Gov’t officials on spot over displacement of people in Northern Uganda
PADER– Government officials are on the spot as more than 10,000 residents in Pader district stand to be displaced as government embarks on a project to improve food security in the region by cultivating the contested land claimed by both government and the local communities.
The government’s intervention to grow food is informed by the national outlooks of food security across the country as of July 2022, which put Karamoja region at 41 percent food insecure, Teso 21.4 percent food insecure, Acholi, Lango, and Wet Nile 19.4 percent food insecure, Buganda 17.7 percent food insecure, Rwenzori 6.3 percent food insecure and Bunyoro, Ankole and Kigezi 4.2 percent.
President Museveni in a letter dated July 14, 2022, directed the whole government starting from the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance to implement the activities. This follows a letter by Minister of MAAIF, Frank Tumwebaze dated July 13, 2022, to President Museveni calling for the deliberate intervention to boost food production in the country.
On August 1, 2022, a Cabinet meeting at State House Entebbe chaired by Museveni, resolved to boost food and animal feed security in the country.
In the resolutions, food insecurity in the country is contributed by factors including unpredictable weather, drought, pests and disease outbreaks, the effect of Covid-19, limited supply and availability of fertilizers due to the Russia-Ukraine war, and limited access to irrigation facilities.
The commodities that will be promoted with attendant acreages include maize [114,219 acreages], soybean [59 acreages] beans [22,810 acreages] sorghum [2,72o acreages] totaling up to 224,640, the resolution said.
The land in question measuring about 105, 400 hectares, was initially leased to the Uganda Development Corporation in 1966 and later to the Uganda Livestock Industries, according to the report from the Pader District Land Department.
Allocation of contested land
During the Cabinet meeting it was agreed that agencies including Uganda Prison Services would cultivate 50,000 acres, Uganda People’s Defence Force [UPDF] 10,000 acres, National Enterprise Corporation [NEC] 5,280 acres, veterans 4,707 acres, and National Agricultural Research Organisation [NARO] 10,000 acres.
Others include the National Animal Genetic Resources Centre and Data Bank [NAGRC & DB] 30,000 acres, and large-scale farmers 314,000 acres. These government agencies will get grants meanwhile large-scale private farmers will receive interest fee loans.
Residents worried
However, some of the residents in the region are not happy with the project, saying it has affected their livelihoods and the environment, as well as some trees, have been cut down by those implementing the project.
For instance, Beatrice Amony,30, a single mother of seven in one of the affected areas in Bur-Lobo Parish in Angagura Sub-county, Pader District told this reporter that due to the project her 2 hectares of simsim have been destroyed without compensation.
The Pader district senior land officer, Julius Nyeko revealed that the land in question would later be erroneously leased out by the Uganda Livestock Industries to private companies.
He explained that there was an attempt by some people to turn the land in question from a leasehold to freehold, a fraudulent transaction which, was halted.
Interestingly, NAGRC & DB handed over the contested land to the delegation from Uganda Prisons led by the Regional prisons Commander Margret Orik last Saturday.
Trees cut down, more crops destroyed
As the machines opened up land for farming in Acholi Bur as thousands of shea nut trees and other endeared spices were cut down, while crops were brought down as work continued.
The Aruu North County Member of Parliament Santa Okot, who also sits on the Parliamentary Committee of Agriculture noted that the development in the area was not presented and discussed by the Committee.
Okot explained that the land in question purportedly owned by the Uganda Livestock Industries is a planned move by the individuals in the State to grab people’s land using government name.
“Uganda Livestock Industries died without an heir but even if it was allocated land in the area 43 years ago, it remained an absentee landlord and by the law, he can’t now evict the occupants,” she explained.
She however revealed that consultation is ongoing for legal redress for compensation of the people whose crops and property have been destroyed by the development.
“Look at hundreds of the shea nut trees that are destroyed in just one three weeks, look at the crops which are brought down before one can think of this ambitious project,” she said.
The land has no clear owner!
Meanwhile, preliminary land transaction documents that this reporter found from the Ministry of Lands do not provide supporting documents about who is the rightful owner of the contested land.
In the documents, only two companies have applied for leasehold title which includes ARPE, the Company developing hydropower in the area for the acquisition of 89 hectares of land.
Part of the land was surveyed by the Associate Engineering Surveyor based in Kampala whose land deal was signed by one Oranga Billa, one of the officials from the company.
Whereas the transaction record into the contested land has remained scanty, NAGRC & DB had already acquired 25,516,607 hectares of land in the area.
The land deal in plot 7 block 2 concluded on December 1, 2021, did not provide details on the transfer on a lease offer into a freehold but the documents show two contradicting running titles of 49 and 99 years.
Case of fraud mentioned
An official from the Ministry of Lands official who requested anonymity intimated to this reporter that the defunct Uganda Livestock Industries was revived by four men working in high positions from the State House.
The official also revealed that there was fraud in the process of the land transaction which was turned from the leasehold into freehold from the Land Commission Offices in Kampala.
The land measuring 75 square kilometres stretches through the upper belt of Aswa River into the four Sub Counties of Angagura, Laguti, Ajan, and Plabek covering three districts of Pader, Lamwo, and Pagee Division in Kitgum Municipality is being contested by the local authorities over its legal ownership.
Nwoya resident also cry out
Meanwhile, the government has also extended its food security project to Nwoya district in Got Apwoyo Ranch targeting 1, 294 hectares of land which has caused uproar in the District as several crops in the gardens were destroyed.
Judith Omal Tugume, a mother of 7, told this reporter in an interview that four hectares of her farmlands were taken away by the government to implement the project.
Tugume explained that when she resettled into the area from the internally displaced people’s camp in 2007, the stray elephants then displaced her.
“My favorite crop is banana which I later realized that the elephants also like a lot and I had to abandon it for other crops like sim-sim and soybeans,” Tugume told this reporter in a recent interview.
Patrick Okello, the Local Council One of Te-Okot Village revealed that 250 households have been affected by the ongoing project while more than 1,500 residents face eviction.
The Nwoya district Woman Member of Parliament, Judith Peace Acan has described the situation as unfortunate for the people who once suffered from a devastating armed conflict in the region and are struggling to recover from the losses they incurred during the protracted war.
Dr. Peter Beine, the Executive Director of NAGRC, while speaking in Nwoya, noted that the project intends to grow beans, maize, and soya beans on 5 square miles of the plantation, another 28sq. miles in Pader, meanwhile Uganda Prison Services will cultivate 30,000 acres in Aswa Ranch.
Officials says activities to go on
Engineer Robert Ssenozi while speaking to the angry people of Got Apwoyo, whose homesteads have been swallowed by the farms, told the project affected persons that they would not stop the ongoing activities since they are operating under instructions.
“We have a letter that says please proceed with this programme. If we are to proceed, we have to work with the community but our request to them is to allow us to continue because this work is season dependent. We are not taking away the land; the land is remaining for the community,” he added.
Similar activities are also ongoing in Kasore farm in Kamuli district, Kaseke farm in Kayunga district, Maruzi Ranch in Apac, and Ishanga Ranch in western Uganda, according to Dr. Beine.
https://thecooperator.news/more-than-1000-households-face-eviction-from-their-land-in-masindi/
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