NEMA’s threats are simply hot air

Jul 29, 2010

EDITOR—On Tuesday, all television stations relayed the NEMA boss Aryamanya Mugisha making a tough statement. He announced that all land titles in wetlands would be cancelled and the encroachers evicted, no matter who they are.

EDITOR—On Tuesday, all television stations relayed the NEMA boss Aryamanya Mugisha making a tough statement. He announced that all land titles in wetlands would be cancelled and the encroachers evicted, no matter who they are.

Surely, where has he and NEMA been all these years? The firms he says are due for eviction include gigantic complexes like Speke Resort and Country Lodge Munyonyo, Rosebud Ltd, Victoria View Apartments, Islamic University in Uganda, Uganda Clays Ltd, Rainbow International School and others totaling to 100. Was NEMA created when these structures were already in place?

Were they not constructed right under Aryamanya’s nose? True, wetland encroachers whoever they may be are wrongdoers, but NEMA should not have waited for them to build permanent multi-billion structures and begin operating businesses there for so long only to turn around decades later and pretend to be serious.

NEMA is mandated by law to monitor the health of the environment in Uganda at all times, and to proactively intervene and enforce the law in order to prevent its abuse.

If prevention was difficult, at least they should have stopped acts of environmental degradation before fully fledged industrial establishments were built, completed, launched, expanded and utilised for decades.

Aryamanya says NEMA is to evict the listed encroachers because “it has over time realized that they went ahead and obtained titles for land in the wetlands”. Suppose the degraders got no titles but continued with their activities in the wetlands, would our environment be any safer?

Land titles are pieces of paper. What ruins or conserves the environment are the actual things done on the land and I believe Aryamanya knows this.

The exercise of evection he threatens to embark on is a grossly belated post-mortem and has very far-reaching implications which would have been avoided if NEMA had acted in time. He thumps his chest that he will evict all of them whoever they are.

This is just hot air! If he had no backbone to stop them as they began how will he make them lose such colossal investments? What prevented him from stopping them then?

Kabuzi Kabengo
National Association of Environmentalists

EDITOR—A long list of encroachers on our wetlands has been published by NEMA. It is full of Uganda’s business and political heavyweights! I was taken aback when the NEMA boss, Aryamanya Mugisha said that Speke Resort Munyonyo will not be affected because it has “a special understanding with them”! Need I say more?

Jako David Waluluka
Kampala


EDITOR—The feeling you get when you read the list of Uganda’s top wetland encroachers released by NEMA is that of heartbreak! The irony is that it is the people we all know and look up to that top the list!

The people you would expect to lead the fight for our environment are the same ones that are actively destroying it, all in the name of amassing more wealth. Prominent among them are Sudhir Ruparelia, Sylvia Awori Hwan Sung, Akright, Godfrey Nyakana, Patrick Bitature, Mukwano, Megha industries, Ntake Bakeries, Rainbow International School and Shumuk. The list is made up of Uganda’s richest and most prominent personalities.

I am particularly irritated by the hypocrisy of people like Sylvia Awori who, does regular features on global warming and environmental change.Godfrey Nyakana is a political leader supposed to be a role model.

I am disgusted at the sight of his posters seeking re-election. The fight for our environment is everybody’s problem and not just NEMA’s. A good start would be to boycott any form of business with those implicated.

You don’t have to go through a lengthy court process to determine if someone has encroached on a wetland or not. The Government must clearly come out and show which side it is on. President Museveni has often declared his zero-tolerance for corruption.

He now has the opportunity to put his words in action. Shame upon all those implicated!

Matthew Owomukama
Kampala

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