The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A group of 119 people displaced by the Karuma Hydro Dam project have petitioned President Yoweri Museveni, seeking his intervention over unfair compensation and delayed resettlement. An additional 60 individuals claimed their land and property were undervalued when the project began in 2013.
The petitioners request President Museveni to direct the relevant authorities to revalue their land and property to ensure fair compensation. William Ogik, one of the affected persons, criticized the resettlement and compensation process, describing it as poorly managed. He also mentioned that multiple attempts to engage the concerned ministries have been unsuccessful.
“People were evicted from their land, and nobody seems to care where these people live now and how they live. So we request that we be handled with understanding,” Ogik stated. Ogik also called on the government to fulfill its promises to establish institutions such as schools, health centers, and other facilities that were promised upon their displacement. He emphasized that the resettlement action plan has not been followed.
In addition to issues of unfair compensation and resettlement, Suzan Ocwee, another affected person, alleged that Chinese contractors working on the project engaged in inappropriate relationships with young girls, resulting in pregnancies. The community is now struggling with the problem of young girls who have been abandoned with babies and are helpless.
According to Suzan, when these cases were reported to the police, they were told to wait until the babies were born to determine if they were fathered by the Chinese workers.
Robert Kugonza Akiiki, the Executive Director of Friends with Environment in Development, asserted that the affected persons should be compensated according to World Bank standards. He stressed that compensation should restore their previous standard of living or even improve it.
Christine Atero, another affected individual, explained that her land, which was a trading center in Karuma, was valued at just 580,000 shillings during the evaluation process—a sum she considered grossly unfair. She added that she was promised resettlement in another area and a three-bedroom house, but these promises were never fulfilled, and she was eventually evicted forcefully.
Atero further mentioned that the land the government is offering for resettlement is in Nwoya district, near a game park. The affected persons are reluctant to move there due to fears of being attacked by elephants.
Human rights lawyer Brighton Aryampa highlighted irregularities and illegalities in the compensation process. He noted that none of the affected individuals have been fully compensated, and some people who were not impacted by the project were nonetheless compensated.
Aryampa pointed out that, over 11 years, none of the affected persons have been resettled and called for immediate action from the concerned ministries. The Karuma Hydropower Project is a 600MW run-of-the-river power plant under construction on the Nile River in Kiryandongo District, Uganda.
Estimated to cost $1.7 billion, the project is being jointly developed by Uganda’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) and Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL), with financial assistance from China. The project broke ground in August 2013, and upon completion, Karuma will be the largest power generation facility in Uganda and the largest dam in East Africa. The Karuma hydroelectric plant is expected to significantly boost Uganda’s national grid, as the country’s current total electricity generation capacity stands at 950MW.
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