By KT Reporter
The Benet Community in Bukwo, Kween and Kapchorwa Districts are struggling to access land to cultivate as the boundary conflict with the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) remains unresolved.
The community claims that, in every planting season, based on previous experiences, UWA rangers wait until the crops begin to germinate or almost mature and destroy them.
Stephen Chepturok, the victim from Sit Village in Chepkwasta Sub-county in Bukwo district, says that early this month, UWA rangers threatened to punish any person who planned to go near the national park. “We are afraid, although some farmers have put the seeds on the ground, the mindset of the majority is on suspense.
Betty Chemokot, a widow, reveals that, without the farm, she and the children barely get enough to survive on. She narrates that seasonal crops like Irish potatoes keep the family and other affected members.
Francis Kapta, another victim and also an opinion leader of the Benet, claims that the community confrontation between UWA and the community always occurs during the ploughing and planting season.
He explains that this has resulted in assaults on the community and even death.
“We are requesting the office of the President through the RDC’s of Sebei to help us we farm as the remedy is still being discussed,” says Kapta.
Mande David, the coordinator of the Benet lobby group, explains that the community are traumatized and has no answers from the Government as to when the conflict will end. According to Mande, he expected President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s recent tour to Sebei to address the issue, but nothing yielded.
“The Benet solely survive on farming, nothing else”, states Mande. He adds, “If government doesn’t take this issue, serious we shall loose lives due to hunger and starvation”.
Temporal resettlement by the Benet community has led to continuous tension between the community and Uganda Wild Life Authority-UWA rangers who are accused of brutality, alleged killings and crop destruction.
In 2008, the government evicted 178 Indigenous Benet families from Mount Elgon National Park in the districts of Bukwo and Kween, rendering them homeless. The government had earlier in 1993 evicted hundreds of other Benet, commonly known as the Ndorobos, from the forest.
Thirteen years after the evictions, the Benet still live in temporary resettlement camps where they are not permitted to build permanent structures.
They are living in small mud and wattle huts, with no access to electricity and safe drinking water. The insecurity of land tenure impacts their livelihood, including crop and animal farming and has also undermined the provision of social services like education, infrastructure, health, and other social services to the internally displaced communities of Sebei.
In 2004, the Uganda Land Alliance-ULA filed a legal suit against Uganda Wildlife Authority-UWAin the High Court on behalf of the Benet community, for enforcement of their right to use their forest land and on 27 October 2005, a judgment commonly referred to as the “Consent Judgment” was delivered which was settled and agreed to by the affected Benet community, the UWA, and the Attorney General of Uganda.
The court recognized the Benet as the historical and indigenous inhabitants of the forest that the government had classified as a national park in 1993, underlining the need to “redress the imbalance” facing the Benet.
Some of the settlements where the Benets are living include Kapsegek, Teryet who were evicted in 1993, and the Yatui and Lwanda resettlement camps, among others-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
