Kayunga residents defy directive to quit wetland

On an ordinary day, Rhoda Nakatte, cultivates her yam garden in Kika Village, Nazigo Sub-county in Kayunga District.
Like any other farmer, she ensures regular weeding and thinning to achieve high and quality yields during harvest.

However, Nakatte’s two-acre yam garden is in a protected area, a wetland where farming activities and other unregulated human activities are prohibited.
Nakatte is among more than 500 encroachers who have snubbed a directive that was issued by National Environment Authority (Nema) and Kayunga District authorities one year ago, to leave the degraded wetland or face the long arm of the law.
However, despite several warnings by Nema, the encroachers have vowed not to vacate the marshland.

Some of them claim they legally bought the land in the gazetted natural resource while others say they are landless, the reason they resorted to cultivating in a prohibited area.
Nakatte, who says she started cultivating crops in the wetland three years ago, claims she lacked enough arable land for growing marketable crops such as rice and vegetables.
“It is from this garden, where I have been growing yams, rice, vegetables and other crops for years that I derive my livelihood and fend for my family,” Nakatte , who claims to be a widow, says.
“We should be left to continue growing crops here because we have nowhere to grow them,” she adds.

In December 2018, the Police Environmental Protection Unit, evicted encroachers who later committed never to go back and encroach on the wetland.
The most ruined sections of the wetland are Nazigo, Kayunga, Kasawo, and Kangulumira sub-counties.
Mr Patrick Musaazi, the Kayunga District senior environment officer, says the law (on wetlands) does not compromise, adding : “We are now going to enforce it”.
He says they will work with the Resident District Commissioner and police to evict the encroachers. “Those who will be found there will be arrested and prosecuted,” Mr Musaazi adds.

Mr David Sserwanja, from Mayaga Village, Kangulumira Sub- County, who grows maize in the wetland claims he bought the four acre piece of land from one person who claimed to be the landlord.
“I bought this land in 2017 at a cost of Shs2.5m and I was later surprised to hear that the land is a gazetted wetland,” Mr Sserwanja says.
Available records show that the wetland measures several miles and passes through Mukono and Kayunga districts.
Mr Nicholas Magara, the wetland coordinator in central region under the Ministry of Water and Environment, says with the degree of defiance exhibited by encroachers, they have no option, but to apply the law.

“We are currently priotising the restoration of Lake Victoria shores in Kampala Metropolitan area and within a short time, we shall embark on flushing out the encroachers on all wetlands in central region,” Mr Magara says.
He advises the encroachers to leave voluntarily and dismissed pleas by encroachers that they bought land in the wetland.
However, leaders in Kayunga District led by the Nazigo Sub-county chairperson, Mr Shaban Magomo, blames the problem on district authorities who have deliberately left the encroachers to destroy the wetlands.
The Kayunga Resident District Commissioner, Ms Kikomeko Mwanamwoiza, says she is aware of the problem and they are working with relevant authorities to ensure encroachers are brought to book.

Background
Warning. On April 19, President Museveni ordered encroachers to vacate lake shores and riverbanks. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Environment warned people who had encroached on wetlands around Lake Victoria to vacate because the lake had reportedly started reclaiming its shoreline. Many villages, land sites and beaches around Lake Victoria and Lake Kyoga have been submerged.