What next for railway evictees?

Lauben Tamale, 79 , ponders his next move after being evicted from railway line reserve land at Kinawattaka. Photo by Stephen Wandera

What you need to know:

The Daily Monitor caught up with a number of evictees who have no where to go after the evictions.

Kampala-One only needs to visit the sites of demolition in places like Namuwongo, Kinawataka, Ndeeba and Nalukolongo surburbs of Kampala where victims are holding on to hope.
In Namuwongo, where this reporter joined teary and hopeless families, the area is full of debris, victims are bitter, stranded and homeless.
But like in such circumstances, some people are not losing it all. They have salvaged some wood to sell off while children and women collect nails and metals to sell as scrap.
The boda boda cyclist, Mr Bahati Sendegeya, who transported our reporter to the sites, is one of the residents in Industrial View zone in Namuwongo whose house was brought down at 5am on July 28.
Victims angry at the media
With bitterness, one of the ladies in a blue blouse and black skirt says, “Why do you want to know about our situation now? Why didn’t you people come before the eviction? What is done is done. Actually do not bother yourself going further than this because you will get beaten up by angry victims.”
Sendegeya, however agrees to stay behind to keep an eye on the reporter as he is a familiar face in the area.
Twenty-year-old Bruce, sipping on a packet of Uganda Waragi, insists on being referred to as King Bruce. It is the exchange between this reporter and Bruce that gets Ruth Sarah Auma, 52, break the ice and other evictees share their ordeal.
Stranded
Awuma says she has lived in the area for three years with her 24-year-old daughter.
“At 3am, they came and told us to take out our property saying, ‘Mudde mukyalo’ loosely translated as, “return to the village”.

“At the moment, I am stranded with no money to rent a house,” said Awuma who was wearing tattered clothes. She repeatedly asked this reporter to urge the government to give them some money for relocation.

Hussein Katakwebwa, 33, claims he is a security operative in Industrial View zone deployed there in 1998.
“I settled here as a spy working together with Kabalagala Police Station and we managed to return peace and order to this area. With time the officials from the railway offices were grateful to us for keeping the place secure, ” he says.

Although there was a 28-day notice, Katakwebwa who claims to have two spouses says, they have lobbied with the area councillors to get an extension but all in vain. Katakwebwa has taken his wives and two children to a friend’s place in Kazo.

By now, a group of about 15 people had gathered and was listening to Katakwebwa voicing out their concerns.

Most families didn’t have an immediate plan to relocate therefore they spent the night by the railway line.

At Go Down Zone in Namuwongo, Gideon Byiringiro, whose rentals were demolished, offers some information.

“I bought the land at Shs1.4 million in 2012. I had a four-roomed house and I had another two-roomed house in Go Down zone,” Byiringiro explains. He is however hopeful he will get some compensation for his loss.

Next to the debris that was once Byiringiro’s house are two women cooking beans, posho and rice in the open of what was probably an eatery.
It is here, an 83 year old Mohammed Rumaya joins in the conversation. He is the local defence secretary in the zone.

“I have lived here for 21 years and officials from the Rift Valley Railways offices allowed us to stay on the land to protect it,” Rumaya offers.

He adds: “We learnt of the eviction through newspapers and we looked to our local council chairmen for help but nothing came of it.”

Rumaya said the number of days given for eviction were few to prepare. “Even tenants are given three months to vacate a house but we were given only 28 days to relocate.”

Like Katakwebwa, Rumaya spent the night next to what he once called home. He says, he won’t leave until he gets some money to relocate.