Eight people have been arrested in Sipi region for allegedly running a 'ghost district' and extorting money from the locals in dubious land deals.  

The suspects include Karim Abdu, Siret Chemaswet, Sophie Chelangat, Topister Chelangat, David Chemonges, James Chemonges, Buckson Chelimo, and Julius Yeko

Some of the suspects were arrested while holding a demonstration yesterday. Photo By Javier Silas Omagor

ASP (rtd) Hope Atuhaire, the Kween resident district commissioner, commanded the arrest this week.

Kween RDC Atuhaire addressing irate demonstrators before ordering for the arrest of their leaders. Photo By Javier Silas Omagor

“This team are among the group that have decided to illegally create their own district, which has been called Kiptui District Local Government in the lower belt of Kween and Bulambuli districts,” Atuhaire told New Vision on Saturday (July 1).  

“They have established pseudo-offices, where they erected a Ugandan and an East African flag.

“For a place to be granted district status, there is a legal procedure that must be followed and we all know about that.  

“Individuals cannot wake up one morning to claim a district without the knowledge of relevant authorities. including the President, who is the Fountain of Honour," said Atuhaire. 

'80,000 people duped'

According to the RDC, the suspects have also been allegedly inciting violence and staging several unlawful demonstrations, some of which were reportedly directed at her office. 

Besides the district saga, the authorities claim that the same group has been soliciting money from unsuspecting locals in exchange for land that does not exist.  

“They charge sh100,000 per five acres but on the receipt, it is only sh20,000 reflected with an unspecified outstanding balance,” said Atuhaire.  

“Over 80,000 people have been duped in the same way by this group and more action is required for us to save the situation.” 

Area MPs urge calm

Meanwhile, Sipi region Members of Parliament have called for calm among the affected locals as the issue is being handled.  

“I want to condemn what is happening in the lower-belt and advise the perpetrators to desist from these illicit practices,” Solomon Chelangat Alinga, the MP of Too County in Bukwo, told New Vision.  

“If it is about reclaiming the lost land or demanding for a new district, we as leaders can handle this issue to the very end." 

Evelyn Chemutai, Bukwo District Woman MP, said the orchestrators of the low-belt controversies were only setting up "a time bomb" that could lead to community bloodshed. 

“I have learnt that the team is allocating the same pieces of land to multiple buyers and that will potentially trigger clashes soon rather than later,” she warned.

“I call upon the locals to desist from these transactions and wait for the resolutions the leaders of Sebei will make once we convene a meeting to discuss the same in the next coming weeks.”  

The contested land measures approximately 67,400 acres across the villages of Kamungei, Nanam, Katapchemwal, Rongoro, Korosi, Bunambutye, Kewamwotil, Ngoyo, Chekwesat, Sukongong, and others. 

Tingye County MP, Fadil Twalla has urged local authorities to embark on community sensitization and public dialogue sessions to bring about mutual understanding between the rivaling parties.

"Concerned residents in Sebei should discuss with their leaders and Bulambuli should do the same before a grand meeting between two sides is called for the ultimate resolutions going forward," Twalla advised.

Kapchorwa RDC Linos Lotem was concerned that the team had hoodwinked the locals to believe that Kiptui is a lost district that once belonged to Sebei but was misplaced during the past insurgencies.  

“This is wrong and misleading,” he said.

'We want our land back'

Concerned residents gesture towards the land they claim belongs to them in low-belt of Kween and Bulambuli districts. Photo By Javier Silas Omagor

Christopher Siwa, 57, said they were displaced from the said land between 1962 and 1975.    

Another claimant, 68-year-old Jackson Kwarat, who settled in the present-day Binyinyi, Kween district recalls his father having a home in a lower-belt village of Sukongong.  

Jackson Kwarat of Binyiny says two of his children contracted polio as a result of open defecation. Photo By Javier Silas Omagor

“We stayed in the lowlands and only came here to upper-belt areas such as Binyinyi to hunt and graze in the forest.

“This place was considered not fit enough for human settlement by our ancestors but when the raids by the Karamojong persisted, they were compelled to relocate here," he said.

“Just that what they thought would be a temporary settlement turned into a permanent one, but that does not deprive us of the historical ownership of the low-belt land. 

“Currently where we stay is rocky and cannot facilitate the construction of toilets, drilling of boreholes as well as digging of graves. That is why we want our land back.”  

Jackson Mutai the spokesperson of the embattled group, Sebei Land Youth Claimants Association, denied any wrongdoing, stressing that they were only peacefully reclaiming their ancestral land.  

“We are the indigenous people who are going back to our land which our ancestors owned before insurgencies and persistent Karamojong raids displaced them from before the NRM government stabilized the country,” he said. 

“Our forefathers migrated upwards towards Mt. Elgon, into the national game park in present-day Kween, Kapchorwa and Bukwo districts while others crossed the border to Kenya in quest for peace and pasture for their animals.  

“Surprisingly, part of the land the ancestors left behind was grabbed and divided between the districts of Bulambuli and Kween while a section has been sold to a group posturing as investors.”  

“We are taking back what is rightly ours, nothing less, nothing more," said Mutai.

Some claimants have since settled in the troubled land while others are preparing to return from Kenya, Bukwo, Kween and other places where they had sought refuge in the past. 

They suggest that part of the land they claim had been intact, only for the sudden changes between 2007 and 2012 that saw most of the land reportedly tampered with.  

'Membership fee'

Mutai confirmed the arrest of their colleagues but condemned the manner by which authorities are handling the situation.  

“Our colleagues have taken weeks in detention without trial or being told their charges.  

“Worst of it is the fact that they were first detained in Kween Central Police Station and when the concerned residents demanded for their trial, the authorities whisked them to an unknown destination.

Asked on the money extortion allegations, Mutai said; "The money we collect is majorly the membership fee. It is to help run the day-to-day activities of the association."

In his last visit to Sebei, the issue was brought to the notice of President Yoweri Museveni, who directed Bulambuli LC5 chairperson Annet Nandutu to thoroughly investigate and produce a report about the matter.  

In the past, there have been community clashes that have led to loss of lives between Sebei and Bugisu over land.