The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kasese, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Pastoralists in Nkoko and Kayanja II villages, Kitswamba sub-county in Kasese district are protesting the new demarcations on a contested piece of land with cultivators. They are accusing the district leadership of siding with the cultivators and influencing the demarcation exercise.
In 2007, the government resettled pastoralists mainly from the Busongora community on 3,500 acres of land curved out from land belonging to the Uganda People’s Defense Forces, Ibuga and Mubuku prisons, Ibuga refuges, and settlement camps.
It came 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 Bakonzo 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 its surveyors and demarcated the land.
The pastoralists now want government to review the demarcation process. Juliet Kirundi, a resident claims that there was no full participation of pastoralists during the survey process and any findings by the ministry will be challenged.
She says that they have all the necessary evidence that the land where they were evicted from belongs to them.
Job Kanyehamba, another pastoralist claims that the land issue in the area is ancestral and fueled by local leaders under the guise of protecting the Bakonzo. He fears that if government does not intervene it might breed a conflict.
Samuel Rutwama says they are wondering how the ministry has decided to evict them from the land that was given to them by government in 2017. He adds they have lost more than 300 acres in the new survey with many of them at a risk of losing their cattle due to limited land for grazing.
Richard Nankunda, the LC1 Kayanja village says that most people in the village are now abandoning their homes at night due to fear of being attacked.
In 2014, eleven people were killed in Nkoko village over same land issues.
The LCIII chairperson Kitswamba sub-county, Yofesi Katonene says that there is need for urgency in handling the matter.
But the Deputy RDC in charge of Busongora County Mubingwa Zephania says there is no cause for alarm, arguing that both groups should be contented with what has been given to them.
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