relocate to gazetted landing sites, the deputy Entebbe Mayor, Mr Richard Ssenyondo, said they have to stay since all landing sites in the peninsular town are overpopulated amid poor hygienic standards.
  • Instead, Mr Ssenyondo advised property owners in the area to fence off their premises.

ENTEBBE. More than 1,000 fishermen at Mayanzi Sub-ward in Entebbe Municipality face eviction.

School proprietors and owners of residential houses in the area claim the fishermen, who relocated to the Lake Victoria shoreline recently, are a security concern.
Mayanzi is one of the emerging suburbs of Entebbe with superior residential houses and educational institutions such as Merryland High School, Shoreline Technical Institute and Kigungu Primary School.

The fishermen were evicted from Makusa and Lwamunyo islands in Lake Victoria by the Fisheries Protection Unit of Uganda People’s Defence Forces for allegedly tampering with the fish breeding sites last month.

“Those islanders are drug addicts and also engage in other immoral activities of a sexual nature and we fear they may seduce our girls into bad behaviour. They are going to set up bars and lodges that are a source of evil,” Mr John Lukwago, a board member of Entebbe Girls School, said during an interview on Wednesday. “We have already instructed our lawyers to institute legal proceedings against municipal authorities over failure to relocate those people to gazetted landing sites,” he added.

Daily Monitor has seen a copy of a May 11 letter from lawyers representing Entebbe Girls School and other residents threatening to sue municipal authorities if no action is taken to evict the fishermen.
“We shall seek legal redress, should your office take no action against these migrants and their activities,” a letter from Fides Legal Advocates reads in part.

Leaders disagree
The relocation of the fishermen has already caused friction between Entebbe municipal authorities and the Wakiso District fisheries officer, Mr Michael Lubulwa.
Although he insisted that the islanders have to swiftly relocate to gazetted landing sites, the deputy Entebbe Mayor, Mr Richard Ssenyondo, said they have to stay since all landing sites in the peninsular town are overpopulated amid poor hygienic standards.

Instead, Mr Ssenyondo advised property owners in the area to fence off their premises.
In his April 30 letter addressed to the Entebbe Town Clerk, Mr Charles Maguma, Mr Lubulwa reasoned that allowing the islanders to settle at Mayanzi will be in contravention of the Fish Act, Statutory Instrument No.33 (Fishing Rules of 2010).

“During the fisheries licensing exercise that was conducted in March and April, I established that there was an illegal landing site that is developing on the shoreline in Mayanzi Sub-ward, some distance away from Kigungu Landing Site,” Mr Lubulwa’s letter reads in part

But Mr Ssenyondo said evicting the fishermen will not automatically solve the problem of illegal fishing, adding that the municipality is currently in a process of expanding the boundaries of Kigungu Landing Site to cover Mayanzi where the affected group settled.
But when contacted, Mr Magumu, said the municipality was ready to cooperate with the district to relocate the fishermen.

“If it is not a gazzetted landing site, they[fishermen] should look for gazzetted landing sites ,if not ,let them go back to where they came from,’’ he said.
Mr Fred Mululi, who led the fishermen to settle at Mayanzi said they settlement was okayed by the municipal authorities.
He added that they agreed with municipal council officials not to construct lodges and bars in the area .

“Some people are making all sorts of allegations to tarnish our name, but we are not criminals. We are here to earn a living,” he added.