Army accused of illegal evictions

More than 100 families in Bukiyabi Village, Bulambuli District, will be resting a little easier now that the High Court in Mbale has issued a temporary injunction stopping their eviction by the army from a large swathe of fertile land in a historically restive part of Bugisu Sub-region.

The families lay claim to the land as bona fide occupants, although the army insists it legally acquired the property a few years ago.

Under the Land Act, 1998, bona fide occupants are described as individuals who occupied a piece of land unchallenged by a registered owner before the coming into force of the 1995 Constitution. Such an individual enjoys equitable and enforceable third-party rights to the said property.

The Army Chief of Production and Welfare, Maj Gen Sam Kiwanuka, and Lt Col Julius Mukiibi, are named in court documents which allege that soldiers subjected people to acts of extreme violence in the volatile Elgon Sub-region.

It is alleged that soldiers raped and engaged in indiscriminate shooting of unarmed persons during the evictions. 

Some victims still carry the scars from the violence. They say senior army officers and the Bulambuli District Police Commander have been running a terror campaign against them. The officers deny these allegations. 

The August 16 injunction delivered by Assistant Registrar Samuel Kagonda Ntende “restrains the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) from threatening to evict the locals, and from selling or damaging their crops and houses, pending the determination of a civil suit related to the land possessed and used by the UPDF and the locals.”

For long, a land wrangle that pits the army, which claims to have legally purchased the land, against the families, has raged in Bulambuli, sometimes exploding in bouts of violence, including tribal clashes with neighbouring Sabiny people across the district border in Kapchorwa.

However, Maj Isaac Oware, the spokesperson of the UPDF 3 Division, which covers Bugisu area, maintains that these families are trespassing on military property. 

“There have been claims and allegations against the person who sold us the land. These disputes were registered in the High Court and as of August 16, there was a temporary court injunction. The injunction is that the status quo remains, and that means the UPDF continues to sit on this land and utilise it,” he said.

“Those who were claiming it are non-occupants of this land, so we urge them to keep waiting for court to preside over this matter.”

But Mr Mutebule Muyonga, who ironically retired from the army as a warrant officer, reveals his predicament. “My family is now poor, my children don’t go to school, they don’t eat; they are suffering. They are now using my land; when you go there, you find the military. All my cattle have been taken. I went to the police but they have not assisted me,” he says.

Ms Sarah Nambuya, a mother of eight, who now lives with a well-wisher in Bunambutye Sub-county after losing her home, reveals the trauma she experienced.

“Soldiers harassed us. They mistreated us. If they found you digging in the plantation, they world rape you. They would cane us. They burnt our houses. We are being treated as slaves on our own land. Sometimes they pay us, sometimes they don’t pay us. They have grabbed our young girls and taken them for wives,” she says

Mr Caleb Kandawala, a human rights defender, has filed a representative suit in the Mbale High Court on behalf of this marginalised community.

“The UPDF under Plot 87 bought 150 acres; they surveyed 667.2 acres; they were to pay us for the balance of the acres, which was not done,” he observed

At the heart of this dispute is a sprawling tract of land upon which Katta Barracks, a large-scale commercial farm and army hospital, squat. Locals say the army first bought about 100 acres of land here, before slowly encroaching on community land, leading up to the violent evictions in February last year. 

Many families had fled from the area way back in the 1960s to escape the brunt of cattle rustlers from the restive neighbouring Karamoja Sub-region. The locals claim when the army was deployed to pacify this area, they replaced the Karimojong aggressors.

Those who returned found the army had bought off some of their land.

“Some of our forefathers thought it wise that if we sold part of it to the Ministry of Defence, we would be safe. We were very proud of that. The remaining part of the land is for the community,” reveals Wanammy Dayan.

He goes on, “I was born in 1949 but before I was born, there was cattle rustling by the Karimojong. But it was after the 1971 coup by Idi Amin that our neighbours, the Karimojong, broke into the army armouries and got guns. That was when whole Bulambuli [families] were displaced; running for safety. Some went to Busoga, some went to Masindi, some to Namisindwa, Manafwa, others crossed into Kenya.”

But Maj Okware insists the army legally bought up to 1,498.32 acres. 

“We wish to clarify and refute the allegations of burning of houses and other degradation of human rights because none of those issues have ever come up with the local authorities, or even the police. Those are mere allegations. We appeal to the general public to disregard them with the contempt they it deserve,” he said

Abuse
Many of the victims who spoke to Sunday Monitor said they did not report incidents of abuse, rape and sexual defilement of minors to authorities for fear that they would be targeted in retaliation.

Mr Kandawala, the rights activist, observes that those who purported to have sold land to the army did not have a legal claim to it. He says they could have taken advantage of the temporary absence of the real owners to hoodwink the military.

“We have mafias within the system and we have mafias within the community. There are those who thought we had died from Kenya, Busoga, Bunyoro, and they started selling the land, not knowing that we, the owners of the land, are still alive,” he said.

The locals whose land was grabbed and sold to the UPDF cite as evidence of ownership records from a past population census, graduated tax receipts bearing the names of their fore-fathers and burial grounds to prove their ancestral ties to the land.

“We have those tax receipts that our grandparents used to pay indicating where they came from. Secondly, we are neighbours. Me, as Kandawala, I know this is where I belong.”

The Bulambuli District Police Commander, Mr Christopher Katumba, who has himself allegedly acquired large tracts of land in suspicious circumstances, claims the dispute stems from inter-generational contradictions within the community. “Others went to Nairobi, Kenya and now the grandchildren are the ones coming back. They don’t recognise the sales their fathers did,” he said.

Mr Andrew Byaruhanga, the executive director of Resource Rights Africa, a watchdog organisation, says: “The DPC of Bulambuli is implicated in this case. How did he acquire land in Katta? He has confessed he has acquired land in Katta himself and you wonder how that came to be… a person who has just been deployed in the district for two years?”

He adds: “There is no justice here. We have interviewed and seen victims of this violence, some of them have gunshot wounds. They have incurred a lot of money in hospital bills. We have seen and interviewed victims who are now living on the road reserve between Muyembe and Nakapiripirit road,” he said, adding, “We have seen victims and they have alleged rape and defilement at the hands of security forces. These cases need to be investigated and the culprits brought to book.” 

In 2010, the former Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr Julius Odwe, was appointed to head an inquiry into the violence across the flashpoint Elgon Sub-region. The inquiry exposed ethnic tensions between the Sabiny and Bagisu communities on more than 67,400 acres of rich farmland lying between Kapchorwa and Bulambuli. 

Most members of these communities had fled the area to escape marauding Karamoja cattle rustlers and returned to a new type of strife; one involving land disputes. During the tribal clashes which followed, 15 people were killed and several houses burnt. 

In September 2012, the then State minister for Internal Affairs, Mr James Baba, directed that all the land titles issued irregularly between 2007 and 2010 be verified.

As the injunction assures a temporary calm, Mr Mayonga is afraid for his life.

“[Sometime in 2022], at 8:30 in the morning, I found four soldiers. They shot at me eight times. The DPC of Bulambuli, Katumba, is the one who ordered them to “kill me”. The soldiers were eventually arrested and handed to police but the DPC let them go,” he said.

Mayonga then lodged a complaint with the police Professional Standards Unit in Naguru, Kampala. Mr Katumba does not deny the shooting took place, but discounts that it was done by soldiers. 

“The incident of shooting is only one, which was done by a private security guard. That company was among those disqualified on the IGP list, so steps were taken. If he is still dissatisfied, let him take it to court,” the DPC said.

“The same person you are talking about took me to PSU that I stole his 16 bags of maize. The file is there. Let it be investigated. If I am wrong, I will pay,” he added.

With the High Court yet to pronounce itself on the substantive suit, many families continue to live in fear. 

Issue
"There have been claims and allegations against the person who sold us the land. These disputes were registered in the High Court and as of August 16,  there was a temporary court injunction. The injunction is that the status quo remains, and that means the UPDF continues to sit on this land and utilise it,” Maj Isaac Oware, the spokesperson of the UPDF 3 Division

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