By Witness Radio Team.
As Uganda joins the rest of the World to commemorate the international day of the girl child, Joanita Kiiza is one of the hundreds of children who will never recover from the effects of forced land evictions for the rest of her life.
When her family of 7 lost its land in 2014 in Rwamutonga village, she was 13 years old. She would trek 14 kilometers from her home in Rwamutonga village to Buseruka Secondary school. Her dream was to be a lawyer.
She wanted to extend justice to the unprivileged and downtrodden in society. She would recite Psalm 82:3 every day, which reads “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute,”
However, the arrival of one Joshua Tibangwa was determined to establish a petroleum wastewater facility owned by an American company, McAlester Energy Resources in the community would become a disaster of epic proportions.
Joshua Tibangwa evicted them. The big dream to become a lawyer was withered like a flower under a scorching sun. Kiiza painfully dropped out in senior two.
On a fateful day on the 25th of August 2014, the whole village of Rwamutonga was under siege by armed security operatives. Houses were riddled with bullets and tear gas. The army burnt down houses after a looting spree. Over 700 people scampered for their dear lives. Household items and livestock got stolen, and neither was Kiiza’s family spared. They suffered the same fate.
“I cannot forget that day. It was a Friday at about 6: 00 am and we were preparing to go to school. But as we were preparing, our mother was in the Kitchen preparing tea. We heard gunshots and commotion outside. She immediately returned to the house and told us to hide, that there might be an attack on our neighbors. However, the sounds could not stop. People were crying for help. It was like a war,” Kiiza, now a mother of two, revealed in an interview with Witness Radio.
She paused for a moment in an attempt to recall something. “At some point, we thought the police were pursuing thieves, but this was not the case. In a blink of an eye, the armed police had already appeared. Every one of us was scared and trying to figure out our intentions. None of us knew that our piece of land, house, and livestock were the targets for the attackers.” She shared the horrible experience, but her voice grew colder.
“They told us not to waste their time but to leave. My Father asked them why we should leave, and their response was strange to us [you have no land, you should leave before we shoot you]. While they were still talking, the destruction of the property began. Houses and plantations were razed down in seconds,” she further revealed.
According to Kiiza’s mother, Mrs. Kabonesa Dorah, their family got stranded. They did not receive any compensation from the evictor. They were neither consulted nor resettled.
“I remember asking my husband and children which route to take, but they had no answer. At first, we thought we were the only ones affected but moving around, we could find all property and houses for fellow villagers razed down,” Kabonesa added.
Before the evictions, the residents had lived and farmed on the land for more than 30 years.
For Kiiza, this was the end of her dream. With no home and no property remained with the family. Her future got ruined. She never saw her dreams coming to pass.
Kiiza’s incident is not the only one in Uganda. Many young girls and boys with different dreams end up in the worst lives they never thought of because of forced evictions.
Irresponsible businesses have forced hundreds of children out of school with the majority of victims ending in early marriages like Kiiza.
The trend has left many to seek refuge in internationally displaced persons’ camps giving greedy men chance to marry off the young girls at a tender age.
Uganda continues to face forced evictions engineered by economically powerful and politically connected men who use armed forces to grab land from the poor.
This year’s theme is our time now- our rights, our future.
