Court awards UGX 68Bn compensation to families in Lango

Lira, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The High Court in Lira has awarded 68 billion Shillings in compensation to more than 5,000 families after the government set up an Internally Displaced People’s (IDPs) camp on their land.

In 2016, the families acting under their umbrella Lango Camp Host Association (LACHA) filed a suit before Lira High Court seeking compensation from the government for the degradation caused on their land during the Lord’s Resistance Army-LRA insurgency.

In their application, the former landlords claim that between October 2000 and 2006, the government erected several IDP camps in which millions of those who fled LRA atrocities were hosted on their land without their consent.

They add that government never gave them an opportunity to decide whether or not to accommodate displaced persons on their land but that they reached a bilateral agreement with the government to the effect that they would be compensated later.

According to the suit, their land was rendered useless, suffered degradation, and lost fertility as a result of the activities of the former internally displaced persons.

In a judgment on Wednesday, Justice Alex Mackay Ajiji said that the families’ right to property and a clean environment was violated, and the forceful creation of the IDP camps on the land caused grave damage to the environment as well as grave loss to the families.

Justice Ajiji awarded a compensation of 5 Million, 3 Million Shillings as general damages, 4 Million Shillings as the cost of restoring the environment, and 500,000 Shillings as exemplary damages to each of the families.

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