By Witness Radio team
In what is considered an expedited Court decision, 42 households are losing their land to Total Energies’ Tilenga oil project in Buliisa district. This followed a court ruling that the households opposed to compensation being offered for their land and other properties instead be deposited in the Court’s bank account.
The rushed court ruling arrived barely four days after the case was filed and offered a single court hearing.
On December 4, 2023, the Attorney General Chambers, on behalf of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development rushed to court requesting permission to deposit compensation and evict 42 households from Kasenyi, Kizongo, Kirama, and Bugigo villages in Buliisa district.
Many households are opposed to receiving compensation for their properties as some argue that it is very low, 18 of them are allegedly in family land disputes while others have not been identified by Total but, their compensation will be deposited in the court’s bank account.
During the hearing, Counsel Herbert Alinda, one of the households’ lawyers had asked for time to study the case but, the Attorney General’s Chambers refused his request saying, the application was brought before the court seeking permission to deposit compensation or not.
In his ruling on December 08th, 2023, Justice Jessy Byaruhanga based on the Attorney General Chambers’ submission and granted the permission.
The Friday ruling is the second of this nature where the government has persisted in using courts to deprive citizens of their right to own property or receive adequate compensation.
In 2020, the government of Uganda through the Attorney General sued nine Tilenga project-affected households including Happy Ignatius, Tundulu John, Aheebwa Korokoni, and others accusing them of frustrating the implementation of the Tilenga Oil project in Kasenyi village, Ngwedo sub-county in Buliisa district when the nine refused low compensation of 3.5 million per acre that was being given under Resettlement Action Plan 1.
In 2021, the Masindi High Court illegally allowed the government to deposit the households’ compensation in court.
Only eighteen (18) households of the 42 turned up for the hearing. Community leaders attribute the low turnup of community members in court to the fact that some were unaware that they had been sued while others were given short notice and had no money to transport them to court.
Mr. Seremos Kamuturaki, a victim involved in the lawsuit and present at the hearing, expressed dissatisfaction with the ruling adding that many of them did not agree with the court’s decision to deposit their money on the court’s account.
Mr. Jealousy Mugisa Mulimba, another victim expressed concerns regarding the case’s proceedings mentioning that the case was filed at the Hoima High Court on December 4, 2023, and a hearing date was set as early as December 8, 2023.
Mugisa highlighted that some of the 42 households being sued were only informed about the case on December 6, 2023, leaving many unaware of the instituted case and questioning why the judiciary was acting swiftly.
Mr. Dickens Kamugisha, the Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) says, “A court that makes a ruling after a single hearing when the same court has been adjourning other cases that were filed nearly ten years ago is a shame to itself and Ugandans. Citizens should not sit back and watch courts be used. We must collectively devise measures to ensure that courts dispense justice.”
Mr. Abdul Musinguzi of TASHA Research Institute Africa revealed that “What happened in court was absurd. Poor community members were not given a chance to defend their rights after they were ambushed with the hearing. Our courts need to serve the community, not individuals and neocolonial corporations.”
