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Museveni promises to pay evictees of Kiryandongo sugar factory land

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10 months ago

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Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja commissions the construction of a community social centre in Bundibugyo District at the weekend. Locals tasked the President to fulfill pledges to the district

President Museveni has promised to compensate residents who were evicted from the land housing  Kiryandongo sugar factory in Kimogora Village.

The President made the pledge while commissioning the $60 million (Shs216b) factory at the weekend.

The factory was constructed by Sarrai group on government ranch land, with works commencing in 2018.

Mr Museveni said the government allowed Sarrai group to establish the factory although some people had encroached on the land.

“These squatters had encroached on government ranch land and were not bonafide occupants but are our people. Bonafide occupants are those who had stayed on the land before 1983, but these came much later. The NRM government, however, we will compensate them,” he said.

In 2017, President Museveni donated the land to three companies, including Kiryandongo Sugar Factory, Ajilis Partners, a US company, and Great Season to pave way for large-scale farming.

Mr Museveni also advised residents to utilise the project by seeking employment.

“Stop living reckless lives by spending your money on alcohol,” the President said.

Mr Museveni advised locals to engage in agriculture so as to supply produce to investors undertaking projects in the area.

He also promised farmers that Cabinet will soon debate initiatives of extending irrigation schemes to them since the weather patterns are not dependable.

“Even this season, the rain has delayed. The maize is still young. I don’t know if we shall have better yields, that is why I will have to take the issue to the Cabinet and we will talk about it,” he said.

Mr Sarbjit Singh Rai, the chairperson of Sarrai group, said they have so far planted 13,000 acres of sugarcane, adding that the factory has a production capacity of 4,000 tonnes per day.

“The factory has registered a total of 150 sugarcane out growers and we are now employing 5,000 people but we hope to increase the number to 8,000 in the coming years,” he said.

Mr Rai said the factory will also help farmers get better yields by supplying them with pesticides.

Meanwhile, leaders in Bundibugyo have reminded the President to consider fulfilling pledges he made to the district. The Bughendera County MP, Mr Moses Acrobat Kiiza, told Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja during her visit to the district at the weekend that in 2015, Mr Museveni pledged to create Bughendera district and establish a cocoa factory.

“Prime Minister, we kindly ask you to remind the President about the creation of Bughendera, a cocoa factory and also compensate the flood victims in the district,” Mr Acrobat said.

He said the district has already secured land where they propose to construct the factory.

In her response, Ms Nabbanja said: “The  NRM government does not forget its people, so be patient, we are coming to fulfil everything.” She was in the district for the fundraising of the construction of a community service centre.

The farmers also complained of poor market prices due to lack of a factory to process it.

According to the district production officer, Mr Light Kisembo, they produces 24 metric tonnes of cocoa annually.

In 2016, Mr Museveni directed then the Minister for Trade to work with the ministry of Finance to budget for the construction of the factory.

Source: Daily Monitor

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Lands minister orders Kiryandongo Sugar limited to stop evicting communities As the court starts to hear a case filed against Kiryandongo Sugar Limited, president Museveni offers to compensate forced eviction victims Residents complain over forceful evictions by sugar factory Atiak sugar factory employees seek legal redress after termination Kiryandongo Sugar Limited in another COVID-19 lockdown land grab

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Cosase wants Kamya, Kasaija punished over Shs10b saga

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8 months ago

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August 8, 2022

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Parliament’s Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (Cosase) has ordered for an inquest and possible prosecution of ombudsman Beti Kamya and Finance minister Matia Kasaija.

The two government officials have been red flagged for “illegally clearing” the release of Shs10.6b that was paid to ghost claimants in 2020.

The Cosase report that was presented to the House on Thursday, also recommends that Mr Patrick Ocailap, the Deputy Secretary to Treasury, be “punished” for not thoroughly scrutinising the request for the release of the money.

Mr Ocailap was deemed to be at fault because he was acting on behalf of the then Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Keith Muhakanizi, who was at the time out of the country.

“Mr Matia Kasaija, Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, and Mr Patrick Ocailap, the Deputy Permanent  Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, should be investigated for their role in the Shs10.6b supplementary process,” the report, which also pins officials from Uganda Land Commission (ULC), reads in part, adding in another passage; “Management admitted that although the…supplementary was received and spent by ULC, the Commission did not initiate the request for the said money.”

Finance minister Matia Kasaija appears before Cosase on May 31, 2022.

It further revealed that Ms Beatrice Byenkya, the ULC chairperson, informed Cosase that she was never “consulted at all regarding the request for the supplementary budget, and neither was the Commission.”

HERE: Kamya, Byenkya trade blame before Cosase

ULC officials were also faulted for “conniving” with lawyer Richard Buzibira to forge court documents in regard to compensation.

“The lawyers from Lubega, Buzibira and Company Advocates should be prosecuted for aiding the fraudulent transaction,” the report states, adding, “Disciplinary action should be taken against Denis Kahabura, the registrar of Kibaale, for issuing a title based on forged documents.”

The crux of the matter was that the Shs10.6b release was effected by the Finance ministry following a request of Ms Kamya in her capacity as Lands minister at the time.

READ: How Kasaija approved Shs10b supplementary request in error

Cosase revealed that—without providing proof—the sidestepping of the ULC was informed by “a presidential directive.”

The report was stinging in its recommendation of punishments for ULC officials deemed to be in cahoots.

“Ms Barbara Imaryo, the then accounting officer, and Mr Siraje Isabirye, the head of accounts, should be prosecuted in regard to the ghost payments in the supplementary,” the report reads.

It adds: “Uganda police should work alongside Interpol to have Barbara Imaryo brought back into the country to face prosecution.”

During its investigations, the Committee also established that the entity is under staffed, besides the high staff turnover challenges stifling work at the entity.

“The Committee was concerned that ULC has no legal department despite the need for frequent legal advice and the high number of litigation cases. The top management has officers in acting capacity, while a number of lower staff are missing,” the report discovered.

Specifically, it was established that the “staff approved structure is 75; however, only 33 are in post and 42 positions are vacant. This indicates a staff workforce of 44 percent available to execute the Commission mandate.”

Legislators were also dismayed to learn that “there is a high turnover of accounting officers. For instance, within five years, the Commission—the report spelt out—“had four different accounting officers.”

Ombudsman Kamya’s troubles stemmed from the Auditor General’s report of Financial Year 2020/2021 that unearthed the ghost claimants compensated by the ULC.

Attempts by Sunday Monitor to get a comment from the ombudsman about recommendations of the report proved futile by press time. The Finance minister, meanwhile, told us “they are most welcome to investigate. That’s all I can say.”

Original Source: Daily Monitor

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Kikuube residents say Museveni misled on Kyangwali land.

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8 months ago

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August 8, 2022

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President Museveni and Land Commission chairperson Catherine Bamugemereire in Lusanja, Nangabo Subcounty in Wakiso District settling a land dispute. Several cases have cropped up across the country.

Kyangwali , Uganda.The more than 1,000 people evicted from their ancestral land in Kyangwali sub-county in Kikuube district are protesting a letter authored by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni referring to them as liars who want to steal government land.

The residents who have pitched camp at the office of the Kikuube Resident District Commissioner-RDC since February state that they are the genuine owners of over 36 square kilometres of land which is now under dispute between them and the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement. They are mainly women and children who were evicted from the villages of Bukinda, Kavule, Kyeya, Bwizibwera Nyaruhanga, Kabirizi, Nyamigisa and Katoma among others, in the Kyangwali sub-county.

In a letter dated July 17, 2022, President Museveni referred to the evicted residents as liars who want to steal government land. In the letter addressed to Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, President Museveni stated that he got a report from Brigadier Henry Isoke of the State House Anti-corruption Unit indicating that the Kingdom of Bunyoro Kitara donated 60 square miles of land in 1960 for the purpose of helping the refugees and foreigners coming to Bunyoro.

He added that back then, very few Banyoro and Batoro were in the area adding that most of the claimants are liars. He says that some years ago, former Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda proposed a soft landing to deduct 10 square miles from the government land to settle the residents. The arrangement would give eight square miles to the ones from far away and two square miles to the indigenous Banyoro and Batooro with each family getting 2.5 acres.

He has directed the Prime Minister to order the evictees to accept the 2.5 acres ex-gratia allocated to each family or they forfeit even that one and stop disturbing public peace with their lies. According to Museveni, it is not good to get in the habit of stealing government land or falsely claiming other peoples’ land.

But the aggrieved residents say that the president is being misled about the conflict adding that most of the people he sends on fact-finding missions about the land go to the area when they are already compromised and feed him with wrong information.

Laurencio Tibesigwa, 70, one of the affected residents explains that his grandparents settled on the land in the 1950s, long before the said acquisition by the government and wonders how the government came to acquire the same land. He demands that the president visits the area to establish the truth about the said land.

Justine Kusiima, 73, another of the residents says that people who have been sent by the president to investigate the conflict have fed him with wrong information adding that only the president can get the correct information about the land in question.

Staratori Mutagamba, 65, also a resident on the contested land says that the president’s letter has reignited the untold suffering they have gone through for the past 13 years yet they thought that he who would be their saviour and resettle them on their ancestral land.

Officials from the settlement and the Office of the Prime Minister have been feuding with the residents since 2013 over the ownership of the land in question. In September 2013, the officials from the Office of the Prime Minister backed by the police and UPDF evicted more than 60,000 people from the contested land and resettled Congolese refugees on the land.

The residents were forced to settle in camps in Kyeya village in Kyangwali sub-county under very poor conditions where they have stayed to date. In 2016 and 2018, President Museveni ordered that the evicted residents be resettled on their ancestral land.

In October 2021, Prime Minister Nabbanja halted all the activities by her office on the contested land.   This was during her visit to the area to assess the condition of the evictees where she discovered that some officials from the OPM and Kyangwali refugee settlement area had connived to erect structures for refugees on the contested land, planted crops like beans, maize, cassava, bananas and groundnuts among others.

According to Nabbanja, this could be a move by some OPM and Kyangwali refugee settlement area officials to fraudulently grab the land from locals neighbouring the settlement. She ordered the Minister for disaster preparedness, the Camp commandant of Kyangwali refugee’s settlement area, Kikuube District Police commander-DPC and Resident district commissioner-RDC to ensure that no more activity takes place on the contested land until investigations into the wrangles are completed.

Source: The Independent

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Atiak sugarcane out-growers seek pay

Published

8 months ago

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July 28, 2022

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On Monday, the farmers under Atiak Sugar Outgrowers’ Cooperative Scheme told journalists in Gulu City that they had also petitioned Parliament over the matter.

It is established that the claimants, who are also Lord’s Resistance Army war victims, renewed their pay demands recently when they discovered that the company closed Atiak sugar factory in Amuru District a few months after it received a Shs108b bailout from the government.

Ms Rosemary Achan, one of their leaders, said each of them demands the company Shs25m for the three years.

“This time we will do all it takes to get that money because we understand that the government gave them money to pay us, but unfortunately, they have shut down the factory,” she said.

“Initially, they told us that we would be paid in the second year of the work after the canes matured but the time passed and since then, they have been dodging us,”  she added.

This newspaper established that the victims were each assigned five acres of sugarcane to manage and would be paid Shs25m per year.

Mr Patrick Poly Okin Ojara, the Chwa MP, said they are preparing another petition for the Inspectorate of Government to investigate the firm and ensure that the funds are properly accounted for.

“The company and Naads came to Parliament last year for a supplementary budget and after they were granted the Shs108b, they decided to close the factory yet part of that money was meant to pay the pending wages of these victims,” Mr Okin said.

Mr Gilbert Olanya, the Kilak MP, said they cannot allow the government to continue spending billions of shillings on a factory that is keeping thousands of people jobless.  The government owns 44 percent of shares in the factory.

However, Mahmood Abdi Ahmed, the company’s director for plantation and agriculture, dismissed the claims of non-payment.

“If they claim they were not paid, the best people to comment on the matter are the chairpersons of the two cooperatives under which the claimants fall,”  Mr Mahmood said.

“We got funding from the government to plant the canes, and there is no employee who worked for us and was never paid, including the outgrowers whose money was channelled through the cooperatives’ leadership,” he added.

But Ms Joyce Laker, the chairperson of Atiak Outgrowers Cooperative Society, said the company only paid them for the seed canes and that money was given to the members directly not through the cooperatives between 2019 and 2020.

“The money we received was for the seed canes and most of it was deducted for the membership fees and annual subscription of the more than 2,000 members in our association,” Ms Laker said.

“[A total of] 182 members were paid. The rest of the unpaid members’ concerns can only be answered by the company,” she added.

Original Source: Dialy Monitor

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