Are oil activities hurting Bunyoro heritage?

During the recent public hearings on the Environment and Social Impact Assessment on Kingfisher oil on the Kingfisher oil development project at Rwemisaanga, in Kikuube District, the permanent secretary ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Mr Robert Kasande said they are waiting for the Final Investment Decision, that will unlock investment in the next phase of oil and gas sector.

Uganda’s oil and sector whose development took off in 2006 after the discovery of commercially viable oil reserves in the Albertine  Graben is estimated to be in the range of $20 billion (about Shs74 trillion).

Such big monies, as expected, since most oil infrastructure is being set up in Bunyoro region, Bunyoro Kinddom is being impacted.

So far, the road network connecting different oil towns and facilities like a refinery at Kingfisher oil project, a Central Processing facility at Kasenyi in Buliisa District, an airport in Buseruka Sub-county. The construction of the oil pipeline is about to start. The pipeline will obviously be linked to smaller feeder pipelines under the Tilenga project that will produce an estimated 190,000 to 200,000 barrels of oil per day when production starts.

 The Tilenga project covers existing production licenses in Buliisa and Nwoya districts.

 Buliisa District Chairman Mr Simon Agaba Kinene says the activities have displaced hundreds.

“Much as some of them were compensated, the rates that were determined by the government according to the law, were unfavourable and they are now finding life challenging,” he said.

He said that even those who were resettled at Buseruka housing estate are finding it hard to resettle because it’s a new cultural experience.

“For us we live in clans. When you put us in a resettlement camp where a Musansira lives with a Musimo, a Mubyasi and a Mulima, somehow our social interaction and culture is interfered with,” Mr Kinene says.

He says some people whose land has been identified for oil-relayed projects like roads are not compensated on time yet they are not allowed to access the land.  

“This delayed compensation couple with non-satisfactory resettlement packages is causing social and economic tension in the region,” he said. “These are the issues that have to be handled properly to ensure that people own the oil industry to prevent it from becoming a curse as some people fear.”

Mr Rugadia Kisembo is one of the people whose 30 acres of land is within Kasenyi area, where an oil Central Processing Facility will be set up.

He is one of the 13 people who refused to accept Shs3.5 million compensation money from the Lands Ministry.

More than 200 people received their packages and left the area.

“I don’t want the money because it is not enough to enable me buy 30 acres of land elsewhere. I don’t oppose the project but I want the government to buy for me 30 acres of land elsewhere,” he said.

Mr Tresiyo Ocai, who has since moved to Uduk II village, from Kasenyi, says he is hardly surviving on the Shs7 million he got as compensation.

 Bunyoro Kingdom Prime Minister Mr Andrew Byakutaga says the engagement between government agencies and oil companies on oil and gas activities is inadequate.

“People are given amounts of money they have never got [in compensation]. Some of them get excited and misuse it and become paupers after a short time,” he said. “They get the money without getting trained in financial literacy.”

He said their culture is being eroded by people who migrate to the area in search of opportunities.

“These people do not respect our heritage and sacred cultural sites like mountains, forests and hills. We have started surveying the land where these sites are located to limit the damage,” he said.  

He said a group of people who migrated from the Democratic Republic of Congo and settled in Kiryandongo District, were stopped from installing their own cultural leader in Bunyoro Kingdom.