Residents decry Kyangwali evictions

For more than a year, a section of residents in Kikuube have camped at the office of the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) protesting their eviction from land said to belong to Kyangwali Refugee Settlement.

The group is part of more than 90,000 residents who were evicted from the land by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM).

OPM said the group had encroached on the land.

The evictions began in 2013 and at least 31 villages were affected including Bukinda A and B, Bukinda 2, Kavule, Bwizibwera A and B, Kyeya A and B, Nyaruhanga, Kabirizi, Nyamigisa A and B and Katoma.

The residents describe the eviction as a betrayal by the government, which they say is supposed to protect them.

Ms Nonsiata Ntanyungura, a mother of 10, says her life will never be the same again.

 ‘‘When I came to Bunyoro in the 1990s, I got land in Bukinda Village, which was enough for me and my family. No one told us that it was refugee land until 2013 when we were evicted. We have suffered a lot,” she says.

She adds: “We have lost everything we had toiled for and now I am waiting for death to finish me here. I have nowhere to go. The government can only restore our lives by taking us to our land.’’

Ms Ntanyungura says one of her children died recently but she had nowhere to bury them.

Mr Enock Mugenyi, a father of four, says his father gave him about three acres of land as an inheritance but he lost it when he was evicted.

Mr Mugenyi says he now lives in an Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) camp in Kyeya Village, Kyangwali Sub-county.

Other victims reside at an IDP in Kayaga, Kyangwali Sub-county.

In January 2016, President Museveni, in a letter, directed the OPM to resettle at least 45,000 victims back on the land.

Mr Museveni also ordered an investigation into the officials involved in the eviction.

However, the district councillor for Kyangwali Sub-county, Mr Nestori Tumwesigye, says although OPM allowed some of the victims to return to the land, between 2019 and 2020, they were again evicted.

‘‘We have suffered in quest of getting justice on this land. Some leaders were arrested and charged with different falsified criminal cases because they demanded answers to the land problem,” he says.

“People left their homes to different parts of the district. Others who were seeking shelter in churches were evicted and churches closed. People’s livelihoods were completely destroyed and our hope is in the government,’’ he adds.

Mr Tumwesigye says in 2020, the government allocated the victims less than six square miles of land at Kyeya Valley Farm but adds that it is not enough to accommodate all the victims.

Evictions

‘‘We are being threatened with eviction from the land where we were relocated. The land belongs to Kyeya Valley Farms which is privately owned. They removed us from 32 square miles and fixed us in only six square miles. We want our land back,’’ he says.

He adds that the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement land is currently being hired out to local farmers.

An acre of land is being hired out for cultivation at Shs30,000 per season while some people are paying up to Shs100,000 for a quarter an acre.

 ‘‘There are no refugees. The gardens are owned by other people, not refugees. I have hope that those people involved in evicting the people are handled. Some people should be thrown out of office in order for us to get peace,’’ he says.

The Kikuube Resident District Commissioner, Mr Amlan Tumusiime, says conditions at Kyeya Valley Farm were not favourable for the residents. He, however, did not elaborate on this issue.

 ‘‘When they reached there, the conditions are very harsh and some of them decided to camp at the office of the RDC,’’ Mr Tumusiime says.

Mr Tumusiime says it embarrassing to have IDPs camped at his office.

‘‘People die at the camp and it becomes very difficult for me to get where to bury them. Last week, I received letters from the landlord where others were relocated threatening to have them evicted again,” he says.

He adds: “I am now stuck. When the President visited Kikuube recently, he directed that I work with Dr Keneth Omona and we find a solution but since then I have had no away to access the President.’’

He called for a permanent amicable solution to the Bukinda land eviction.

In response, Hajj Yunus Kakande, the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President, said the issue will be tabled before Cabinet and a lasting solution sought.

‘‘The only problem is that Cabinet normally has got many issues on the agenda. We are going to solve it. I am going to meet with the principal private secretary of the President and the Prime Minister’s office and we come up with an amicable solution,” Kakande says.

Background

In 2021, the Prime Minister, Ms Robinah Nabbanja, visited the victims and promised to take action but nothing has yielded from her promise of action.

However, in a March 1, 2022 statement, the Minister of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Mr Hilary Onek, accused the victims of encroaching on the government land.

He said the encroachers were putting the government under pressure by camping at the office of the RDC.

‘‘The Hon Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees has written to the permanent secretary to commence resettlement activities and yet the so-called landlords are mobilising and paying people to camp at the office of the RDC Kikube allegedly to protest against [government’s delay to find] a resolution of the land problem for Kyangwali,” the statement read in part.

It added: “The encroachers believe that by putting the government under pressure, will be allowed to regain entry into much of the land they had grabbed, especially in Bukinda areas.’’

The minister also accused local leaders and government officials of orchestrating what he described as stage-managed evictions.

‘‘There has been dishonesty on the part of some government officials at the local level and the office of the RDC is suspected to be behind these stage-managed evictions. There is a deliberate move to depict government or the Ministry of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees as a problem with selfish motives,’’ the statement reads.

Background

In 2021, the Prime Minister, Ms Robinah Nabbanja, visited the victims and promised to take action but nothing has yielded from her promise of action.

However, in a March 1, 2022 statement, the Minister of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Mr Hilary Onek, accused the victims of encroaching on the government land.

He said the encroachers were putting the government under pressure by camping at the office of the RDC.

‘‘The Hon Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees has written to the permanent secretary to commence resettlement activities and yet the so-called landlords are mobilising and paying people to camp at the office of the RDC Kikube allegedly to protest against [government’s delay to find] a resolution of the land problem for Kyangwali,” the statement read in part.

It added: “The encroachers believe that by putting the government under pressure, will be allowed to regain entry into much of the land they had grabbed, especially in Bukinda areas.’’

The minister also accused local leaders and government officials of orchestrating what he described as stage-managed evictions.

‘‘There has been dishonesty on the part of some government officials at the local level and the office of the RDC is suspected to be behind these stage-managed evictions. There is a deliberate move to depict government or the Ministry of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees as a problem with selfish motives,’’ the statement reads.