The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kasese, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The State Minister for Lands, Sam Mayanja has ordered the opening of boundaries on the disputed Nkoko-Kayanja land in Kitswamba Sub-County, Kasese district.
Mayanja says that the directive is to ensure the issues surrounding the contested land are amicably resolved and people are able to utilize it for development purposes.
Interventions to end a long row between pastoralists and cultivators on the land have been futile over the last 15 years leading to the suspension of activities on the over 300 hectares of land.
Mayanja says the demarcation exercise of the land should start today with the participation of all parties.
Festo Kajura, the Spokesperson of the pastoralist community said the matter wouldn’t have taken this long because the courts of law had previously given judgments on the dispute.
Ibrahim Rujumba, a pastoralist however says they will only cooperate unless they are fully satisfied that those spearheading the demarcation exercise have no interest in the matter.
In 2007, the government resettled pastoralists mainly from the Basongora community on 3,500 acres of land curved out from land belonging to UPDF, Ibuga and Mubuku Prisons, Ibuga refuges, and settlement camps.
This was after the Democratic Republic of Congo-DRC expelled several Basongora pastoralists.
In 2013, cultivators mainly from the Bakhonzo community claimed that the government erroneously gave away 312 acres that were outside its boundaries. They also claimed that they were illegally evicted from their own land.
The Bakhonzo went to court and in 2016 Justice David Batema ordered the government to carry out a survey of its land.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Lands sent surveyors and demarcated the land.
But on February 28, 2023, Kasese RDC, Lt. Joe Walusimbi together with other members of the security committee and political leaders were blocked by the pastoralists from assessing the contested land to oversee the re-demarcation process.
The pastoralists said the land in question belongs to them and accused local leaders of having an interest in the matter.
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