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Hoima, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Leaders in the Bunyoro sub-region have tasked the government to prioritize tackling the continuous land eviction and grabbing cases in 2025.
According to the leaders, the government should come up with a robust land management system to avert speculators and grabbers from invading the Bunyoro sub-region to cause havoc to residents.
They further reveal that, currently many families are under threat while hundreds have been forcefully evicted from their ancestral land.
The leaders say, that the government should ensure that there is peace in Bunyoro by ensuring that locals are safe on their land.
David Karubanga, the Kigorobya County Member of Parliament in Hoima district states that hundreds of in his area were brutally evicted from their ancestral land between 2019 and 2024 and to date, the evictees are still languishing in abject poverty.
He wants the government to get a lasting solution to Bunyoro’s land question.
Allan Atugonza, the Buliisa County Member of Parliament says, that in the year 2025, the government should consider issuing free land titles to residents in the Bunyoro sub-region to protect their land from grabbers elaborating that, people in the region have suffered enough from land grabbers.
Pius Wakabi, the Bugahya county member of Parliament states that Bunyoro should be given an affirmative action given the discovery of oil and gas that has instead escalated land disputes.
He states that many land titles in his area were acquired fraudulently hence putting the locals on the verge of being evicted from their ancestral land.
According to Wakabi, thousands of people in his constituency are on the verge of being forcefully evicted from their land by people who fraudulently acquired titles, especially in the sub-counties of Buseruka, Buraru, Kabaale and Kyabigambire among others.
Vincent Alpha Opio, the Kikuube LCV Vice Chairperson explains that several highly connected people have invaded the district and have fraudulently obtained titles even without the consent of area leaders.
He says, that if the land issue in Bunyoro is not immediately investigated and addressed, many people in the Bunyoro sub-region could become landless.
Simon Agaba Kinene, a resident of Buliisa appeals to the government to offer Bunyoro special attention and avail residents in the region with free land titles if locals are to settle peacefully.
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Joseph Kyamanywa, a resident of Buhirigi village in Hoima district blames the escalating land grabbing and eviction cases in the region on the discovery of oil and gas stating that before the oil discovery, no land evictions were being witnessed in the Bunyoro sub-region.
Currently, over 2,000 families in Hoima district are facing eviction from their ancestral land.
The affected families are residents of Rwobunyonyi, Kirindasojo, and Kihohoro villages in the Buraru sub-county.
They are feuding with Fred Mugamba, a tycoon in Hoima City, over land measuring 810 hectares. The families claim to have occupied the contested land since the 1940s and accuse Mugamba of slashing their crops and torching their houses.
In February 2019 more than 500 families were brutally evicted from their ancestral land in Kyabisagazi 1 and Kyabisagazi 2 villages in Kigorobya sub-county Hoima district.
Four toddlers were killed during the brutal eviction of the residents by armed men in uniforms similar to those of the Uganda Peoples Defense forces and the Anti-riot police.
The families were evicted from their ancestral land on February 13, 2019, when armed teams raided the village under the guise of tracking down people involved in subversive activities.
What had appeared to be a cordon and search operation then turned into an action of eviction.
The contested land measuring 485 acres was at the centre of a dispute between Edgar Agaba, a businessman in Hoima town and more than 500 families.
To date, the evicted people, have never received any help from the government yet they are landless and most are said to have resorted to living with their relatives in various parts of the country.
During his visit to Bunyoro in January 2022 to commission oil roads, President Yoweri Museveni tasked Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to intervene in the escalating land-grabbing issues in the region and provide him with a report so that the land grabbers can be dealt with once and for all.
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