UGANDA, Hoima | Real Muloodi News | Hoima District has recently experienced a land dispute that resulted in over 1,000 people being evicted from the Rwabunyonyi Village, Buraru Sub-County, in Hoima City.
The eviction was allegedly on behalf of Fred Mugamba, a tycoon based in Hoima City, who has been feuding with the residents over 800 acres covering over three villages, including Rwobunyinyi.
The group stormed the area with sticks and guns and forced the residents to vacate the land. As a result, six people were arrested after the police intervened.
The suspects are alleged to have destroyed crops, demolished houses, and looted properties, and livestock.
Dozens of residents were seen carrying their belongings on their heads, bicycles, and motorcycles as they vacated the land.
When police arrived at the scene, the police commander, Hoima District, Jackson Bogere, acting on a call from the acting Hoima Chairperson Benson Chiche Rukumba and Buraru councillors, held a meeting with the leaders and locals during which they suspended all eviction activities on the disputed land until the investigations were concluded.
Rukumba condemned the eviction and stated that the law must take its course against all those involved. He added that the eviction was illegal since there was no court order.
The meeting ordered the residents to go back to the land because the eviction was illegal.
Counter-Accusations
The manager of Mugamba’s casual labourers, Wilfred Kahwa, denied involvement in evictions and other crimes committed by the groups.
He added that workers hired by Mugamba from the Kikuube District to plant Mugamba’s garden are said to have connived with some security guards who were deployed to guard the land to carry out the eviction, which he was not aware of.
Abel Igrat, who is attached to Pyramid Group, a private security company deployed to guard Mugamba’s interests on the disputed land, also denied knowledge of the eviction. He added that their work was to guard the land and not to evict the residents.
He accused the casual labourers of evicting the residents.
However, one of the affected residents, Christine Akugizibwe, insisted that the armed security guards and the casual labourers with machetes threatened to kill them if they did not vacate the land within seven hours.
Mugamba’s Compensation Offer
Meanwhile, Mugamba has expressed his willingness to compensate and negotiate with the residents who are willing to vacate the land peacefully.
He says that he is willing to coexist with the residents as long as they agree to terms.
He says that the compensation will cater only for developments on the land, but not the land.
Mugamba has been accused of using security forces to tactfully scare away residents from the disputed land.
The residents have been fighting with Mugamba over the ownership of the land since 2018, when he started opening the boundary, claiming he had a land title.
On Monday evening 20th of February, amid the strifes, the angry residents killed Frank Musabe and Sam Kakooza, Mugamba’s two supervisors accusing them of collaborating with Mugamba who wants to grab their land.
The police launched an investigation and searched for those involved.
Background of the Conflict
The Rwobunyonyi dispute is one of the most salient land conflicts in the Bunyoro region, where the majority of those at risk of eviction are indigenous Banyoro. This conflict is different from other land evictions, where the vulnerable are mainly migrant Bakiga and Bafumbira farmers from Greater Kigezi, Baraaro pastoralists from Ankole and Rwanda as well as Luo-speaking people from West Nile in Uganda and Mahagi territory of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Other current conflicts include Kapaapi Village in Kigorobya County, Hoima District; Rwamutonga and Bukinda villages in Buhaguzi County and Kigyayo Village in Buhaguzi East County all in Kikuube District.
Many villages formerly occupied by poor residents have been turned into huge sugarcane plantations as residents evicted as squatters languish in internally displaced camps or on the streets for survival amid the need to engage standby lawyers of investors to get justice in courts of law.
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