Government, investors doing little to avert oil curse: Report

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Bad land tenure systems, bad economic situation and corruption are abetting human rights violations in the areas where mining and oil and gas sector activities are happening, according to recent studies.

These include environmental rights, child rights, access to property and information, and the right to peaceful living among others, which have been violated for long despite the existence of rules and regulations.

The effect of this among others, is that the oil and gas and other resources being exploited in these areas are increasingly being seen as meant for the benefit of foreign companies and government officials, not the communities and the general population.

Over the last two years, Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF), a global rights and social justice NGO has been monitoring the impact of the extractive industry activities on communities, with support from the European Union Delegation in Uganda and Advocates for Natural Resources and Development (ANARDE), focusing on the areas of Bunyoro and Karamoja.

Some of the key issues they point to include the delayed compensation of persons affected by oil and gas projects in the Albertine region since 2018, and now along the East African Crude Oil Pipeline, EACOP. The other projects that have caused the eviction of persons are the proposed refinery, the crude feeder pipelines, the Central Processing Facilities and the Waste Management Plant.

Beatrice Rukanyanga, a resident and farmer near Kabaale in Hoima, says the first issue they encountered had to do with the valuation of their properties which left many of them dissatisfied. But even those who accepted compensation have never been given their money four years later, and are now accusing the government of not keeping them informed on the progress.

Rukanyanga, who is also the leader of Kwataniza Women Farmers Group in Hoima adds that those who accepted resettlement on the promise of being given land titles, have never received them and are now affected by new projects. They are wondering the land tenure system under which they will be compensated since they no longer own their customary land nor hold land titles.

She also accuses the government of looking on when people are violently evicted especially by people who suddenly come up claiming ownership of their customary land. At least 250 households in Rwamutonga village were in 2015 evicted violently for the Waste Management Plant, without compensation.

According to Rukanyanga, corruption and lack of transparency in the resettlement processes, as well as withholding of information, should be addressed.

The compensation issue has been on and off since the plan was launched in 2015 and valuation completed in 2018 for most of the first persons to be affected. After the valuation, the companies and the government gave the affected people orders to stop using the land.

However, without compensation, many have found life difficult because they have not been given alternative sources of livelihood, having been stopped from cultivating on the same pieces of land. After petitions and complaints, the people were told that their issues would be handled on a one-by-one basis, not in a group, but stoning has happened.

This has even made people doubt the intention of the government, according to Joy Kyalimpa, a community-based monitor, Buhimba sub-county in Kikuube district.

Asked whether the residents or their leaders have brought these issues to the attention of the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, the companies of the Ministry of Energy, Kyalimpa says they have usually been frustrated.

These views by the locals and their leaders, are also reflected in the study by the ASF, which warns that unless the grievances of the locals are handled carefully and to the satisfaction of the residents, the industry might face what has happened in some other African countries.

Michael Musiime Namanya, the Legal Officer at ASF Uganda says the process of handling the grievances should be clear and better done than currently, adding that it gives the investors a lot of privileges at the expense of property owners.

The non-involvement of the ordinary, affected persons is not only restricted to Bunyoro or the oil and gas industry but even in another region where the extractives industry is being developed. Similar complaints about human rights have been registered in other areas where mining, especially for gold is thriving.

Simon Peter Nangiro, the Head of the Karamoja Elders Association and also chairman of the Karamoja Miners Association, says to most of the people in the affected areas of Karamoja, the mining industry is less important than their traditional sources of livelihoods.

He says that unfortunately, lives have been disrupted and pastoralism, their economic mainstay, has been disrupted forever by mining and petroleum exploration. Nangiro says the people of Karamoja must be involved at every stage if they are to be part of the extractives sector development.

The study revealed that rights violations in Bunyoro were mainly in regards to delayed compensation, access to the property, destruction of properties, while in Karamoja they related to clean and healthy environment, right to property, labour rights including child labour and underpayment, as well as access to water.

The State Minister for Minerals Peter Lokeris says he is sure that the Mining Bill recently passed by parliament will go a long way in responding to these challenges, hoping that the president will assent to it as soon as possible.

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