Human rights observance is key to unlocking Karamoja’s mineral potential

Nov 20, 2021

The mineral rich Karamoja has generally stayed on the periphery of development as compared to Uganda’s other regions. 

Human rights observance is key to unlocking Karamoja’s mineral potential

NewVision Reporter
Journalist @NewVision

By Crispin Kaheru

There has been a fight between different authorities in Uganda and communities living around key natural resources and mineral deposits.

The latter have always emerged victims of diverse human rights violations as they strive to defend what belongs to them, sometimes in vain. 

The mineral rich Karamoja has generally stayed on the periphery of development as compared to Uganda’s other regions. As Africa strives to gain financial boost in all sectors, mineral and natural resources have been deemed the future for, especially technological development for most of the countries.  

 

Africa’s quest for development has largely, if not wholly, been premised on its rich land and natural resources. Although, for most African countries achieving economic growth driven by natural resources has been elusive at best and devastating at worst; but they continue to hinge their hopes and dreams on it. 

Over the last two decades, African countries seem to have re-doubled their efforts to explore and extract every natural resource within their jurisdiction, with a view to “industrialise and modernise” their economies.

This has been exacerbated by the skyrocketing demand for natural resources at the global level driven especially by the rapid growth of non-Western economies with huge populations such as China and India. 

 In addition, the establishment of liberal investment regimes and proliferation of risk-mitigating investment agreements have enabled trans-national enterprises to operate in regions that were previously beyond reach. 

 

Tapac and Rupa sub-counties, Moroto District, Karamoja Sub-Region are one such areas that were historically forgotten during the colonial period and throughout the post-colonial regimes but have of late received the attention of Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) to extract her mineral resources to feed mushrooming factories established outside the region, in Tororo, Mbale, Jinja, Kampala and Nakaseke Districts.

       

Since the early 2000s, government has given special priority to the mining concessions at both international and national levels for resource exploration and mineral extraction in Karamoja. The Ugandan government encourages the mining sector with the aim of strengthening the regional and national economy. 

However, there’s evidence that some mining companies use their “mining rights” to deprive rural communities of access to natural resources vital to their livelihoods and economic survival. 

While Karamoja remains on the steady path of development, it also posts the highest multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI) in the country: 79.1 per cent live in severe poverty compared to the 38.2 per cent national average.

Yet, Karamoja is rich in mineral resources! Beneath the Karamoja land surface lies over 50 types of minerals: tin, gold, iron, nickel, copper, cobalt, marble, limestone, graphite, gypsum, wolfram, uranium, and lithium.  

According to the Ugandan mining cadaster (2018), national and international investors have been granted mining concessions for more than 60% of the land in Karamoja. In this context, communities have little leverage to challenge investors or to advocate for their rights and favourable conditions for local development in the face of mineral resource exploitation. 

 

The population of agro-pastoralist and semi-nomadic pastoralists belong to Karamajong, Tepeth and Pokot ethnic groups who hold their land under customary law and have no formal legal title. 

It is in Karamoja where there is over 300 million tons of commercial limestone deposits, some of which are being exploited and transported to Tororo, Jinja, Kampala, Nakaseke and Mbale for cement and tiles manufacturing and other construction products like slabs, tiles, terrazzo, aggregates, paint making, etc. 

The most important open pit limestone mine covering about 4.5 km2 is located in Tapac sub-county, in the sector called Kosiroi, which belongs to the parish of Katikekile. 

One of the organizations working to sensitize communities on their mining rights Resource Rights Africa (RRA) has indicated that one of the companies, Tororo Cement Limited offers comparatively low rates for limestone, which has kept artisanal and small scale miners complaining. The table below explains the state of affairs:

 

N

 Type of Lorry 

Tonnage 

Rate (UGX)

1

 ‘Sino Truck’

29

180,000

2

 ‘Ben Ben’

32

240,000

3

 ‘Fuso’

25

150,000

 

It is estimated that on a daily basis, between 20 to 40 trucks drive out the mining area loaded with stones. A 32-tonnage Lorry is loaded at a paltry price of UGX 110,000.  The young boys, who claim to be below 18 complain that the work is herculean but the pay is miserable.

 

The miners have been demanding for an increase in prices but the Cement Company does not listen to their cries. Recently, a demonstration for fair prices by local miners in Tapac is said to have been quelled by the company acting with some district and security authorities. Some local community leaders were accused of ‘instigating’ the miners against the company. 

   

The influx of MNCs and large business entities into Tapac sub-county and Karamoja region as a whole provides some indication of local development benefits commonly associated with large scale businesses, like formal employment and spin-off ventures, infrastructure (e.g. roads, water and power), widening tax base, social transformation among others. However, local organisations working in the mining sector in Karamoja report of serious human rights violations in communities at the hands of multinational business enterprises. 

There is for instance absence of prior and informed consent from indigenous communities before companies commence operations. Incidents of land grabbing have been recorded in the mining areas.  Some of the business activities seem to have in fact increased the vulnerabilities of communities as opposed to increasing their livelihoods. 

 

What is the persistent problem?

Uganda’s mining law requires a surface rights agreement to be negotiated with landowners prior to active mining, and payments of royalties to lawful landowners once revenues flow. The land in Kosiroi mining area is owned communally and was used as grazing area by the Tepeth community before the mining activities destroyed the vegetation and the soil. It is said that the mining company is yet to negotiate surface rights with the traditional leaders, even though mining activities have continued for decades.  To date, no binding document can be traced to clarify the relationship between the community as landowner and the entities that retain mining rights.   

 

The community continues to challenge mining licenses, ML 4622 (granted in 2002) and ML 0593 (for 50 square KMs, granted in 2010) granted to Tororo Cement Limited without local consultations. It remains unclear whether the relevant environment impact assessments and audits are done.

 

The Mining Act stipulates the procedure of acquiring the various licenses, the rights and obligations of a license holder vis-a-visthose of the landowners. The Act further provides for restrictions on the rights of license holders, by providing for: a) the rights of land owners to get compensation for disturbance over their land (surface rights); and b) a right to royalties entitled to a lawful owner or occupier of land (3% of the total royalties paid by a mineral prospector).

 

Inadequate information and participation of communities in planning and decision making processes about their former grazing area and the current use has generated a lot of confusion about how the Tepeth community would benefit from the extractive activity. 

 

The lack of legal evidence of land ownership puts communities at risk of human rights abuses linked to mining activities. In Tapac sub-county the consequences are visible: land grabbing, loss of access to natural resources, water contamination and soil erosion, forced evictions and conflicts with immigrant families. The failure to pay royalties to traditional landowners has already prompted community members to question their traditional leaders and the role of local government officials in the mining operation.

 

 

Relation between the license holder and the Tepeth community in Kosiroi

The history of Kosiroi mining area started in the early 2000 when Tororo Cement Ltd (TCL) started mining based on a Mining Lease for about 20km2 granted by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development in 2002 (ML4622). The company informed the communities about their “mineral rights” and offered them to crush limestone boulders into small, carriage-able pieces and then the company would “buy the stones” that would be ferried to the plant in Tororo. 

 

Depending on the season (rainy season it is less) between 200 and 500 artisan miners are working in this area, usually in work groups of 4-6 individuals often in family units. Over the last 20 years, more and more migrant workers from all over Uganda, but also from Kenya and D.R.Congo have come for formal employment in the area just like mining, loading trucks with stones, trading, selling food, goods, alcohol among other items.

 

What can be done? 

    Collectively, the relevant state and non-state actors should fast track the passing of the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill to among other issues harmonise the land acquisition units in agencies that acquire land on behalf of Government; 

 Secondly, the local governments of Rupa and Tapac ought to consider setting up Revenue Task Forces to track the amount of minerals leaving the sub-county, follow up of the royalties with the central government as well as Moroto District Local Government, to enhance service delivery at community level; 

 The mining companies need to heed to community demands to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) spelling out Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects to be undertaken in the community. A CSR committee comprised of community members, local leaders should be put in place to follow-up the MoU implementation and other community concerns;

  Collectively, we need to fast-track the passing of the Mining and Minerals Bill that should among other things enable formalization of artisanal and scale miners;

  The recently adopted National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights should be simplified and disseminated at the lowest level such that mining companies utilise this framework in their operations – to drive a human rights based approach.

In conclusion, a multi-stakeholder dialogue framework has to be activated. Authorities (local and national), MNCs, communities will have to commit to, and embrace a regular dialogue approach to find solutions to prevailing and emerging challenges. 

 Beyond policy frameworks, issues of labour exploitation, child labour, drug abuse, sexual exploitation, environmental degradation, ‘land grabbing’, the health and safety of communities in the mining areas could also be tackled through inclusive and genuine dialogues.  

However, for this approach to yield positive results, the communities and local authorities have got to be more organized and assertive in order to engage constructively and forestall being unfairly outsmarted; the MNCs on the other hand, will have to sign up to an edict of transparency and social responsibility.

The writer is a Commissioner, Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC

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