Connect with us

MEDIA FOR CHANGE NETWORK

Minister orders for reinstatement of a local community back onto its land.

Published

on

By Witness Radio team

The Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development has ordered over 500 families that were brutally evicted from Kapapi and Kiganja sub-counties in Hoima district to be returned to their land.

In the wee hours of the 10th of February 2023, Waaki North, Kapapi Central, Waaki South, Runga, and Kiryatete villages in Kapapi and Kiganja sub-counties were raided by a team of police officers backed by private guards and violently evicted people from their land.

The violent attack left over 500 families evicted some community members injured, houses torched, property worth millions destroyed, and animals looted. The affected residents have been pitching camp at Rwenyana Church in Kapapi whereas others are scattered in other areas staying with relatives.

Addressing a meeting in Rukola village Kapapi sub-county, in Hoima district attended by the victims of eviction, area leaders, police, and Resident District commissioner, and many others, Judith Nabakooba said the eviction was unlawful and was conducted at night, which is contrary to the law.

Nabakooba directed the security committee to allow the victims of the forced eviction to return to the land since they have nowhere to go, adding that the investigations into ownership of the land will continue.

David Karubanga, the Kigorobya county member of parliament wants the Hoima district security committee investigated for conniving with land grabbers and failing to protect the local communities.

James Kiriti, one of the victims told the minister that the evictions were orchestrated by the entire district security committee of Hoima that has been compromised by what he termed as “land grabbers” but they distanced themselves from enforcing the evictions, claiming they were unaware.

The residents who were evicted on two pieces of land are feuding over land with seven tycoons accusing them of using security forces to grab their land without following the due processes.

One piece of land is being grabbed by six people including Ndahura Gafayo, Aston Muhwezi, David Mpora, Monica Rwashadika, Agaba, and Wilber Kiza, and measures 1030 hectares while the other is being claimed by Moses Asimwe measuring three square miles.

“We only saw police and private security guards attached to magnum security group rounding up the village and started beating people, torching houses, and ordering us to leave our land where some of us have lived since birth. Our animals including cows and goats were also looted,” Mr. Mugume Deus, a father of twelve told Witness Radio Uganda.

Since 2020, the community members have been receiving violent threats of eviction leading to arbitrary arrests and detentions of over seven (7) villagers. They claim several members were kidnapped and driven to unknown destinations, and they have not been found.

The community claims that people targeting their land use the police and the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) to arrest and unscrupulously charge community members with false charges intended to force them out of the land.

In January 2022, 12 community members were arrested by police and charged with theft, criminal trespass, malicious damage, and threatening violence. They are currently on remand at Hoima government prison.

However, the alleged land grabbers want the communities to vacate the land claiming they are occupying it illegally.

Continue Reading

MEDIA FOR CHANGE NETWORK

Details Revealed: Who’s a Taiwanese Investor linked to forcefully taking over 2500 hectares of land that belonged to local farmers in the Mubende district for a tree plantation project?

Published

on

By Witness Radio team.

A new wave of industrial tree plantation projects rapidly expands across Africa, significantly impacting local lives and livelihoods. Investors have continued to pour large sums of money into these plantations for carbon credits, timber, and other business projects. As companies seek more land for expansion, the burden often falls on communities whose land is targeted to host the project. This practice, known as ‘land grabbing, ‘involves the large-scale acquisition of land by investors, often at the expense of local communities.

Ugandan communities are among those hardest hit by the effects of these investments. Witness Radio Uganda’s investigation has uncovered a pressing issue: over 2000 people living in more than 10 villages have been evicted by a Taiwanese tree-planting company in the Mubende district. This situation demands immediate attention and action.

Quality Parts Uganda Limited, incorporated in 2000, operates plantations of pine and eucalyptus trees on grabbed land in Mubende district, southwestern Uganda.

The company is currently owned by Taiwanese investor Chang Shu-mu, commonly known as Martin Chang, and his wife, Anna Kyoheirwe. According to Witness Radio’s findings, Chang’s wife, Anna Kyoheirwe, owns 55 percent of the shareholding of the Quality Parts Uganda Limited company, while Chang owns the rest, 45 percent.

Initially founded in November 2000 by four individuals—Chang Shu-mu, Teng Chien Hwa, Yang Tien Won, and Phillip K.T. Chang. Quality Parts Uganda Limited underwent a leadership change in 2009. That year, the company appointed Anna Kyoheirwe as a new director, replacing the trio of Teng Chien Hwa, Yang Tien Won, and Phillip K.T. Chang.

Quality Parts Uganda Limited is also the Ugandan distributor of a Taiwanese company called TPI Bearings, which makes various ball bearings used in multiple industries, including automotive and household appliances.

Since 2011, when the company entered the land, more than 2590 hectares belonging to thousands of local farmers have been forcefully taken, and the investors continue to expand their boundaries, targeting more land.

The land taken so far has been hosting eleven (11) villages: Butoro, Kyedikyo, Nakasozi, Namayindi, Kitebe, Kisiigwa, Namagadi, Mukiguluka, Busaabala, Ngabano, and Kicucuulo, located in Maduddu and Butoloogo sub-counties, Mubende district.

Eighty-four (84%) percent of the Ugandan population still lives in rural areas, and agriculture remains the primary source of income and the main pathway out of poverty for most Ugandans.

Agriculture is the backbone of Uganda’s economy, employing about 70% of the population and contributing around 25% of the country’s GDP.

Local farmers, who were found lawfully occupying and cultivating their land to grow food for their families, to be able to send their children to school, and to meet basic needs, have been unfairly targeted. Dozens have been framed as criminals and are now languishing in prisons, including Muyinayina government prison. The investors have criminalized their garden tools and pieces of land to make profits, leaving them in a dire situation.

Decent living has become a serious challenge as victims of a land grab cannot find houses to stay in, no land to grow food for their families, and children have since dropped out of school.

We urge you to join us in this campaign to hold Chang Shu-mu, the owner of Quality Parts Limited, and his wife, Anna Kyoheirwe, responsible for gross human rights abuses. Your involvement is crucial in bringing about accountability and justice in this situation.

Continue Reading

MEDIA FOR CHANGE NETWORK

An early bird: oil-affected communities have launched a petition to the Lands Ministry, seeking protection of their rights in the face of forced acquisitions.

Published

on

By Witness Radio team,

Nearly 100 individuals have petitioned the Ministry of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development with a sense of urgency in 2025. They stress the immediate need to address policy gaps that protect women, youth, and others during compulsory land acquisitions.

The 93 signatories of the petition have passionately voiced their pain and dissatisfaction over the inadequate and unfair compensation for their land taken for oil development activities, the marginalization of women in land ownership, and the far-reaching impacts of compulsory land acquisitions. These injustices have perpetuated their suffering, making the petition a crucial step toward addressing their plight.

In their petition dated January 21st, 2025, addressed to the Minister of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development (MLHUD) in Uganda, Hon. Judith Nabakooba, the signatories urgently urged the ministry to engage with the judiciary to stop the indirect amendment of Article 26 of the Constitution by allowing Project Affected Persons (PAPs) compensation to be deposited in Court. They also called on the ministry to collaborate with the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to review relevant laws to ensure the timely hearing and resolution of cases filed by PAPs.

United in their cause, the petitioners from Bulisa, Hoima, Lwengo, and Kyotera districts, under their group, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Affected People’s Network, share a common experience. They were all affected by the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project in Tilenga and Kingfisher projects.

“Hon. Minister, we are sure that you have heard complaints by PAPs from across the country who decry the delayed payment and inadequate and unfair compensation to them when the government compulsorily acquires their land. Delayed, inadequate, and unfair compensation negatively affects citizens, as it undermines their capacity to replace all the land they lose to government projects,” the petition reads in part.

According to the petitioners, different media and research reports have often exposed their suffering, but neither the government nor concerned organizations have addressed these issues.

The petition comes barely three months after the Court allowed the government of Uganda to evict over 80 EACOP PAP’s households.  On October 1st, 2024, the Masaka High Court ruled against 80 Project-Affected Persons (PAPs) from the Lwengo, Kyotera, and Rakai districts.

Despite facing numerous challenges, the PAPs remained steadfast. Many of them rejected the compensation because it was inadequate. Others were embroiled in land disputes, and some households lacked land titles, but this never stopped the Court from allowing the government to take their land for oil interests.

A similar incident happened on December 8th, 2023, when the Hoima High Court allowed the government to evict 42 households for the Total Energies’ Tilenga oil project in the Bulisa district. This followed a court ruling that the households opposed to offering compensation for their land and other properties should be deposited in the Court’s bank account. The rushed court ruling arrived barely four days after the case had been filed and offered a single court hearing.

Also, 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. The nine refused the low compensation of 3.5 million per acre that was being given under Resettlement Action Plan 1. In 2021, the Masindi High Court allowed the government to deposit the household’s compensation in Court.

The EACOP is planned to be constructed on a 1,443km pipeline from Western Uganda to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. The pipeline will transport crude oil from Uganda’s Tilenga and Kingfisher oil fields to export markets.

The petitioners revealed that the government’s acquisition of their land forcefully undermines Article 26 of the 1995 Constitution. Article 26 guarantees the right to property and fair and adequate compensation in compulsory acquisition cases.

“The cases we file in Court take ages to be ruled on. For instance, there is a case that one of our affected group members filed in 2014, challenging delayed and inadequate compensation and demanding the construction of houses for some PAPs. However, to this day, no ruling has been made. Meanwhile, cases where the government has sued the PAPs are concluded in a much shorter time,” one of the petitioners told Witness Radio.

Additionally, they requested the ministry to speedily complete and operationalize an engendered Land Acquisition, Resettlement, and Rehabilitation Policy (LARRP) that addresses the needs of women, youth, and other vulnerable groups and protects women, youth, and other PAPs from the impacts of delayed inadequate and unfair compensation.

Continue Reading

MEDIA FOR CHANGE NETWORK

World Bank Changes: The office of the Accountability Mechanism Secretary is to be disbanded as the Inspection Panel, and the Dispute Resolution Service will operate independently.

Published

on

By Witness Radio team.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved changes to its Accountability Mechanism (AM) structure to enhance its independence and overall effectiveness, efficiency, and functioning.

The World Bank Accountability Mechanism is an independent complaints mechanism for people and communities that believe a World Bank-funded project has harmed them or is likely to be abused by one. It also houses the Inspection Panel and the Dispute Resolution Service.

This milestone, a response to the overwhelming complaints from cases handled by the World Bank’s Accountability Mechanism, including the failure to fully address concerns submitted by communities negatively impacted by World Bank-funded projects, brings hope for a more effective and responsive system.

The approved changes follow a comprehensive report by an external review team appointed by the World Bank Board last year. This thorough review explored options to improve the World Bank’s accountability process, instilling confidence in the changes made.

The report provided assessments and recommendations on issues related to accessibility to the compliance and DR functions; how the IPN can independently perform its compliance function under the present structure; options for structural changes; redundancies and efficiencies in the present AM system; and interactions between the DR and the compliance review functions, among others offering options that range from moderate to significant changes.

Based on the recommendations from the External Review Team report, the Inspection Panel (IP) and the Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) will operate as two parallel units, each independently reporting to the Board, and the Accountability Mechanism Secretary will be closed.

Additionally, a new position of Executive Secretary will be created to support both units and work under the direct supervision of the IP Chair and the Head of the DRS.

Initially, as per its founding mandate, the Inspection Panel responds to complaints from individuals affected by World Bank projects. If a Request for Inspection is deemed eligible and the Panel recommends an investigation, the Board approves. Within 30 business days of the investigation’s approval, the Accountability Mechanism Secretary will offer the Requesters and borrower the option of voluntary, independent dispute resolution. If both parties accept this offer, the Dispute Resolution Service will assist them in reaching an agreement to resolve the issues raised in the Request.

If either party declines dispute resolution or an agreement is not reached within the specified time frame, the case is transferred to the Inspection Panel. The Panel, a cornerstone of the World Bank’s accountability process since 1993, investigates to assess whether the Bank has adhered to its operational policies and procedures and to identify any harm caused.

The new Executive Secretary position will provide administrative, communication, and coordination services to the IP and the DRS. This role will ensure smooth operations and effective communication between the two units, the Board, and other stakeholders.

The World Bank has also stated that these changes will not impact current cases, and the Board will continue to explore further reforms to enhance overall accountability. The changes will be implemented following the Board’s adoption of amendments to the governing resolutions in the coming weeks.

The AM and DRS were created by the Board in 2020 to provide project-affected communities with the option of dispute resolution to address their concerns. Creating these units was a significant step towards enhancing the World Bank’s accountability and ensuring that affected communities have a voice in the project implementation process. The Inspection Panel, which carries out compliance reviews in response to complaints by affected people, was established in 1993 as the first independent accountability mechanism at an international financial institution.

Continue Reading

Resource Center

Legal Framework

READ BY CATEGORY

Facebook

Newsletter

Subscribe to Witness Radio's newsletter



Trending

Subscribe to Witness Radio's newsletter