A police officer hit me with a baton, I became unconscious, only to wake in hospital,” narrates Fred Ssentamu as he displays scars from beatings when The Observer visited his home in Lugingi, Kitumbi sub-county, Kassanda.
Ssentamu is one of the hundreds of artisanal and small-scale gold miners who have suffered human rights violations at the hands of the Police Minerals Protection Unit (PMPU). These violations include intimidation, extortion, confiscation of ores, physical abuse as well as displacement from villages.
These allegations of brutal harassment and human rights violations of artisanal miners at the hands of PMPU are common in many gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten mining areas mainly in central and western Uganda. “These police officers are to too brutal,” Ssentamu says.
Indeed, his testimony is not an isolated case as The Observer found out. His neighbour shares a similar harrowing tale, “A police officer ordered me to kneel on piercing stones as his colleague handcuffed me. Then, another afande [police officer] was beating me in front of my children,” she narrates.
To foot the medical bill, Ssentamu says, his family sold his motorcycle for Shs 3 million. Artisanal gold miners in many parts of the country accuse the PMPU of hiding under the cover of cleansing the minerals sector of illegal mining to harass, torture and even maim artisanal miners, among other human rights violations.
Miners say, instead of offering local protection, the PMPU officers have turned their guns against civilians and artisanal miners. “It is a whip and a gun that rule in these mines,” another miner narrates, before asking the police leadership to rein in errant PMPU officers.
BACKGROUND
The PMPU was created in 2017 by the then Inspector General of Police (IGP) Gen Kale Kayihura. It is charged with, among others, inspection, monitoring and surveillance to detect and prevent illegal mining as well as to sensitize mining communities on safe mining practices. Gen Kahiyura appointed Superintendent of Police (SP) Jessica Keigomba to head the unit.
However, three years after its creation, PMPU is on the spotlight again over human rights violations and involving itself in illegal mining. Simon Alibariho, artisanal miner at Katenga goldmine in Buhweju district, remembers when PMPU violently evicted them from the mines which left some miners nursing injuries.
“When they [police] came, they started beating us without any explanation. Some people were injured in the process. We are Ugandans; why is police beating us when we are here to eke out a living, even cows are no longer beaten,” Alibariho wonders. He says though artisanal miners mine without licences, it shouldn’t be a ground for beating and treating them violently.
EXTORTION AND SHOOTINGS
In an ugly incident of human rights violations, a police officer attached to PMPU shot and injured an artisanal miner following a simple verbal exchange in Lugingi mine recently.
“We failed to agree with the officer; so, he told me “I promised to shoot you in the head.” Those are the last words I heard; the next thing I woke up in hospital in pain nursing injuries from gunshots,” one of the miners in Kassanda district narrates.
In a clear manifestation of impunity, the officer has never been reprimanded, arrested or prosecuted for the shooting. In June, 2020, John Mufumbira, one of the artisanal miners and a member of Kassanda Miners Association, complained to the police Professional Standards Unit (PSU) against Superintendent of Police Sarah Mwesigwa, who is the administration and finance officer of PMPU, over the unit’s harassment and human rights violations against artisanal miners.
However, Mufumbira says to date he has not received any response. Francis Mwijukye, the Buhweju MP, concurs with artisanal miners on the brutality of PMPU officers. “These police officers are extorting money. If you don’t give them money, they will chase you away and the process of chasing is dehumanizing,” he notes.
Carolyne Nakajubi, the extractive governance officer at ActionAid International Uganda, says it is unfortunate that PMPU has misused its mandate to stamp out illegal mining and instead turned its guns on the civilian mining population. She urges PMPU to respect and uphold human rights in enforcing the law.
Henry Nickson Ogwal, the director, Programs and Policy at ActionAid Uganda, calls for the probe into PMPU. “Those who have evidence on human rights violations shouldn’t be intimidated when they talk. Such violation is unacceptable in a democratic Uganda and must be probed. Meanwhile, the PMPU command structure and mandate should be reviewed,” Ogwal says.
MINING POLICE!
In addition to human rights violations, PMPU has also been accused of engaging in gold-mining after evicting artisanal miners. “The PMPU has become a mining police. They are the ones now doing the mining,” says Deusdedit Beinomugisha, an artisanal miner from Buhweju.
However, Moses Karakire Musinguzi, the PMPU head of operations, denies the allegation that the unit is engaged in illegal mining activities.“If there is a police officer involved in mining, then he or she should be reported to PSU.You can also take them to court and prosecute them individually if you have evidence,” Musinguzi said recently. “Some of these mistakes are individual, but not institutionalized.”
PMPU head Jessica Keigomba (R) and DGSM officials in Katenga, Buhweju district
In a recent interview with NTV Uganda, Sarah Opendi, the minister of state for Energy and Mineral Development, confirmed that some security officials are indeed engaged in illegal mining. “I know some people within the security circles have also gotten involved in mining but I want to tell them that what they are doing is actually wrong. You don’t go and mine simply because you have a gun, which I [artisanal miners] don’t have,” she said, before pledging that offices who have deviated from their cardinal responsibility to switch to mining will be brought to book.
ENTER UHRC
It is on the background of these human rights violations that civil society organizations (CSOs) have asked the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) to do an investigation into the allegations and bring the culprits to book. In a press statement recently, the CSOs further accuse police of illegal gold mining under the cover of law enforcement.
Don Binyina Bwesigye, the executive director, Africa Centre for Energy and Mineral Policy (ACEMP), says PMPU has overstepped its mandate. “This has exposed artisanal miners to cruel treatment from security organizations such as police and the army,” Bwesigye said in a statement.
Bwesigye argues that without any law, the PMPU has taken over many of the supervisory and regulatory roles that the Mining Act vests in the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines (DGSM).
“The UHRC should investigate, document and address allegations of human rights abuses meted out on artisanal and small-scale miners and landowners in different regions by PMPU and other security agencies,” the statement reads in part.
Amidst the advocacy, it remains to be seen whether there will be any tangible steps by state institutions to investigate the PMPU, which seems to enjoy impunity in carrying out its operations.
In January, a joint team of soldiers and police evicted more than 400 local people who had been occupying part of the 64 square kilometre Maruzi ranch in Apac District. The most affected were actually residents of Acam-cabu Village.
Acam-cabu Village is no longer a recognised administrative unit in northern Uganda’s Apac District after it was erased from the map of Uganda following a land dispute.
Since this area is now excluded from the list of existing villages in the country, a total of 1,040 people living in 180 households there cannot now benefit from any government programmes and projects.
Mr Bosco Wacha, the LCI chairman of Acam-cabu, said the village disappeared from the map of Uganda around 2018.
“Since 2018, I have not been getting my salary and the people who have been isolated because of this confusion are suffering,” Mr Wacha said on the phone on Thursday, May 1, 2025.
He also said all the households in the lost village are at risk of extreme hunger and starvation because the government has stopped them from engaging in any farming or economic activities.
“There is a severe shortage of food here because we have been stopped from farming. We are not able now to take our children to school and we lack access to healthcare,” said Mr Joe Olwock, the area chairman of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
Mr Felix Odongo Ococ, Akokoro LC3 chairman, said that although the government doesn’t recognise Acam-cabu as a village in Uganda, during the National Population and Housing Census, 2024, enumerators went and counted people there.
Data obtained from the local leadership of this isolated administrative unit shows that there are 180 households in Acam-cabu. Of these, at least 14 households have one member each and eight households have eight members.
However, a household regarded as number eight in the document that was reportedly sent to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has the highest membership, standing at 11 people. This household is followed by number 158, which has 10 members, and household number eight has a total of nine members.
Dr Kenneth Omona, the Minister of Northern Uganda, previously said he would meet the leadership of Apac to try to iron out all issues affecting the community in the district.
In January, a joint team of soldiers and police evicted more than 400 local people who had been occupying part of the 64 square kilometre Maruzi ranch in Apac District. The most affected were actually residents of Acam-cabu Village.
The squatters, numbering over 1,500 occupied the said land around 1995. They had repeatedly ignored various eviction notices, saying the land belongs to their fore grandfathers.
In September 2015, the High Court in Lira issued an interim order blocking Apac District leadership from evicting the affected residents. The district then resorted to using the army and police to evict the squatters.
The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has established a military detachment to man security of the area.
EU: Palm oil lobbyists allegedly are trying to “undo” deforestation law, incl. granting “smallholder” exemptions, raising concerns for Indonesian rainforests
“Palm oil lobbyists water down Europe’s anti-deforestation law”
The European Union made waves when it passed the landmark EUDR “zero deforestation” law in 2023. Unfortunately, multinationals are already trying to undo it.
The new law is an attempt to keep deforestation-linked products out of Europe, but palm oil lobbyists are fighting back, saying its monitoring and tracing requirements could financially harm small farmers.
In part due to these concerns, the EU is giving all importers until 2026 to get up to speed on compliance. But now, lobbyists are pushing the EU to grant smallholders exemptions from the EUDR—a potential death knell for some of Indonesia’s last standing rainforests.
The term “smallholder” is very ambiguous in Indonesia. Some smallholders run impoverished family farms. Others are local elites who abuse their influence to create mini corporate plantations in protected areas, a growing problem for the orangutan capital of the world.
Those elites are a major source of deforestation in Indonesia, but lobbyists want to have the EU pre-label entire geographic regions as being at “minimal risk” for smallholder deforestation, essentially giving them a pass on EUDR requirements.
…the EU … shouldn’t create major loopholes for small, rogue operators. Instead, it should help smallholders reach full compliance…
Ms Elivaida Mugala (C) and her children pose next to the grave of her husband on disputed piece of land in Nawaka village, Ikumbya Sub-county in Luuka District. PHOTO/DENIS EDEMA.
Ms Elivaida Mugala, a resident of Nawaka village, Ikumbya Sub-county in Luuka District, Eastern Uganda, is fighting to reclaim her 36-acre piece of land allegedly stolen by a grabber who accused her of trespass, yet she has lived on it for five decades.
Armed with what Ms Mugala believes are forged documents and backed by some local authorities, the alleged land grabber, Mr Fred Bahati, has left the 80-year-old widow and her family frustrated and helpless.
Her neighbours and other community members are also outraged and now worried that their land could be targeted next.
Neighbours who witnessed her eviction described the scene as chaotic and traumatising to watch after the suspected grabber allegedly hired police and suspected goons to eject the elderly Ms Mugala from the peoperty she inherited from her late husband, Yowasi Kintu who died in 2022.
“Mr Bahati took advantage of our vulnerability after my husband’s death. He used his power and influence to forge documents to claim ownership of my land. But I won’t back down. I’ll fight for justice, no matter what it takes,’’ Ms Mugala vowed.
A maize garden in front of one of the houses that belonged to Ms Elivaida Mugala
Ms Mugala recounted eviction experience, saying: “When I resisted the forceful eviction from the land we’ve occupied since the 1970s, I was accused of trespassing on my own land and home. I was arrested along with my grandchildren and daughter, and we were imprisoned in Iganga for five months without clear charges or legal representation.’’
“He came with an army of security personnel, threatening us with firearms and intimidating our entire community. His hired thugs destroyed my home and crops, then accused me and my grandchildren of causing the damage. At my age, what energy do I have to inflict such harm?” Ms Mugala recounted.
“It’s a grave injustice, and I demand accountability. It’s clear that some local leaders are colluding with the grabber. They’re taking advantage of the family’s vulnerability, but the community won’t stand for it. We’re calling on district leaders to intervene and bring justice to this elderly woman,” Defence Secretary of Nawaka B Village, Mr Francis Balwaine said.
According to Mr Balwaine no leader has visited to investigate, nor police picked interest in investing this case.
“It’s clear that the lack of action is due to the family’s inability to bribe their way to justice. This injustice will have consequences, and it will likely cost the ruling party votes,’’ he added.
When this reporter visited the scene, Ms Mugala’s two-roomed house was found damaged, with windows shattered and doors plucked out.
The trees she had planted around the home were also cut down.
Ms Mugala showed us a maize garden prepared by the suspected land grabber during the five months she was reportedly detained by police no clear charge.
Mr Christopher Matindo, a 76-year-old retired teacher and current information secretary of Nawaka Parish, who shares a boundary with Ms Mugala, said he was worried he could be the next target for the land grabbers.
“Mr Bahati hasn’t lived around here since he was a child. What basis does he have for claiming ownership of this land?’’ Mr Matindo wondered.
Mr Matindo revealed that his land is adjacent to the disputed piece of land, making him a concerned neighbor.
“I’m worried that if they succeed in grabbing Ms Mugala’s land, mine could be next. What’s more troubling is the silence from local leaders. Why are they quiet on this matter?’’ he wondered.
One of Ms Mugala’s sons, Mr Moses Nsandha, 37, said they have sought help from various offices, including the police, but they have not been helped.
“It’s like the land grabber has bought off the entire Luuka district leadership, leaving us with nowhere to turn,’’ he alleged.
“We’ve been loyal NRM voters for decades, but this incident has opened our eyes to see the reality. If this is how they repay us – by enabling grabbers to steal from the vulnerable – then they shouldn’t expect our votes again if there is no justice for the old woman,’’ said Mr Godfrey Mulwa, Councilor for Nawaka Parish.
When contacted, Mr Bahati said the case was in court and denied any involvement in destroying the elderly woman’s property.
He claimed that he purchased the land through the rightful channels, arguing that the house he demolished was his workers’ quarters on his property.
Mr Bahati claimed he’s in possession of genuine documents proving his ownership of the land, which he said spans between 8-10 acres.
He dismissed Ms Mugala’s claim that the disputed land measures 36 acres, arguing that she exaggerated it.
According to the district Police Commander, Mr Moses Akena, land fights are increasingly becoming a challenge in Luuka.
A house belonging to the daughter of Ms Mugala, which was destroyed by a suspected land grabber in Luuka district.PHOTO/ ENIS EDEMA.
“A common scenario is when family members, particularly brothers, grab property from widows or orphans after the death of the family head,’’ he said.
Mr Akena acknowledged a high level of moral decay in the community, contributing to the rise in land disputes.
However, he noted that the police are collaborating with Redeem International, an NGO that advocates for widows’ and orphans’ rights. Through this partnership, they’re working to restore grabbed property to its rightful owners through court proceedings.
Police have over time been accused of enabling land grabbing through corruption.
Mr Hassan Ssembarirwa, Deputy Resident Commissioner of Luuka, said Ms Mugala, whose land is allegedly being grabbed by Mr Bahati, is currently before the RDC’s office.
He noted that Mr Bahati has filed five cases against Ms Mugala in different courts.
Ironically, Mr Ssembarirwa revealed that Redeem International, an organisation dedicated to protecting the property rights of widows and orphans, is handling Ms Mugala’s case in court with the support of the RDC’s office. Their goal is to ensure the elderly woman regains her land.
“The police forensic investigations indicated that he had forged agreement documents and the matter is before the court, being followed up by Redeem International and the office of the RDC to ensure the old woman gets justice,’’ Mr Ssembarirwa said seemingly affirming that the responsible government officials have folded their hands instead of helping Ms Ms Mugala who also claim to be a longtime supporter of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) which has been I power for nearly four decades.
Ms Damalie Nyafwono, a lawyer with the NGO, said her team had successfully secured bail for three individuals accused in a land dispute case filed by Mr Bahati at Kiyunga Magistrate Court in Luuka.
“Mr Bahati has filed multiple cases against Ms Magala in different courts in Iganga. It’s clear he’s trying to harass and intimidate her. But we’re prepared to fight her case in every forum until she gets justice,’’ the lawyer said.
Corruption among public servants and land grabbing have become a common and permanent feature in almost every part of the country, with the most vulnerable being women and ordinary/ poor Ugandans who cannot bribe their way to get justice.
Police said in their latest annual crime report that a total of 397 cases of land-related crimes were reported in 2024, compared to 271 cases reported in 2023, giving a 46.5 per cent increase in the crimes reported under this category.