By KT Reporter
Residents and leaders in the Bunyoro want President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to find a solution to the ongoing land grabs and evictions.
Museveni begins his campaign trail in Bunyoro today. He will hold the first rally in Kibaale district and proceed to Kiryandongo and Masindi.
The residents and leaders say the most important thing on his agenda should be the steps he has taken to stop the widespread, harsh, and violent removal of hundreds of families from their family land.
They say Museveni should put in place a robust land management system to deter speculators and grabbers from invading the Bunyoro sub-region and causing havoc among families.
Joseph Kyamanywa, a resident of Buhirigi village in Bombo Sub-County in Hoima district, has attributed the trend to the oil discovery and ongoing oil activities in the region.
He says that the discovery has created a demand for land for various investments, leading to several speculators and land grabbers invading the region and fraudulently acquiring titles on people’s land.
Kyamanywa has called on President Museveni to personally intervene by providing free land titles to residents in Bunyoro to safeguard their land.
Patrick Okwairwoth, a resident of Rwengabi in Kikuube, says hundreds of people had been brutally and forcefully evicted from their ancestral land in the district, while others continue to face eviction threats, but no one has come to their rescue.
Geofrey Tumwesige, a resident of Kibingo lower cell in Hoima West division in Hoima City, says Bunyoro’s land question can only be solved by the President since other leaders have failed.
Charles Ndibanoha, a resident of Buliisa, says that, prior to the oil discovery, no land evictions were being witnessed in the Bunyoro sub-region, adding that President Museveni must take responsibility for protecting people’s land in the region.
Felix Ongirwoth, the LC5 Councilor for Bombo sub-county in Hoima district, says the current trend of evictions is appalling, with many families spending sleepless nights.
Harriet Businge, the Hoima woman Member of Parliament, calls on President Museveni to accord Bunyoro special consideration and prevent the rampant land evictions in the region.
David Karubanga, the Kigorobya County Member of Parliament, said that between 2019 and 2024, hundreds of residents in his area were brutally evicted from their ancestral land and that to date, the evictees are still languishing in abject poverty.
He says the President should personally take the initiative to solve the land question in Bunyoro. Bunyoro has witnessed a number of brutal and forceful evictions, one of them being in 2023 in Kapapi and Kiganja sub-counties in Hoima district in February 2023.
More than 2,000 residents were then violently evicted from their ancestral land in the two sub-counties.
The evictees, mainly cultivators and pastoralists, were forced out of Waaki North, Kapapi Central, Waaki South, Runga, and Kiryatete villages by police officers backed by private guards. The disputed land covers about five square miles. During the eviction, over 50 homes were torched, and livestock, including cows and goats, were killed.
The residents accused Hoima businessman, Moses Asiimwe, of conniving with security forces to grab the land, which he allegedly leased for 49 years to Brigadier General Peter Nabasa Akankunda.
Since then, some families have been taking refuge at Rwenyana Gospel Church in Kapapi, while others live in makeshift shelters provided by relatives and well-wishers.
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