By Witness Radio team.
A Kawaala community whose livelihoods were first disrupted by the Lubigi drainage Channel expansion, a project funded by the World Bank, has petitioned the Office of the President, calling for protection against National Environment and Management Authority (NEMA) threats of evictions.
The victim community calls for halting the illegal evictions and carrying out an independent investigation into their lawful occupancy and legitimate ownership of the land, which is being treated as a wetland.
According to victims, flooding in the area has been created by several infrastructural projects such as the Northern By-pass road construction, a Sewerage plant by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation, and the Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Project (KIIDP2) among others.
In their petition dated June 14th and signed by over 70 residents of Kawaala Zone II, the victim community revealed that all the above-mentioned projects have compensated them, and others are yet to compensate for their pieces of land taken, crops plus other properties such as a year ago mediation facilitated by the World Bank’s Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) closed by a remedy agreement.
“We were shocked and distressed to receive sudden verbal eviction notices giving us only three days to vacate our land and homes without following due processes. The eviction threats are informal and caused unnecessary panic and confusion within our community,” the petition reads, adding that they have lived on their land for decades, having documents proving ownership of the land.
The community argues that the illegal eviction is a coordinated effort between NEMA and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to avoid compensations agreed upon in the remedy agreement. KCCA is an implementer of the ongoing Second Kampala Institutional and Infrastructure Development Project (KIIDP2) funded by the World Bank.
A June 17 press statement released by NEMA confirms that the Lubigi restoration exercise is a collaborative effort among several government agencies, including the Ministry of Water and Environment, KCCA, NEMA, Uganda Police Force, and Uganda People’s Defense Forces.
Speaking to Witness Radio on 18th June 2024, community members confirmed that NEMA and other government agencies are continuing illegal evictions despite a copy of the petition being delivered to their offices.
“NEMA is not ceasing its illegal actions and continues to demolish everything they find. We have written to authorities, including the president, to intervene and save us, but we have not succeeded. We are adamantly opposing these evictions because we have what it takes to prove that we are the rightful owners,” one of the affected residents told Witness Radio.
The President’s office is yet to respond to the communities’ petition.
