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Bunyoro Leaders Blame Escalating Land Evictions on Oil Discovery

Ever since the oil activities started in the region, Bunyoro has witnessed several evictions with thousands of families forcefully displaced from their ancestral land.
The Oil drilling Rig LR80001 erected at the Kingfisher Oil fields in Kikuube. Leaders in Bunyoro have blamed land evictions on Oil discovery. Photo by Emmanuel Okello.

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Leaders in the Bunyoro sub-region have blamed the escalating land-grabbing cases and evictions on the discovery of oil.  

The leaders say though the discovery of oil in any country is good for its contribution to development, this is not the case with the Bunyoro region where families have been evicted from their land.  

The major activities of the discovery of commercially viable oil deposits in the Albertine Graben region on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) commenced in 2006. 

Ever since the oil activities started in the region, Bunyoro has witnessed several evictions with thousands of families forcefully displaced from their ancestral land.

To date, hundreds of families are on the verge of being forcefully evicted from the ancestral land that they have settled on for decades by tycoons who have penetrated the region and fraudulently acquired titles.   

According to the leaders, before the oil activities commenced, the Bunyoro sub-region was peaceful and no land conflicts emerged but after the discovery of Oil, investors and speculators penetrated the region causing havoc to the locals.  

Ali Tinkamanyire, the LCIII Chairperson Buseruka Sub County says that the need for land to pave the way for oil exploitation and exploration as well as speculative investment has generated a challenge of land acquisition which has escalated land grabbing. 

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Francis Twesige Mukoto, the LCIII  Chairperson for Kabwoya sub-county in Kikuube District states that the discovery of oil opened doors for large investment and the rush for land acquisition by speculators who hoped to benefit from compensations for land.    

He says all these factors influenced land grabbing in the region since the Albertine Graben became popular as an area worth investment for oil mining and thus an attraction for speculative investment in land. 

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Geoffrey Kumakech, the LCV Councilor for Buseruka sub-county in Hoima explains that land grabbers who are highly connected to government officials have penetrated Bunyoro and are fraudulently acquiring titles on land that residents have settled on for decades. 

According to Kumakech, if the government fails to avail free titles to residents in the Bunyoro sub-region, people will not benefit from the oil and gas industry due to widespread evictions by land grabbers.

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Uthman Mubarak Mugisa, the Hoima LCV Chairperson reveals that Bunyoro should be given special affirmative action on land ownership. He states that many people in the region cannot afford to acquire titles for their land hence making them vulnerable to land evictions.

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Fred Lukumu, the Buliisa LCV Chairperson stated that the oil discovery has created a demand for land for various investments, leading to several speculators and land grabbers invading the region and fraudulently acquiring titles on people’s land.    

David Karubanga, the Kigorobya County Member of Parliament attributes the trend to the oil discovery and ongoing oil activities in the region. 

He elaborated that the discovery has created a demand for land for various investments, leading to several speculators and land grabbers invading the region and fraudulently acquiring titles on people’s land.  

Karubanga has appealed to the government to provide free land titles to residents in Bunyoro to prevent further fraudulent land grabbing and evictions. 

During his visit to Bunyoro in January 2022, to commission oil roads, President Yoweri Museveni tasked Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to intervene in the escalating land-grabbing issues in the region and provide him with a report so that the land grabbers could be dealt with once and for all.      

In April 2019, more than 500 families at Waaki landing site in Kibiro parish in Kigorobya Sub County in Hoima district were brutally evicted from their ancestral land.  The residents were feuding with Franco Kaahwa, a prominent businessman in Buliisa and Kampala respectively over a piece of land measuring 2000 hectares.  

The residents then told a Select Committee of parliament, which was investigating forceful land evictions in Hoima district that several of them had been brutally arrested, tortured, harassed and detained by security operatives hired by Kaahwa to chase them from their land.   

They then stated that Kaahwa had a title covering 806 hectares in the neighbouring Kakoma Burwe village but he used the title to evict them.    

The evictees then accused the Police and Uganda Peoples Defense Forces-UPDF soldiers of allegedly conniving with Kaahwa to scare them off their land.   

In March 2023, more than 500 families in Kapapi and Kiganja sub-counties were brutally evicted from their homes. 

Police and private security guards reportedly torched more than 50 homes and looted an unspecified number of animals, including cows and goats during the brutal eviction of the residents.   

The affected people, mainly cultivators, and pastoralists, were feuding with Moses Asiimwe, a tycoon in Hoima City, over approximately 5 square miles of land covering the villages of Waaki North, Kapapi Central, Waaki South, Runga, and Kiryatete.

In February 2019, more than 500 families were brutally evicted from Kyabisagazi 1 and Kyabisagazi 2 villages in Kyabisagazi parish in Kigorobya Sub County in Hoima district.  

The families were evicted from their ancestral land when a joint security team comprising the army and police raided the village under the guise of tracking down people involved in subversive activities.   

What appeared to be a cordon and search operation turned into an action of eviction. Two toddlers died as a result of the brutal eviction while more than 200 houses were torched. 

The residents then were feuding with Edgar Agaba, a prominent businessman in Hoima City.  

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