Baluma (wearing a coat) and some of his family members.
…….Special Report; abridged testimony…….
ABDUCTION AND TORTURE: New methods used by multinationals and security agencies to grab land from the poor communities…
By witnessradio.org Team
Sipiriano Baluma, 60 is among the 35000 residents who have lawfully occupied and cultivated their land since the 1930s. But, the right to own land was brought to an end in early 2019, when residents woke up to the news of a local land broker Mwesigwa Reuben claiming that he owns their land. Just in a week news spread like wildfire that the land ownership had changed to Great Season SMC Limited, a company solely owned by a Sudan investor currently based in UAE, Dubai.
Immediately, residents witnessed the deployment of casual laborers from Darfur, Sudan, armed with bows and arrows to carry out forced evictions under the protection of Kiryandongo district police.
Without any meaningful consultation or compensation, the company, its agents, and security agencies in Kiryandongo district resorted to using violence targeting family heads and leaders of the project affected persons that were standing up for their rights. Acts of violence ranged from kidnaps, torture, beating, cutting down people’s crops to demolishing of houses, among others.
Baluma, a father of twelve (12) children, a resident of Kisalanda- Jerusalem, Kitwala Sub County in Kiryandongo district got kidnapped, and while in captivity, the company grabbed his 20 acres, which had houses, plantations of maize, banana, sweet potatoes, and cassava.
Baluma said, his land was life to him as he would earn Uganda Shillings close to one and half a million (1.5M) equivalent to about USD 500 every season before Great Seasons SMC Limited grabbed it.
He added that such an income would meet basic needs for his family including paying school fees.
Baluma shares his ordeal on how he lost his land: “I was at my home at 8:00 am local time on 18th, March 2021, when armed anti-riot police and company workers armed with bows and arrows traveling on two police patrols raided my home. I was kidnapped and taken to Kiryandongo district central police. This incident was witnessed by my family members (my wife and children)” Said Baluma.
He said while in captivity, one of the workers of the company questioned him about why he was cultivating on the land owned by the company and accused him of refusing to surrender his land.
According to his wife, Njeze Donati, in an hour’s time after Baluma’s abduction, the company’s workers returned with a tractor, plowed their land up-to the doorstep, and planted maize. As a result, their house now stands in the middle of the company’s plantation, inaccessible and isolated from the rest of the world.
“The armed workers under the protection of Kiryandongo police put us on the gunpoint ordered us to enter and to lock ourselves in the house, which moment was used to grab our family land,” Said Donati.
She added that they were able to identify a police officer who oversaw the land grab exercise as Abura Felix attached to the Kiryandongo police
Baluma spent six (6) days in police cells without a charge and after the intervention of Witness Radio – Uganda lawyers, he was granted police bond.
On the police bond paper, Kiryandongo district police preferred a charge of criminal trespass on his own land.
