Rt. Archbishop Ntagali and residents affected by EACOP, protest unfair treatment

KIKUUBE – Stanley Ntagali, the retired Archbishop of the Church of Uganda and more than 30 other residents from Kidoma parish in Kiziranfumbi sub-county in Kikuube district on Friday last week stormed the office of the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Amlan Tumusime protesting what they termed as unfair compensation in the ongoing land acquisition process for East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

The implementation of EACOP project is by Governments of Uganda and Tanzania represented by Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC) and Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) respectively, Total Energies and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The development of EACOP is being led by Total Energies on behalf of the shareholders, whose contract is a joint venture comprising two Ugandan firms:  New Plan Limited and Industrial Compressor Services Limited (ICS Ltd) to develop and implement the Resettlement Action Plan to acquire land for the Uganda section of the EACOP project route.

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In Uganda, the pipeline, 296 km long, will traverse 10 districts and 25 Sub Counties. In Tanzania, the pipeline, 1,147 km long will traverse 8 regions and 25 districts.  The construction of the proposed crude oil export pipeline will cost Shs 12 trillion and the pipeline will transport 400,000 barrels per day.

In total, 5,300 hectares of land will be required for the construction of the pipeline, which means that around 13,000 households will be displaced.

However, the project affected persons claim unfair treatment during the land acquisition for the multi-billion Oil Refinery Project in Kabale parish, in Hoima district.

The residents led by the Kikuube district Woman Member of Parliament (MP) Florence Natumanya, complained that there are a lot of violation of rights on property ownership.

The residents decried delayed compensation coupled with under valuations and low rates which they say have left them disappointed.

The residents claimed that the valuation was done three years ago and the government stopped them from using the land earmarked for the project.

They claimed that prices of different properties including land have increased adding that money earmarked for their property cannot replace what they are going to lose.

Francis Mwesigwa, the Chairperson of the affected persons said that more than 100 people are affected by the project from the five villages of; Kyakatemba, Rwamusaga, Butimba East, Butimba West, Kitambra and Kihinga in Kidoma parish in Kiziranfumbi sub-county.

He says that the value of land and materials used for constructions of houses have increased compared to the compensation rates the affected persons are to receive.

“For example, on land they valued an acre of land at Shs 3 million but currently an acre of land is about Shs 10 million. On housing, you find that a house was valued at Shs 10 million, this money cannot construct a house from the foundation to whole plate,” he demanded the government to intervene into their concerns.

Rv. Fred Musimenta the Secretary of the project affected person explained that their land was left out without being valued yet they can no longer utilize that land.  He also told the officials that the compensation rate which they used during the valuation of their property was very low adding that people’s houses were left out without being considered for compensation yet the pipeline is almost passing through their homes. When the project kicks off fully, they will not be able to stay in those houses.

According to Musimenta, people’s property within the same location was valued differently and questioned the criteria used during the evaluation exercise.

Stanley Ntagali, the retired Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, one of the project affected persons expressed concern over such mistreatment and demanded that the evaluation exercise of the people’s property should be redone to fit the current market prices.

The group was joined by other affected persons from Buhimba sub-county in Kikuube district who also complained about similar challenges.

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