By the Witness Radio team

In Uganda, civil society organizations are urging lawmakers to revise the proposed East African Community Seed and Plant Varieties Bill, 2025, with a special focus on ensuring farmers have a clear path to seek justice and redress.

The organizations point out that although the proposed law prioritizes seed certification, regulation, and breeders’ rights, it leaves farmers without a clear way to seek justice when certified or commercial seeds fail and lead to losses.

This concern came to the forefront during public hearings in Uganda, where the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) gathered input from civil society organizations and other stakeholders before the Bill’s second reading.

Mr. Lubega Jonathan, a policy analyst at SEATINI Uganda, said farmers should not only be expected to comply with requirements under the proposed law but should also have clear avenues to challenge decisions and seek redress when they suffer losses.

He said the Bill should provide mechanisms for resolving disputes involving farmers, seed companies and breeders, particularly where farmers suffer losses after purchasing seed through the formal seed system.

“At least in such scenarios, there should be a mechanism for farmers to seek justice when the seeds provided by a breeder fail to germinate,” Lubega said.

He emphasized that the issue goes beyond seed certification; it is about what happens when seeds do not perform as promised. Farmers risk losing money, missing crucial planting seasons, or facing poor harvests. Yet, the Bill remains vague on who is accountable and where farmers can turn for compensation or support.

CSOs are demanding clear guidelines on how farmers’ complaints will be addressed, which bodies will resolve disputes, whether appeals are possible, and what remedies will be available to those who incur losses.

Beyond grievance and redress, the organizations warn that the Bill’s heavy focus on certification could put up barriers for farmer-managed seed systems, especially if the process becomes expensive or bogged down in bureaucracy.

Lubega cautioned that drawn-out certification processes and hidden costs could stifle local seed systems’ ability to operate across borders, threatening the EAC’s goal of eliminating non-tariff trade barriers.

“If we do not house the farmer market seed systems or varieties, there will be a barrier to trade, especially without clarity on certification costs and procedures. The lengthy bureaucratic processes will create a non-tariff barrier, which the community is ideally working to push against. Therefore, we could consider and reduce, or if we do not reduce, we factor in the farmer-managed seed systems,” he said.

The CSOs are urging the regional framework to honor both commercial and farmer-managed seed systems, highlighting that smallholder farmers have always been at the heart of selecting, saving, exchanging, and developing seeds in their communities.

Hakim Baliraine, National Chairman of the Eastern and Southern Africa Smallholder Farmers Forum (ESAFF-Uganda), said farmers should be recognized as important actors in seed development rather than being treated primarily as consumers of commercial seed.

“We want the law to define farm-managed seed systems, land races, community seed banks and farmers’ rights because this bill ties breeders to commercial seed production, forgetting that we, the small-scale farmers, have been the original breeders,” Baliraine said.

He further called for smallholder farmers to have a stronger voice in decisions about seed registration and regulation.

“Seed is tied to very many things, especially in Uganda. Seed is about our culture and inheritance, and therefore we shouldn’t look at it only for profit because, for us, seed is life and it’s part of us. That’s why we need to be at the decision-making table to see who is registering on this seed so we also give our input,” he said.

The organizations stress that acknowledging these systems is vital, as farmers still save, exchange, and share seeds. Community seed banks and indigenous varieties, in turn, are pillars of food security and biodiversity.

Agnes Kirabo, Executive Director of the Food Rights Alliance, said the debate should also address the broader challenges farmers face in accessing quality seed, including counterfeiting and the sale of grain as seed.

“The truth is that in our farming and agri-food systems in Africa and Uganda, farmers and consumers are constrained in accessing quality seeds because there is a lot of counterfeiting and trading in grain as seed. This impacts the productivity and investments of farmers, and this is a problem that is being addressed in the background of this instrument,” Kirabo said.

As a result, CSOs are urging that the final law strike a balance between regulating the seed sector and giving greater weight to farmers’ rights, with accessible ways for them to resolve disputes.

They are calling for the Bill to spell out exactly how complaints involving seed producers, breeders, and traders will be handled, who will have the authority to resolve them, and what options farmers have when they experience losses.

They also insist that farmers deserve a meaningful seat at the table in decisions on seed registration and regulation, instead of being sidelined by rules made solely for the commercial sector.

The EAC Seed and Plant Varieties Bill, 2025 seeks to establish a harmonized regional framework for the regulation, testing, certification and marketing of seeds, while providing for the protection of plant breeders’ rights across the East African Community.

Public hearings where stakeholders submitted their views and recommendations on the Bill have now been concluded across the EAC partner states.

The submissions are expected to inform the East African Legislative Assembly’s report before the Bill proceeds to its second reading.

By the Witness Radio team

In Kampala, police detained 16 young environmental activists from the Rooted in Resistance Movement as they attempted to deliver petitions to Parliament and TotalEnergies, challenging Uganda’s ongoing push for oil production and infrastructure.

The arrests unfolded on Monday morning, August 31, 2026, as the activists split into two determined groups: ten were apprehended near Parliament, while six others were arrested near the TotalEnergies offices in Kampala.

Six activists now sit in Wandegeya Police Station, while the remaining ten are held at Central Police Station (CPS) Kampala, according to group leader Maktum Kajubi.

With these latest arrests, nearly 20 Rooted in Resistance activists have been detained in under a month, the group reports.

On August 10, authorities arrested four other members of the group and charged them with being a public nuisance.

The young protesters carried bright orange banners and placards, their messages ringing out: “No to Oil,” “Oil is temporary, nature is permanent,” and “Uganda deserves an oil-free future.”

Those arrested include Mukiibi Isaac, Mawanda Arafat, Mugerwa Nicholas, Opio Innocent, Friday John and Onyango Ronald, among others.

Rooted in Resistance, once called Students Against EACOP, is a Ugandan youth-led movement fiercely opposing fossil fuel projects like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline—their vision: a sustainable, oil-free, people-first economy.

These latest arrests come as activists ramp up their campaign, challenging Uganda’s deepening reliance on petroleum extraction.

In a press statement seen by Witness Radio, the group called on Parliament to reconsider what it described as Uganda’s petroleum-dependent development model.

“Rooted in Resistance calls upon Parliament to exercise its constitutional responsibility to protect the national interest and reconsider Uganda’s petroleum-dependent development model,” the statement reads.

The activists emphasized that their petition rests on citizens’ constitutional rights to participate in governance, express themselves, and assemble peacefully, as outlined in Article 38.

They urge Parliament to freeze any further oil infrastructure expansion and transparently review Uganda’s petroleum policies and agreements.

The group also calls for national investment to be channeled into agriculture, manufacturing, renewable energy, tourism, technology, education, innovation, and homegrown enterprises.

Activists insist Uganda’s economic future should break free from petroleum, pointing to other sectors that promise broader and longer-lasting opportunities for all citizens.

They urge TotalEnergies to rethink its role in oil projects and instead invest its resources and expertise in sectors that could deliver lasting benefits for Ugandans.

“We urge TotalEnergies to redirect meaningful investment and expertise towards renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, agro-processing, local manufacturing, tourism conservation, technology, skills development and youth enterprise which support livelihoods,” the group said.

The activists are pressing Parliament to put long-term national interests and intergenerational justice at the heart of Uganda’s economic planning.

“The future of Uganda must not be determined by what lies beneath our soil when the country’s greatest resource is the people who live upon it,” the statement says.

EACOP is a 1,443-kilometer heated crude oil pipeline being developed to transport crude oil from Uganda’s oil fields in the Albertine region to the port of Tanga on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast.

The pipeline will transport crude produced from Uganda’s upstream oil projects, including TotalEnergies’ Tilenga project in the Lake Albert region.

To the activists, the pipeline is far more than just infrastructure. They warn that ongoing oil investment could trap Uganda in fossil fuel dependency and expose communities and ecosystems to grave environmental and social dangers.

Now, the movement is urging both Parliament and TotalEnergies to rethink Uganda’s current path.

“Rooted in Resistance therefore calls upon Parliament and TotalEnergies to listen, engage and reconsider the current direction of petroleum expansion. Our demand is clear: an oil-free economy, economic freedom, environmental protection and development that leaves Uganda stronger, not more dependent, for generations to come,” the movement adds in their petition.

By the Witness Radio team

GENEVA- Tanzania’s ambitious effort to attract billions into conservation and nature-based tourism is under renewed scrutiny as reports emerge of inhuman and degrading treatment of local communities whose ancestral lands lie at the heart of the nation’s prized conservation zones.

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) has called on Tanzania to immediately halt forced evictions of Maasai Indigenous Peoples from their ancestral lands in Ngorongoro and Loliondo, citing allegations of displacement, restrictions on access to land and natural resources, arbitrary arrests, intimidation and excessive use of force.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its States parties.

This warning comes as Tanzania increases efforts to expand its role in conservation and tourism investment.

A 2026 Tanzania Investment Growth Facility deal book highlights 68 high-priority public-sector projects worth about US$6.57 billion, many focused-on nature-based tourism and conservation. These projects offer opportunities for investors, developers, financial institutions, and private-sector partners eager to tap into Tanzania’s growing tourism and economy.

The portfolio offers major opportunities for investors and partners, with institutions like the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) and Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) at the center of these ambitious projects.

While CERD’s latest intervention does not directly link the US$6.57 billion investment portfolio to the alleged abuses, it highlights the growing tension between Tanzania’s aggressive conservation push and the rights of communities who have lived on these lands for generations.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area stands as one of Tanzania’s crown jewels for conservation and tourism. Yet it is also the ancestral home of Maasai communities, who have long relied on its land and resources for their livestock, culture, and way of life.

CERD expressed alarm at reports that significant numbers of Maasai have been uprooted from their ancestral lands in Ngorongoro and Loliondo, all in the name of conservation and tourism.

The Committee said the reported relocations occurred without adequate and meaningful consultation and without obtaining the communities’ free, prior and informed consent.

CERD notes that cutting off access to vital social services has increased pressure on Maasai communities to abandon their ancestral homes.

“Restrictions on access to grazing areas, water sources and cultural sites, together with the reduction or deterioration in the provision of health care, education, water and other essential services in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, have adversely affected their enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights and pressured them to relocate from their ancestral lands,” the Committee said.

CERD also pointed to troubling allegations of arbitrary arrests, detentions, reprisals, and harassment targeting Maasai people who resist evictions and relocations.

The Committee voiced further concern over reports of racial profiling and the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials.

These allegations arise as Tanzania positions conservation and nature-based tourism as pillars of its investment strategy.

The country’s investment portfolio features projects aimed at building tourism infrastructure and unlocking new conservation opportunities.

CERD said Tanzania must ensure that conservation, tourism, infrastructure and development initiatives affecting Maasai communities are undertaken only after meaningful consultation, with a view to obtaining their free, prior and informed consent.

The Committee also called for recognition and protection of the collective rights of Maasai Indigenous Peoples to own, develop, control and use lands, territories and resources traditionally occupied or used by them.

The UN’s intervention highlights the lack of transparency in government decisions affecting Ngorongoro.

In February 2025, Tanzania established two presidential commissions to examine land use, relocation, and conservation policies in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. CERD said the commissions’ findings and recommendations have not been made public.

The Committee has called on Tanzania to publish the findings without delay and ensure that Maasai Indigenous Peoples meaningfully participate in decisions concerning the future of the conservation area.

This is far from the first international warning about the treatment of Maasai communities in Ngorongoro and Loliondo. Despite CERD raising concerns as early as 2016 and again in 2023, the same issues remain at the heart of the Committee’s latest intervention.

CERD’s concerns are not new. In April 2023, the Committee warned that plans to expand safari tourism and trophy hunting areas in northern Tanzania could force nearly 150,000 Maasai from their traditional lands in Ngorongoro and Loliondo. It also raised concerns over the lack of consultation, shrinking grazing areas, reduced access to water and the withdrawal of basic social services.

“These plans have been designed without consultation and without the free,

prior and informed consent of the affected Maasai communities and basic social services have been suspended or cut off in these areas allegedly as a way to coerce the Maasai to leave,” part of the April 2023 letter said.

In April 2026, UNESCO also said forced evictions were unacceptable and that any voluntary resettlement in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area should respect human rights and be based on free, prior and informed consent.