The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kikuube, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom has called for the immediate intervention of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni into the affairs of the over 1,000 Kyangwali evictees.
The affected people have since February this year pitched camp in the precincts of the office of Kikuube Resident District Commissioner following their brutal eviction from their ancestral land in Kyangwali sub-county, Kikuube district.
The affected mainly women and children were evicted from Bukinda A and B, Bukinda 2, Kavule, Bwizibwera A and B, Kyeya A and B, Nyaruhanga, Kabirizi, Nyamigisa A and B and Katoma villages among others in Kasonga parish, Kyangwali sub-county. The residents are feuding with the leadership of Kyangwali refugee settlement and the Office of the Prime Minister for over 36 square kilometers of land.
In September 2013, OPM officials backed by the police and UPDF evicted more than 60,000 people from the contested land for the resettlement of Congolese refugees. The residents were forced to settle in camps in Kyeya village in Kyangwali sub-county under very poor conditions. In 2016 and 2018, President Museveni ordered that the evicted residents be resettled on their ancestral land.
To date, the concerned officials are yet to implement the directive. This compelled the residents to pitch camp at the RDC’s office to compel him to enforce the president’s directive to resettle them back on their ancestral land immediately. The residents are undergoing untold suffering since they do not have food to eat.
Andrew Byakutaga, the Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom Prime Minister wants the president to intervene and resettle the evictees. According to Byakutaga, the evictees have suffered enough, saying it is only the President who can intervene and reinstate them back on their land since the land is still empty.
Byakutaga was speaking during the 28th coronation anniversary celebrations of Omukama Dr. Solomon Gafabusa Rukirabasaija Agutamba, the King of Bunyoro Kingdom. He also asked the government to compensate the fishermen whose fishing gear was confiscated by suspected Congolese militia on Lake Albert.
He also tasked the government to expedite the resettlement of thousands of people whose homes were submerged by floods resulting from the rising water levels of Lake Albert in the Bunyoro sub-region.
Byakutaga also asked the government to ensure that the Banyoro are considered and given jobs in the critical oil and gas sector discovered in the kingdom, saying that many learned Banyoro are being denied jobs.
Grace Mary Mugasa, the State Minister for Public Service said that there is a need for urgent attention to enable the evictees get justice. She called on the government to find a solution to the rampant land grabbing and evictions that have left thousands of people landless in the Bunyoro sub-region.
Gen. David Muhoozi, the State Minister for Internal Affairs who represented Museveni, said that the National Resistance Movement-NRM government took the right step and direction to restore cultural institutions for the communities that demanded them.
He noted that the NRM government recognizes the significant role that cultural institutions play in preserving the unique languages and the cultural norms of the people in Africa. He challenged the people of Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom to love their language and embrace the authorship of more Runyoro books so that the young generation can learn more about their kingdom and culture.
He applauded Bunyoro Kingdom for the good working relationship with the government and the development the kingdom is undertaking in terms of education and health, adding that government is ready to work with the kingdom to uplift citizens from the backwardness of subsistence farming to the modern and prosperous money economy.
The commemoration of the 28th coronation anniversary celebrations of Omukama Iguru were held under the theme “Unity and health”. The Omukama ascended to the throne on June 11, 1994, as the 27th King under the Ababiito clan following the restoration of cultural institutions. Unlike the past celebrations where cultural rituals would be performed for the Empago coronation anniversary, this time the cultural rituals didn’t take place because of the ill health of the Omukama Dr. Solomon Gafabusa Rukirabasaija Iguru.
*****
URN
