The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kyenjojo, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Amart Construction Limited, the company that was contracted to extend electricity to some parts of Kyenjojo district has clashed with residents who have been affected by the project.
Last year, the Rural Electrification Agency-REA contracted Amart to erect an electricity line for Buntunduzi sub county and Butunduzi town council.
According to the Kyenjojo district Chief Administrative Officer Samuel Kaija, their job was to ensure a complete electricity transmission line through these places.
However, in the course of doing its work, the company dug pits for electricity poles on private land which has since sparked a clash between it and the landowners.
For instance in Butunduzi sub county, the company erected electricity poles in the land belonging to Peter Magelah and Alfred Bomezi. The land has a young eucalyptus tree on it.
According to Magelah, the company started digging the pits on their land in January and when he approached them for compensation talks, they just turned him away.
“In the following days, they came with the police and forcefully erected the poles. They even threatened to arrest me if I attempted to complain again,” Magelah narrates.
He explains that when all efforts to be compensated for the eight poles they put on his land failed, they ran to court in Kyenjojo where they sued the company for trespass.
He says they wanted the court to force Amart to compensate them and issue an interim order stopping the company from going on with its work on the same land until the matter is resolved.
Robert Mukanza, the principal Magistrate Grade One, Kyenjojo Chief Magistrate Court issued the injunction on Feb 10 restraining the company from erecting electricity poles until the final determination of the main application for a temporary injunction,” reads part of the order.
However on Feb 12, the electricity poles on the land were found cut down. This led to the arrest of Magelah’s manager Harmony Nasasira whom the Kyenjojo Deputy Resident District Commissioner Joseph Ssekasamba accused of being behind the act.
Even though Nasasira refutes having any knowledge about who cut the poles, Ssekasamba without evidence insists that it was Nasasira and that police has already charged him with sabotaging government programmes and malicious damage.
On his part, Magelah argues that he could not chase for an interim order for over a month and then order his manager to cut the poles after securing it.
According to the Uganda Land Act, as amended, the government is supposed to compensate owners of the land before using it. Magelah says he is determined to ensure he is fully compensated before anything is done on their land that is not a road reserve.
The Butunduzi sub county LC V councillor Julius Tumwine also says that Amart erected electricity poles on his land in Butunduzi town council and he is now seeking compensation before considering legal redress.
Tumwine explains that even though they want electricity in their area, they must be compensated for the land they are to lose because of the project.
When contacted, Matia Martin Kakooza of Amart Construction Limited directed our reporter to Ssekasamba, saying they are working on behalf of the government and the company has nothing to say about the complaints by the aggrieved.
The REA communications officer Dr Patricia Litho says they learnt about the cutting of electricity poles on Sunday and they are investigating the circumstances under which the issue escalated to this level since the project has a component of compensating those who will be affected.
*****
URN
