By Witness Radio team

Introducing a unique radio program that delves into the urgent and crucial role of the media in the face of climate change. Titled ‘Eyes on a Just Energy Transition’, this program is now part of the engaging lineup on Witness Radio.

This investigative radio broadcast is not just about informing, but also about empowering. It aims to foster public dialogues that shape perceptions and influence policy and collective action on climate change. It particularly focuses on the rights and freedoms of marginalized and poor communities, highlighting their crucial role in Africa’s just energy transition.

Mark your calendars! The ‘Eyes on a Just Energy Transition’ program will be broadcasting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 am to 11 am East African Standard Time (EAT).

Our first broadcast this Friday focuses on Uganda’s journey in the renewable energy transition plan, exploring the Legal, political, institutional, and regulatory frameworks that underpin the country’s renewable energy struggles.

Uganda lost nearly half of its forest cover in the recent past, especially between 1990 and 2023. It was mainly due to the widespread reliance on firewood and charcoal for daily cooking and heating needs, as well as the expansion of agriculture to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population. Also, Commercial logging and large development projects accelerated the loss of forested areas.

Uganda, like many other countries, is making a positive shift from dirty, fossil-based fuels to cleaner, sustainable energy sources. This transition is not just a change, but a beacon of hope for our planet’s future.

In the broadcast, experts in the renewable energy sector share their experiences and explain the journey of Uganda’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP); inform Ugandans to understand its importance and the aim; they will break down the ETP and Renewable Energy Policy 2023 for people to understand it; and explain how it affects everyday life.

Join us on this insightful journey. Download the Witness Radio app from the Google Play Store or tune in live on our website at www.witnessradio.org. Let’s engage in meaningful discussions and enjoy more informative content together.

RDCs, local leaders on spot over land grabbing, family appeals

Two Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) are on spot for allegedly depriving family members of their right to a 70.2 acre land in Kihanda Sub County, Kanungu District.

The RDCs, Hajj Shafik Sekandi and Amanyire Ambrose Mwesigye are accused of orchestrating and colluding with a section of family members and dealers to forcefully take over a mineral rich land.

It is alleged that the land in question at Ibarya Cell (Village) was previously owned by Mzee Blasio Bamuturaki and his wife Joy Evelyn Kyabasasaki who lived on it from the 1950s till their deaths in 1994 and 2004.

Family members say that upon the death of Kyabasasaki, Hajji Sekandi then RDC hatched a plan and colluded with a family member, Ms Anna Kyahamutima to force out other family members from the land.

It is alleged that before his transfer from Kanungu District, RDC Sekandi linked the land grab deal to high profile officials in government among them in State House and the Ministry of Water and Environment.

Hajj Sekandi, who has since been transferred to Kisoro District, was replaced by Mr Mwesigye, who is now leading the struggle to dispossess the family of their interest in their estate.

Ambrose Mwesige jointly with his deputy Rugajju, Giso, Barigye is accused of organizing the ongoing destruction of the family property to include a house and the plantation.

Christine Joy Tusiime, a family member revealed that the cartel was big to include LCI chairperson Ms Jessica Tindimwebwa, LCIII chairperson for Kihanda Sub County Mr Davis Asiimwe, LCII chairperson Lemegio Tumwesigye, Ambrose Barigye (Kanungu Giso) as well as deputy RDC Gad Rugajju.

“The dispute that forced me to flee my mother land, Uganda started in 2004 after the death of our mother, my sister (Anna) took possession of the family property and took control. The RDC then did a report and it is from then that they started targeting destroying the plantations on the land and bringing many people to cultivate on the land to defeat the interest of the rightful beneficiary,” says a tearfully speaking Tusiime.

In 2023, Tusiime fled the country and she is currently living in the United Kingdom for the safety of her life.

While recounting the mysterious deaths of her brothers and sisters on the land, Tusiime, 56, also revealed that grabbers used her sister on the frontline to torture her and the relatives. She alleges that RDC Mwesige with his deputy Rugajju and RDC Sekandi vainly colluded to arrest her from Mbarara Administrator General’s office while using police and military.

She has now appealed to President Museveni to intervene and cause investigation into RDC Mwesigye and others with the grabbers who are using a motor vehicle with ICRP, a project funded by the World Bank.

“I believe the World Bank cannot fund such a project marred with irregularities and violations,” says Tusiime accusing the Police in Kanungu of declining to register a case of malicious damage to property that was reported by her aide.

She added: “As I speak, RDC Mwesigye and his deputy Rugajju are making business on our land through charcoal burning, destroying the house and sadly when I contacted the police for help, they just kept quiet. I am humbly appealing to the President to intervene in this matter to rescue me from these notorious criminals pretending to work for the government.”

Tusiime alleges that in December 2023, RDC Mwesigye and policeman Zaviour Nishaba and Constable Daniel Byensi led a group of people that stole livestock and poultry on top of arresting and imprisoning her workers.

Accusing her sister of destroying the graveyards of their siblings, Tusiime states that the cartel advised her Kyahamutima to open up multiple frivolous criminal cases against her to frustrate her effort to acquire letters of administration on the land.

According to Tusiime, the criminal gang also fronted Rachael Tushabe, a police lady who is daughter to her sister to torment her with the numerous fake case files which prompted her February 2023 petition to security agencies but without any help.

She further revealed that the land in dispute was put on caveat she lodged in 2021 after her sister declined to attend meetings with the authorities.

“I suffered under the hands of the RDC, deputy RDC Rugajju and the Police because they organized arrests and tortured me so that I could lose interest but this is our ancestral land and all I appeal for is justice in all this,” says Tusiime adding that whatever is being done on their land must follow the law.

In May 2023, Tusiime petitioned the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) complaining against the fake accusations brought against her to defeat her interest in the ancestral land.

In February 2023, she also petitioned the Commandant of Flying Squad Unit seeking for intervention, track and trace a one Lt Simon from UPDF and policeman Walter Okello among others and bring them to book for attempted kidnap as well as life threatening acts to her life.

According to Tusiime, none of her complaints was ever responded too apart from receiving letters from State House land matters accusing her of intermeddling.

In a telephone contact, RDC Mwesigye laughed off advising this publication to go to the ground to do verification of the claims.

“But I think she (Tusiime) is a very dishonest person because she came to my office in 2023 alleging that her sister, Kyahamutima was chasing her from land. I went there and I found when they had a conflict on their late father’s land and they did not have a title for it. It was with their brother,” he said.

While denying involvement in the dispute, Mwesigye said that he held meetings on ground in their presence and I advised them to go to the administrator general’s office

According to Mwesigye, the land conflict aside, there is a government irrigation project where peoples’ land was valued under the Ministry of Water to construct a dam on their land.

He said there are a number of families affected and they were consulted in 2022 and their land was valued in 2023 and valuation reports were shared with them in 2023 including that woman and they consented and their family was paid Shs1 billion which was shared between Christine and her sister on account.

“Now the houses that have been demolished are those which are supposed to be removed for the project to begin and that woman was paid duly,” he added.

Mwesigye revealed: “They were paid on December 19, 2024 and they were supposed to leave immediately. We said since the project still has some time to start, let them still be enjoying their gardens and crops but some months back, we went where the project is supposed to begin this month, now the ministry people went and told everybody whose property had been paid for to leave and all other people left voluntarily.”

According to Mwesigye, Christine’s sister have a house there but she (Christine) does not and they also have an old ancestral house and also graveyards which were all affected but they were all paid for and now the two sisters are not there but they left a daughter called Allen who kept in the house, we went there and told her to leave because the project is supposed to begin.”

Mwesigye said that they held community meetings with all the affected families and told them to vacate because it is now the property of the government of Uganda.

“Being a government land because everything is documented, the ministry of water people went and requested for security and demolished their house to take over and begin work genuinely. Money was paid to all those people’s accounts and valuation reports were shared and all documents are available with correspondences,” said Mwesigye adding that he can stand to defend it.

When contacted, Rugajju denied any involvement saying he did not handle anything related to land in Kihanda.

“For me, my issue is mainly Kihihi and borderline and my concentration and task is on security matters to do with national parks, then border. That is where I am involved. I am very certain that it is mistaken identity,” he said.

Source: pressug.com

By Witness Radio Team

Hundreds of residents in Bulima and Bukayo villages, Bulima Sub-county, Buvuma Island District, are on the verge of eviction from the land they have lived and cultivated for generations to pave the way for the expansion of oil palm growing.

Palm oil in Buvuma is a partnership between Oil Palm Buvuma Limited (OPBL), the Ugandan government through the National Oil Palm Project (NOPP), and smallholder farmers who are organized into the Buvuma Oil Palm Out Growers Cooperative Society. OPBL, a subsidiary of Bidco Uganda Limited, manages the project’s nucleus estate.

Palm oil projects worldwide have faced widespread criticism from host communities for being linked to land grabbing and the criminalization of residents who resist their expansion. They are also accused of causing severe environmental degradation due to monoculture planting, massive deforestation, and the destruction of local ecosystems.

In Uganda, where the oil palm project first began in Kalangala District, the scars left on affected communities have never healed. Despite unresolved grievances, unaddressed environmental damage, and injustices, the project has expanded into other districts, including Buvuma, bringing with it similar negative impacts that far outweigh the promised benefits.

According to Witness Radio investigations, more than 300 families in Bulima and Bukayo villages, occupying approximately 356 acres of land, are facing forced eviction. Tensions escalated on the 5th and 6th of September when officials from the National Oil Palm Project (NOPP) arrived on community land with a tractor, allegedly to clear residents’ gardens for palm oil plantation expansion.

Eyewitnesses told Witness Radio that community members resisted the intrusion, stopping the tractors and demanding to know why their land was forcefully being taken without consent or compensation. The confrontation resulted in chaos as residents sought to protect their livelihoods.

Many of the affected residents, who have lived on the land for decades, are left questioning the injustice of their situation. Mr. Adam Kiyonga, one of the affected community members from Bulima Village, revealed that the company claimed to have compensated a one Aloziyo Nakibondwe, the alleged landlord for the same land in 2008. This action has left him and other residents puzzled as to why they are also being displaced without any form of compensation, a stark example of the injustice they are facing.

“The palm oil company had come to raze our gardens to create room for planting oil palm trees. We were told that the company claimed to have bought the land from our ‘landlord’, Aloziyo Nakibondwe. However, we also learned that the company allegedly asked him to compensate the affected tenants, something he never did.

We are surprised that the company now wants to take our land for free. We have heard of other communities whose land was taken without any compensation, and it seems the government wants to do the same to us. We are living in fear because we are likely to lose our only source of livelihood to the oil palm project,” said Adam Kiyonga in an interview with Witness Radio.

Mr. Kiyonga further revealed that the angry residents confronted and chased away the company officials, warning them not to proceed with the eviction without compensation.

“We chased them away because this is our land. “If they hadn’t left, people were ready to burn their tractor,” Kiyonga revealed

According to Kiyonga, people have been paying ground rent, which recognizes their interests in the land being grabbed. “We are bibanja owners, not squatters. We have been paying ground rent, which recognizes our occupancy rights. Why should we be evicted? You can’t just take people’s land because a government backs you up”. He angrily added.

In Uganda, a Kibanja is a form of land holding or tenancy that is subject to the customs and traditions of the Baganda, characterized by user rights and ownership of developments on land in perpetuity, subject to payment of an annual rent (busuulu) and correct social behavior, distinct and separate from ownership of the land on which the developments are made and in respect of which the user and occupancy rights exist.

The contested land is not only home to hundreds of families but also hosts Bukayo Health Center III, several churches, and a mosque. If the evictions go ahead, the community fears losing essential health and worship spaces, as well as their primary means of survival.

“If they take this land, we will have nowhere to go and nothing to live on. The government should either compensate us or leave our land,” Kiyonga added.

For Mr. Dan Wasswa, a 47-year-old father of 13 from Bulima, this is not the first time he has faced eviction linked to the oil palm project. He told Witness Radio that his land, measuring 11.5 acres, was first taken by the company in 2016 for palm oil cultivation.

“In 2014, they told us our landlord, Pascal Kibondwe, had sold the land to NOPP and that we tenants would be compensated on a willing buyer–willing seller basis. When they surveyed my land, they claimed I had 7 acres, but my own survey revealed 11.5 acres. But they compensated me for only 7 acres and at a very low rate.” Wasswa recalled.

He added that in 2021, the company destroyed his remaining 4.5 acres, which had not been compensated for, and planted palm oil trees, which are now at the harvesting stage.

“The other 4.5 acres were taken without any compensation, and the company has already planted on them. Even for the 7 acres they claim to have compensated me for, the money I received was very little. Now, they are targeting another piece of my land in Budima. We are wondering what we can do because this company is acting with total impunity, and no one seems willing to address this problem,” Wasswa added.

Across Buvuma Island District, communities face similar struggles with land loss and displacement due to oil palm expansion.

Wasswa reveals that many communities have lost their land in the process and have been pushed into an uncertain state. “People are being told to vacate their land for the oil palm project, which is described as a public good. They are always promised that compensation will be given to them later, but many have waited in vain and grown tired of demanding what is rightfully theirs. Some communities have now spent more than a decade waiting for compensation,” Wasswa said.

The oil palm project in Buvuma district, which began in sub-counties such as Busamuzi sub-county, to Nairambi Sub-county, has expanded into several areas, including Majjo and Bukula villages, where Witness Radio earlier documented cases of forced evictions, destruction of property, and the criminalization of community members resisting the land grabs.

Despite widespread complaints and protests, residents say the project’s expansion into Bulima and Bukayo continues unchecked.

“If they want our land, they should come, survey it, value it, and compensate us. But we cannot give it away for free. Many people before us were promised compensation that never came. We fear the same fate.” Mr. Kiyonga concluded.

Witness Radio attempted to contact the National Oil Palm Project (NOPP) for comment, but calls to their known contacts went unanswered.