[Ugnet] Land wrangles rage on

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Land wrangles rage on

WENDY GLAUSER

They say land is wealth and a battle to have a piece of this has pitted the government against the people of Rwamwanja in Kamwenge district Daily Monitor’s Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi visited Rwamwanja in July and gives an account of the situation. A t 80, Mr George Rwakaikara, has no idea how to start all over again by building a new home in a new place. All his life, he has lived with his parents and grand parents in Nkoma village, Nkoma sub-county, Rwamwanja in Kamwenge district, western Uganda. But a recent government directive seems to suggest that he has no option but to move on and find land elsewhere. “I don’t understand what madness has gone into the government,” Rwakaikara laments as he stares at the clearing marking the boundary lines for what the government claims is a refugee settlement. FACING EVICTION: (L-R) Mr William Baguma, 70, Mr Emmanuel Kambule, 40, Mr Eliphaz Matebere 68, Mr George Rwakaikara, 80 and Mr George Mwirumubi, 53. They are some of the residents of Rwamwanja who may have to relocate if the government goes ahead with its eviction plans. Photo by Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi Rwakaikara’s is one of the 1,000 families representing over 10,000 people embroiled in a bitter row with the government over a 40 square mile piece of land in Rwamwanja. The land in contention stretches over two and a half sub-counties of Nkoma, Bwizi and part of Kahunge sub-county. On November 7, the first deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Lt. Gen. Moses Ali, issued an “operational order” for the survey of refugee land in Western Uganda. The order, code named “operation cause for justice” seeks to free, and properly identify refugee land, which the government says had been invaded by encroachers and land grabbers since large numbers of Rwandese refugees that had occupied it returned home between 1994 and 1998. Mr Ali’s order gives the residents six months to quit the land but the locals are staying put and say they are determined to fight for their land to the last man. Land is fast becoming a very hot topic in Uganda. The case of Rwamwanja is just but a tip of the growing sensitivity of land issues. The desire to free large chunks of land for investment purposes as part of the government’s scheme to modernise agriculture is seen as a possible reason to have the Rwamwanja land secured. The local landowners in Rwamwanja (encroachers according to the government) feel that “big shots” in the government could be behind the move to grab their land. The Land Act (1997) gives right of tenure to any person who has lived on a piece of land for a period of 10 years or more. Government’s stand Lt. Gen. Moses Ali says that the government’s aim is to secure all refugee land. Ali says, in his operational order that a lot of what was formally settlement land has been lost to encroachers thus the need to secure it. “Nakivale, Oruchinga and Rwamwanja refugee settlements were established in 1959-1961 at the time of the Rwandese Tutsi influx to Uganda and other neighbouring countries. “While Oruchinga was established as a reception centre, Nakivale and Rwamwanja were established to settle refugees after they had undergone screening and status determination; after the influx stopped, Oruchinga was also turned into a settlement,” Ali’s order states in part. But this position is sharply contested by Tooro Kingdom, which was the actual owner of the Rwamwanja land. The Prime Minister, Mr Nyabongo Rwankijuma wrote to President Yoweri Museveni on January 13, 2004; “The people of Rwamwanja-Nkoma have learnt with shock that a meeting was held in Mbarara by the Rt. Hon. Lt Gen. (Rtd) Moses Ali, the First deputy Prime Minister of Uganda, which was among others allegedly attended by the leadership of Kamwenge district and it was decided to evict the people from their land and call them encroachers of the refugee settlement Your Excellency, it was established by all the kingdom officials who were in charge of the area during the time of the Rwandese refugees influx that at no material time was the area gazetted or surveyed as a refugee settlement.” History Rwamwanja stands out as a unique case. In 1964 when the then king of Tooro, the late Sir George Rukiidi offered land to host the fleeing Rwandese in his kingdom, Rwakaikara was the chief of the then Rwamwanja sub-county. He helped not only in identifying land but also in getting the Rwandese to settle. Giving an account now, Rwakaikara insists the land has never been an official settlement but was instead “lent” by the King of Tooro at the request of his counterpart King Kigenyi of Rwanda as a temporary settlement for members of the royal family who by tradition could not mix in the same camps with commoners. The understanding then was that after some time, the Ugandan government would find alternative accommodation for the refugees in Kyaka or elsewhere to settle more permanently. The permanent camps were created in Kyaka, forming the present day Kyaka I and Kyaka II. But due to the large numbers of refugees, those who settled in Rwamwanja never moved until the Tutsi-led Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) war of 1990-1994 that saw many return home, freeing the land. Who is at fault? Mr Augustine Kayonga, the chairman of Kabarole district, which formerly also included present day Kamwenge and Kyenjojo districts is angry that the government is taking advantage of the King’s hospitality to grab the land. Kayonga is one of four people who have engaged the government in a court battle on behalf of the 1,000 peasant families faced with eviction. “For us, the important thing to bring out is the plight of the people, the government has no legal claim on this land. The land was lent to the Rwandese princes by the King of Tooro. When they left, the Kingdom encouraged its people to re-occupy the land they had previously occupied,” Kayonga told the Daily Monitor in an interview in Fort Portal on July 19. Other interested parties the Daily Monitor spoke to, claim that the government is taking advantage of the long period the refugees were hosted on this land to lay claim on it. There are rumours that “big people” are involved in the wrangle, playing a “behind the scenes role” to steal the land. “Otherwise how does one explain the use of armed government soldiers to survey the land? If the government was genuine in its actions, why don’t they even have an LC official to guide them on where the settlement land is, why can’t they use local people as porters to cut the boundaries? This means there is something sinister,” said a woman whose maize garden was cut through by the surveyors. Mzee Rwakaikara echoes the same words. “We are angry that the government has betrayed us by sending the army to grab our land. The army is supposed to protect Ugandans and their property [but] where have these soldiers come from?” A visit to the area confirmed the army’s involvement. UPDF soldiers clad in camouflage combat fatigues with AK 47 assault riffles slung on one shoulder and machetes or axes in the other hand were working around at the bushes and crops to clear the boundary. “We think there are interests more than refugees,” says Kayonga, adding that, “the claim that the government might be seeking to free the land for investors does not hold because the current occupants are also engaged in serious economic activity.” Some settlers have large ranches on the land while others have commercial-size maize and cassava gardens. Mr Ivan Kunihira, is the LC I chairman for Nkoma cell. Like his people, he is also faced with eviction from land his ancestors have occupied for many generations. “My father’s grave is here, his father’s grave is there next to him and his grandfather lies next so I don’t understand how the land of my forefathers can now become government land,” Kunihira said. Land belonging to the churches and other public institutions like schools is also not being spared. Facing eviction is Rwamwanja Church of Uganda parish, which occupies a 30-acre piece of land. It was built in 1916 and was given a land title in 1930. According to the parish priest, Rev. Yehu Kabyakyaka, the matter of the church land is being forwarded to the Bishop of Rwenzori diocese to pursue in court. In the same category is another church on a 20-acre plot at Mutukura, a health centre at Nkoma and Rwamwanja Senior Secondary School. Intervention Tooro Prime Minister, Mr Stephen Rwakijuma Nyabongo in separate letters to the Prime Minister, Prof Apollo Nsibambi and the Commissioner for Lands, says the kingdom is shocked at the government’s move to evict people from the land it does not own. In one of the letters dated January 7, 2005, to Prof Apollo Nsibambi, Nyabongo wrote, “Tooro Kingdom administration was recently shocked to learn that the Minister of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees had issued out an operational order to evict and survey the [Rwamwanja area]. “In the history of the Kingdom and records, it is not known that Rwamwanja was ever gazetted as a refugee settlement.” Nyabongo challenged the government to clarify “as to when this land of Rwamwanja became government land.” He also petitioned President Museveni over the matter saying it had political, economic and cultural dimensions that required attention. Earlier, on January 5, the Vice President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya wrote to the Prime Minister raising complaints made to him by the Rwamwanja residents and Tooro kingdom officials over the land survey and Minister Ali’s operational order.Bukenya ordered an immediate halt of the surveying, which had created a lot of tension among the many families and asked the Prime Minister to convene an urgent stakeholders’ meeting. Nsibambi, wrote to the various stakeholders on January 13, calling a meeting on January 20. It was attended by among others, the National Political Commissar, Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, Minister Adolf Mwesige (then in the office of the Vice President), the Minister of State for Lands, Mr Baguma Isoke and the Minister of State for disaster Preparedness Ms Christine Amongin Aporu. After the meeting, Nsibambi constituted an inter-ministerial committee to investigate the matter, but before the committee could report, a new team of surveyors with UPDF protection returned to Rwamwanja to continue work. Nsibambi also tasked Mwesige to give a legal opinion on the survey and threat of eviction. Mwesige wrote his opinion saying the government has no claim on the Rwamwanja land. “The only gazetted refugee settlements in Tooro kingdom are Kyaka 1 and Kyaka II (Kyenjojo district) and Kahunge (Kamwenge district). The Rwamwanja area is not a refugee settlement,” Mwesige wrote.He argued that it was “not conceivable” for the people of Tooro to cede the Rwamwanja area because of the many important cultural and historical sites there in. The surveying officials – the chief surveyor, who the Daily Monitor learnt is called Charles Bafaki and his colleague only identified as Musoke declined to make any comments. The UPDF officials led by commandant Alphonse Nteziyali and Lt. Adonia Kamukama did not comment. But the Principal staff surveyor Fort Portal, Mr A.O. Itorot in a letter dated January11 says the government does not own the Rwamwanja land, and reported that there had been a previous attempt by the Ministry of Local government to gazette the land in 1989 but the scheme had been abandoned mid way.

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