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.
===============================================
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.
