The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kasese, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Farmers in Kasese have accused the office of the RDC for exacerbating land wrangles between the Basongora cattle keepers and Bakonzo cultivators.
In August last year, the Kasese RDC Lt. Joe Walusimbi halted all activities on the contested piece of land to prevent conflicts and fighting between the Bakonzo and Basongora communities.
This followed renewed clashes among the two groups that left at least nine people injured and more than 10 cows mutilated.
The two communities are feuding over the ownership of part of the 1,100 acres which were carved out of Mubuku prison farm in 2017 to resettle Basongora pastoralists and later a section of dispossessed Bakonzo.
Now the group accuse the area RDC and his deputy of allowing “unknown people” into the land and failing to intervene in the matter despite their repeated calls.
They say they have been at the RDC’s office seeking readdress on the issue but often they are never listened to nor even promised that the authorities will address the matter.
Godeon Bwambale, a farmer in the area accuses the leaders for conniving with pastoralists to continue grazing their cattle from the land even when all activities were banned.
He says their pleas to be allowed to open up their fields for this season have been deliberately frustrated by denying them audience.
Richard Makune says they have witnessed a group of people erecting temporary structures on the land even when the area remains guarded by UPDF soldiers.
He says such acts have created suspension among persons who were legally settling on the land fearing that their plots could be grabbed.
Scovia Kabugho says the slow response from the office of the RDC despite being aware that the affected persons have families to feed is an indication that they could be harbouring some interests in the matter.
Richard Asiimwe, the Kabukero LC 1 says after the last year’s clashes, they sat with district leaders and agreed that the land be left free until the matters are resolved.
However, he says they are witnessing people who are already opening up new agricultural fields and new structures.
Asiimwe adds that’s on 4th of March, the RDC and his team reached the area and issued out verbal warnings to all those who were still on the land to vacate but to their surprise, the activities have since picked up.
Richard adds they have again informed the RDC’s office of this development but no action has been taken.
However, RDC Walusimbi refutes the allegations saying they have maintained the status quo for non-use of the land until the matter is resolved.
Walusimbi adds that they have had an extraordinary security meeting and consulted the chief magistrate and state attorney for legal guidance adding that in few months, they will have made a decision.
Last month, the farmers stormed the RDC’s office seeking to be allowed to start cultivating. The deputy RDC Joseph Masereka scheduled a meeting with the group but he himself never showed up.
Basongora communities were resettled on a piece of land measuring 2,017 acres after they had been forced out of Queen Elizabeth National Park. The group had a year earlier been evicted out of Virunga National Park by the Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC.
Later, the Kasese district local government raised concerns about the existence of landless Bakonzo communities, prompting the government to give them a portion of the land.
The land was distributed in the ratio of 3:1 acre for Basongora : Bakonzo respectively.
However, it triggered tensions among the two groups, each accusing the other of encroaching on its land.
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