Ministers meet over Migingo island

May 03, 2009

UGANDAN ministers will meet today to discuss findings of the team which recently returned from the UK where they had gone to study old colonial maps.

By Raymond Baguma
and Agencies

UGANDAN ministers will meet today to discuss findings of the team which recently returned from the UK where they had gone to study old colonial maps.

The findings by surveyors from the Ministry of Lands will help determine the location of Migingo Island.

Fred Opolot, the director of the Uganda Media Centre, yesterday said the meeting would be attended by the ministers of internal and foreign affairs, as well as those of lands and fisheries.

The small rocky island in Lake Victoria measuring about one acre, whose ownership has been contested by Kenya and Uganda.

President Yoweri Museveni last week ordered that Uganda pulls down her flag to allow final preparations for the demarcation and to calm the nerves of some Kenyans who had become hostile to Ugandans living in Kenya, as well as businessmen transporting their goods from Mombasa.

In taking this decision, Opolot said: “Museveni also considered the need for flag neutrality on the Island during the border verification.”

Some of the surveyors who will attend the meeting include Lawrence Bwogi, the director of lands management and Dr. Yafesi Okia, the assistant commissioner of surveying and mapping.

Meanwhile, the Government has suspended the Uganda-Kenya border re-marking exercise to resolve the dispute over Migingo Island.

Opolot said the survey could not proceed because of the scheduled meeting. He added that the outcome of the meeting would determine whether the demarcation exercise would continue.

The two countries agreed to obtain the colonial maps so as to resolve the dispute over the island.

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