This is now criminal!
The earlier explanation was that, if the President didn't give land to investors they would go somewhere else and Uganda would be the loser, so where was Mehta going if he had not been allocated Mabira Forest? The man is a liar, a thief and a bonafide crook! And why doesn't he allocate some of the land in Ankole and other place? Is it only Buganda with allocatable land? What is this? Truthfully this may be a bridge too far for some of us. Enough is enough. Okuyekera Museveni is now a legitimate option under the constitution because he has acted unfairly, discriminatively, unjustly, thievingly, abusively, shamefully, etc.
The timidity of the media in Uganda is evident here - you may recall that Museveni's mad dogs argued recently that Museveni is not allocating land that rather he merely directs. But he directs the allocation of the land thus he does allocate the land, powers he does not have under the constitution.
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Now Mabira falls to investors
KELVIN NSANGI & MERCY NALUGO
KAMPALA
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has directed
the Ministry of Water and Environment to give away a quarter of Mabira Forest to the Mehta Group of Companies to grow sugar cane.
Mehta are the owners of the Sugar Corporation of Uganda (Scoul). The giveaway is a repeat of the Butamira Forest saga which also came immediately after the presidential elections. It is the latest giveaway in the ongoing land bonanza being enjoyed by potential investors.
Reliable sources say the decision to give Mabira to Mehta was communicated by the Minister of Water & Environment Minister Ms Maria Mutagamba to her staff on Friday 4th. The meeting took place at the Ministry's offices at Luzira between 2pm and 6 pm.
During the meeting Mutagamba read a presidential directive, which she reportedly said she had received the previous day from the Prime Minister's Office.
The giveaway comes even after the National Forestry Authority, the lead government agency and regulatory body over forestland has written advising against the move.
In response to a letter from the President's Principal Private Secretary, Ms Amelia Kyambadde asking for its opinion, NFA said degazetting Mabira Forest would have negative environmental and economic impact.
"It is our considered opinion that a change in the land use/degazettment of Mabira Forest Reserve would have far reaching implications on the ecology of Mabira", NFA's Executive Director, Mr Olav Bjella wrote on the 17th of July.
Earlier on June 29, the President, through Amelia, had written to say that the Mehta Group needed 7,100 hectares (24 percent of Mabira land) to expand its sugar production to 100,000 tonnes. "Before the government can take a decision on the matter
H.E the President wants the environmental implications studied," Amelia wrote.
According to the NFA, aside from the ecological benefits of Mabira, the forest supports a wood production industry valued at over a billion shillings. Expanding sugar production to the area would also threaten a USD
1.5 million investment in an eco-tourism lodge in the vicinity.
The directive is silent on who would take the proceeds from the wood and timber currently on the land, valued in millions of dollars, if the trees are felled to make way for sugar cane. In Kalangala, when the District Council recently passed a resolution to cede 3000 hectares to Oil Palm grower, Bidco, it decided to sell the timber and spend the proceeds on district projects. Their resolution, passed on June 12, said the district should have the "right to harvest the forest products on the land".
A committee in Mutagamba's ministry has been set up to draft a cabinet paper in favour of degazettment of a sizeable chunk of the Ssese Islands located on Lake Victoria as part of a government offer to Bidco to expand its palm oil fields.
Since the weekend, Mutagamba has not been available for comment. But the opposition was dismayed by the development.
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