COURT | BATWA | COMPENSATION 

KAMPALA - The Constitutional Court has ordered affirmative measures for the Batwa be undertaken by the Government to ameliorate the appalling situation caused to them when they were illegally evicted from their ancestral lands. 

An affirmative action is a remedial action that, in any given circumstances, is required to be done in order to rectify effects of discrimination or injustices. 

Court documents indicate that in the 1930s, the Government established Mgahinga Gorilla Sanctuary and two crown forest reserves in Bwindi area in 1932, which were subsequently amalgamated to a game reserve in 1961, but the Batwa were never compensated. 

The Batwa contend that from the 1930s, successive governments have committed acts that have caused involuntary displacement and dispossession from their ancestral land on which the relevant protected areas were established. 

In a judgment dated August 19, five justices of the Constitutional Court observed that the Batwa’s eviction was the culmination of policies of successive governments, beginning with the colonial government in the 1920s, to the current government in 1991, aimed at turning the relevant lands, then inhabited by the Batwa, into protected areas. 

“As a result and pursuant to Article 32(1) of the Constitution, it is necessary that appropriate affirmative action measures be taken in favour of the Batwa to ameliorate the appalling situation in which they find themselves in,” Elizabeth Musoke noted in the lead judgment. 

Other justices are Fredrick Egonda-Ntende, Cheborion Barishaki, Muzamiru Kibedi and Irene Esther Mulyagonja Kakooza.

Justifying their decision, the justices said the displacement of the Batwa from their land has not only affected their livelihood but also destroyed their self-esteem and identity and left them disadvantaged and marginalised people, needing affirmative action. 

“No adequate compensation was paid to the Batwa people by the Government for the loss of their land, which left them unable to acquire alternative land for settlement and has rendered them a landless, destitute people living as squatters on land adjoining the relevant protected areas,” Musoke noted. 

According to the justices, the ancestors of the present generation of the Batwa people had an interest in the land which has since been turned into a forest reserve on which the present-day Echuya Forest Reserve, Mgahinga Gorilla National Game Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Game Park are situated. 

The justices, however, have referred the case back to the High Court to expeditiously hear evidence and determine the appropriate affirmative action measures which may be undertaken to ameliorate the appalling situation caused to the Batwa by the illegal eviction. 

The decision arises from a 2013 petition filed by the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda against the Attorney General, Uganda Wildlife Authority and National Forestry Authority. 

The Batwa are indigenous people recognised under the Constitution. 

Their population is estimated at about 6,000 people and the majority live in Kanungu, Kisoro and Kabale districts. 

They have lived in Uganda since February 1926.