By Witness Radio team
As farmers are busy planting their garden fields during this rainy season in Uganda, the hopes for Kiryandongo smallholder farmers continue to dwindle as the multinational continues with forceful evictions and bars them from accessing their gardens for seven consecutive seasons since 2020.
They said in every planting season, the company employs private security guards from Saracen that are assisting the company’s employees to stop the smallholder farmers from planting their crops. This has contributed to food insecurity and poverty since the community had entirely been depending on subsistence farming as their main source of livelihood.
Jerusalem-Kisalanda is one of the villages in Kiryandongo district, Western Uganda, that have faced constant violent attacks and forced evictions from Agilis Partners Limited, a company owned by two American brothers and deals in the grains and seeds business. The village is now in the middle of the Agilis farms.
Agilis Partners Limited, since 2017 has been carrying out forced evictions in the Kiryandongo district with the interest to pave way for large-scale industrial agriculture.
According to the affected villagers, since last week on Saturday the 11th of March, 2023, the company has employed both its employees and guards from a private security company, Saracen to frustrate any farming activity by community members on their land. The company accuses the people of illegally occupying the land.
Mr. Samuel Kusiima, a community land rights defender and one of those affected by the evictions, in an interview with Witness Radio Uganda, revealed that the maize and beans he has been planting get destroyed by the company, saying we are “encroaching on the company’s land.”
“These guards come at 6:00 am and leave late in the night, they say they are employed to keep the company garden, and cannot allow us to access our fields. They initially said they had given me 10 acres of my land but also the ten remain inaccessible. Over 10 families are at the edges of starvation.” The defender revealed.
He added, “We used to earn millions from our gardens but we are now starving and the company is profiteering from our misery. It does not care about us.”
“These guards are often violent and threaten to shoot us if we resist, last week they found my wife in the garden and threatened to shoot her. They always say they have orders to do whatever they want but we are tired of this” the defender further added.
Mr. Nkuzimana John, another victim, said he survives by the mercy of God since he has been victimized. He adds that there has never been any intervention from authorities and courts of law for the past seven seasons.
“Even when you report these incidents to authorities including police, there is no change or hope for a change. My family currently starves because I don’t have food to feed them. I cannot access the 50 acres of land that I had. The company told me to use a quarter of an acre of it last season, which is impossible. Last season I planted maize on two acres of my land but it was harvested by the company.” He said.
Currently, Sam and the rest of the community are living in abject poverty with no hope of recovering from it, a situation they claim has been brought by Agilis partners. “This has been ongoing since 2020. Even when we resist and continue to plant the crops, they either bring a tractor to plow our crops or spray them with chemicals. Do they want us to go steal to earn a living?” the defender questioned.
The community now, makes ends meet by being hired as laborers by neighboring communities, burning charcoal, and also surviving on handouts from their relatives and friends.
“We are collecting tree stems that are thrown by the Company. This is what we burn and get charcoal that we sell to earn a living. It is also not easy because sometimes we are prohibited from taking them, hence risking our lives. If not that, we ask for support from our relatives and friends or seek opportunities to be hired as laborers.” One of the Community members shared.
For the past five years, Kiryandongo has had a history of forced evictions by multinational companies. According to Witness Radio, over 35000 people have been evicted by three multinational companies which include, Agilis partners, Kiryandongo Sugar Company, and Great Seasons SMC all interested in carrying out large-scale plantation agriculture on the fertile lands of Kiryandongo.
When contacted for a comment on the abuses performed by Agilis partners, Mr. Emmanuel Onyango, the company’s Public Relations Officer told our reporter to write to him an email, for a better and easier response within a short period.
By the time of writing this story, Mr. Onyango had not yet responded to the email.
