Government officials plot Shs100b payout to encroachers on Namanve land

KAMPALA:

Senior government officials had engineered a scheme in which at least Shs100b would be presented as the compensation bill for settlers on what was once the beautiful expansive Namanve Central Forest Reserve and part of Lake Victoria marshland in Bukasa, Wakiso District, which land is currently badly needed for several planned infrastructural projects, this newspaper has established.

The scheme or ‘a preliminary assessment’ people familiar with the matter told Sunday Monitor, was midwifed in Ministry of Lands and subsequently looped to the Uganda Land Commission but had faced an obstacle of how it would be presented in the wake of repeated calls by President Museveni that the settlers are merely encroachers who are to be evicted.

According to preliminary estimates, there are more than 16,000 encroachers/settlers in the area.

Sources intimated to us that the scheme has been dusted, following President Museveni’s rally at Bukasa on February 20 in an attempt to diffuse the chaotic situation in the area but ended up promising that government would provide a modest relief to ‘some of the’ encroachers to start life elsewhere.

The President’s visit and pronouncement was interpreted as perhaps the last say on the matter. The government pays for property acquired for any project after valuations by the Chief Government Valuer who makes the assessments based on market prices.

Sources said all previous attempts to evict the encroachers were frustrated from within government itself, ministry of Lands being on top of the list. An inter-ministerial committee chaired by Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda was tasked and is currently studying how to deal with the encroachers, including handing out a relief (cash compensation) to the encroachers.

The committee comprising the ministers of Water and Environment, Lands, Finance and Works met last week on Tuesday but did not go far with discussions due to absence of key actors

Earlier pronouncement
Apparently, President Museveni had earlier pronounced himself that encroachers on the Namanve-Bukasa land through which two of his legacy projects—the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and Kampala-Jinja Expressway have been marked to pass—should be evicted and Lands minister Betty Amongi was in the process of overseeing the exercise in consultation with the ministry of Water and Environment that superintends over National Forestry Authority (NFA) and National Environment Management Authority (Nema), bodies that oversee forests and wetlands, respectively.

There are also plans to develop a port at Bukasa, a project pegged to a cost of Shs486b ($180m) linked to the revival of the in-land water transport on Lake Victoria.

Late last December, the President cited some dubious collusion between government officials and some encroachers to continue occupying the land, and according to media reports directed Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura to prepare the eviction exercise.

In January this year, Ms Amongi while announcing cancellation of at least 25 freehold land titles said to have been fraudulently and erroneously issued in the forest reserve in the villages of Bukasa, Wankolokolo and Senyu in Wakiso District and Mukono District, also hinted on government’s plans to relocate the encroachers to some 200 acres secured elsewhere.

However, as a result of the ongoing clash of egos within the ministry, junior minister of Lands Persis Namuganza, sources added, embarked on meeting local leaders in the area in an attempt to chart a way forward and reportedly brokered President Museveni’s visit to the area. Ms Namuganza was not readily available for comment as her known phone numbers were switched off.

The Namanve Forest Reserve was gazetted in 1932 with an initial expanse of 2,170 hectares for tree plantation redevelopment and the wetland to protect the nearby Lake Victoria swampland. At least 1,000 hectares were excised in 1997 for industrial pack redevelopment under Uganda Investments Authority leaving only 1,170 hectares.

Background
According to correspondences, trouble started in 2010 when ministry of Lands requested ministry of Water for land to resettle people evicted from the Nakawa-Naguru flats and Kisenyi slums. Uganda Land Commission joined the foray of what started as surveying and mapping the land but consequently started illegally titling the forest reserve.

Plots of land in the area varied from Shs1 million to Shs50 million depending on the size, some of the residents talked to indicated.

Among the encroachers is a group of UPDF veterans who formed an association and mobilised to seek court redress. They were subsequently followed by a group of Buganda loyalists who insist this is Kabaka’s land and claim that government is simply trying to give it away to NRM cadres. In the run up to the 2011 elections the groups pitch camped at Nambole holding placards where President Museveni was due to address NRM cadres and upon hearing their concerns halted the first major eviction that had been set leading to the current crisis.

But Lands minister, Ms Amongi, told this newspaper that “government’s position on that matter is straight forward: all titles were cancelled and all encroachers have to leave.”
The minister also distanced herself and the ministry from any possible payout to the encroachers, saying: “There is nothing like compensation; what the President proposed was a relief and that is being discussed by the committee under the Office of the Prime Minister.” “The principle of compensation comes to my office only when dealing with prices of land on a market price,” she said.

The issue of compensation/relief gained traction during President Museveni’s February rally at Bukasa. The President, after local leaders pouring their hearts out over the looming eviction to pave way for the proposed projects, requested for ‘more time’ to come up with a tentative plan but emphatically vowed to deal with wily individuals who had earlier curved land titles out of the same and have been threatening to evict the squatters.

While indicating that it is government’s responsibility to take care of its citizens, on the other hand the same land has already been gazetted for infrastructure projects, including a port at the nearby Bukasa marshland on Lake Victoria but which has been visibly encroached by both the rich and poor from both the Luzira-Butabika side and Bweyogerere sides, respectively.

The President said there are three categories of people caught up in the issue; at least 29 individuals, he described as ‘thieves’ who curved land titles out the forest reserve/swamp belonging to the National Forestry Authority/National Environmental Management Authority in category two of those that slept on the job, and the third group of “innocents” were relocated from the Nakawa/Naguru housing flats which was dubiously given to a group of investors for redevelopment and others who unknowingly bought land in the area.

With the estimated encroacher population of 16,000, sources said, the plan of distributing Shs100b was for at least each individual/family cashing in at least Shs6 million. Worth noting also is that some senior government officials are among the people that fraudulently acquired land titles in the area.

NFA/Nema stuck
Authorities of the forestry and wetlands body on Thursday addressed a joint press conference where they also expressed frustrations over the failure to evict the encroachers but which has been high on agenda for the past seven years while the problem grew in momentum. Currently, there are High Court injunctions secured by a section of residents restraining both NFA and Nema from even coming closer to attempt evictions.

NFA’s executive director Michael Mugisa, told this newspaper over the week that 60 percent of the forest reserve is occupied while the remaining 40 per cent still has some trees belonging to individual tree growers who had sued the forestry body for failing to protect the reserve.

Issues at hand

Gazetted. The Namanve Forest Reserve was gazetted in 1932 with an initial expanse of 2,170 hectares.
Excised. 1,000 hectares were excised in 1997 for industrial pack redevelopment under Uganda Investments Authority leaving only 1,170 hectares.
Encroachment. In 2010, ministry of Lands requested ministry of Water for land to resettle people evicted from the Nakawa-Naguru flats and Kisenyi slums.
Sale. Plots of land in the area varied from Shs1m to Shs50m depending on the size, some of the residents talked to indicated.
Controversy

A group of Buganda loyalists insisted the land belonged to the Kabaka and that government was simply trying to give it away to NRM cadres.
January 17, 2016. President Museveni halts the eviction after a group of people pitched camp at Namboole with placards. He had earlier pronounced himself that encroachers on the Namanve-Bukasa land should be evicted

Eviction. An aerial view of houses in Kirinya Kito Zone C in Wakiso District, one of the areas government wants the residents to vacate and give way to its projects. Photo by Alex Esagala