LOP Mpuuga faults gov’t for failing to resettle Kyangwali evictees

Kikuube, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga has faulted the government for failing to resettle residents evicted from their ancestral land in Kyangwali sub-county, Kikuube district.

The more than 1,000 residents mainly women and children were evicted from Bukinda, Kavule, Bwizibwera, Kyeya, Nyaruhanga, Kabirizi, Nyamigisa and Katoma villages in Kyangwali sub-county.

The evictees have since February this year pitched camp at the offices of the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner-RDC, Amlan Tumusiime protesting delays by the government to resettle them on their ancestral land.   The residents are feuding with Kyangwali refugee settlement over 36 square kilometres of land.

While visiting the evictees on Friday evening at the offices of the Kikuube RDC, Mpuuga wondered why the government left the evictees to endure suffering at the expense of refugees.

Mpuuga who is on a working visit in the Bunyoro sub-region together with other shadow ministers said that his office will come up with a comprehensive report about the evictees which will be tabled in Parliament for debate so that the evictees can be accorded justice.

Ended the day in Kikuube District where I discovered that we hv a government that displaces its own people to become IDPs so that its officials from OPM can rent land to DRC refugees!!! What we have seen in Kikuube is unbelievable. Videos follow…#AccountabilityAndService pic.twitter.com/RV2zcpXe4g

— Mathias Mpuuga (@MathiasMpuuga) October 14, 2022

Francis Kazini, the Buhagazi County Member of parliament says the evictees have suffered enough including sleeping out in the cold. He said that efforts to have them resettled on their ancestral land have always proved futile.

Vincent Alpha Opio, the Kikuube district vice chairperson says they have done all it takes to compel the government to resettle the evictees on their ancestral land but the government has kept a deaf ear.

Omuhereza Birungi, one of the evictees explains that they have been compelled to become refugees in their own country.

Benon Rukundo, another victim says it is unfortunate that the government has kept a deaf ear despite several pleas made by the evictees to have them resettled on their ancestral land.

In September 2013, officials from the Office of the Prima Minister backed by the police and Uganda Peoples Defence Forces-UPDF evicted more than 60,000 people from the contested land and eventually used it to resettle Congolese refugees.

The residents were forced to settle in camps in Kyeya village in Kyangwali sub-county under very poor conditions and although President Museveni ordered that the evicted residents be resettled on their ancestral land, the directive is yet to be implemented.

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