Museveni drawn into Busoga forest row
Feb 15, 2009
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni should intervene in the wrangles over the South Busoga Forest Reserve in Mayuge district, the deputy speaker of Parliament has said.
By Paul Kiwuuwa
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni should intervene in the wrangles over the South Busoga Forest Reserve in Mayuge district, the deputy speaker of Parliament has said.
Presiding over a meeting of the various concerned parties at Parliament on Friday, Rebecca Kadaga proposed a dialogue between the stakeholders and the President next month.
“The Government is in a dilemma. We need to settle the people and at the same time conserve the environment. People who settled in the reserve are Ugandans and we cannot chase them away,†Kadaga said.
She suggested that the Government gets alternative land for the affected people. The state minister for gender, Rukia Nakadama, however, suggested that the Government finds alternative land to plant trees and let the people occupy the forest.
Over 10,000 squatters live on the 16,382 hectares of land in Malongo and Kityerera sub-counties.
They are divided into the Ittakalyange (land owners) and the cultivators.
National Forestry Authority (NFA) officials said the forest was gazetted to protect the environment and Lake Victoria, while Ittakalyange argued that the Government grabbed it from their ancestors who were evacuated in the 1920s by the British colonialists, following an out-break of sleeping sickness.
The NFA plantation manager, Peter Ogwayi, however, said the encroachers migrated from the districts of Bugiri, Tororo, Mbale, Soroti and Sironko.
Ogwanyi said the recent violence in the area was caused by the Ittakalyange, who denied the cultivators land.
Last month two people were killed and 14 were injured in clashes.
Nakadama, who had gone to intervene in the wrangles was briefly held hostage by a mob.
They demanded the release of five people arrested in connection with the killing.
A 20-man delegation from Busoga including MPs James Kubeketerya (Bunya East), Patrick Bagyire (Bunya West), Muwuuwa Kalulu (Kigulu South), Jowali Kyeyago (Bunya South) and Mukose Mutabali (Busiki), attended.
In a statement read by the Mayuge LC5 chairman, Baker Tigawalana, the district authorities said: “When the President ordered NFA to halt evictions in 2006, the residents took it as an advantage to cut down trees, cultivate and establish homes in the reserve.â€
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni should intervene in the wrangles over the South Busoga Forest Reserve in Mayuge district, the deputy speaker of Parliament has said.
Presiding over a meeting of the various concerned parties at Parliament on Friday, Rebecca Kadaga proposed a dialogue between the stakeholders and the President next month.
“The Government is in a dilemma. We need to settle the people and at the same time conserve the environment. People who settled in the reserve are Ugandans and we cannot chase them away,†Kadaga said.
She suggested that the Government gets alternative land for the affected people. The state minister for gender, Rukia Nakadama, however, suggested that the Government finds alternative land to plant trees and let the people occupy the forest.
Over 10,000 squatters live on the 16,382 hectares of land in Malongo and Kityerera sub-counties.
They are divided into the Ittakalyange (land owners) and the cultivators.
National Forestry Authority (NFA) officials said the forest was gazetted to protect the environment and Lake Victoria, while Ittakalyange argued that the Government grabbed it from their ancestors who were evacuated in the 1920s by the British colonialists, following an out-break of sleeping sickness.
The NFA plantation manager, Peter Ogwayi, however, said the encroachers migrated from the districts of Bugiri, Tororo, Mbale, Soroti and Sironko.
Ogwanyi said the recent violence in the area was caused by the Ittakalyange, who denied the cultivators land.
Last month two people were killed and 14 were injured in clashes.
Nakadama, who had gone to intervene in the wrangles was briefly held hostage by a mob.
They demanded the release of five people arrested in connection with the killing.
A 20-man delegation from Busoga including MPs James Kubeketerya (Bunya East), Patrick Bagyire (Bunya West), Muwuuwa Kalulu (Kigulu South), Jowali Kyeyago (Bunya South) and Mukose Mutabali (Busiki), attended.
In a statement read by the Mayuge LC5 chairman, Baker Tigawalana, the district authorities said: “When the President ordered NFA to halt evictions in 2006, the residents took it as an advantage to cut down trees, cultivate and establish homes in the reserve.â€