397 villagers accuse investor of brutality in land eviction

Three hundred and ninety seven indigenous families in Kiswaza village, Kiziranfumbi Sub-County in Hoima District are living miserably following their eviction by the proprietors of Hoima Sugar Limited.

On Tuesday, led by their representative Stephen Buryahika, 52, they accused Hoima Sugar Limited before the Commission of inquiry into land matters of unlawful eviction from their land so as to pave way for sugar plantation.

Villagers who accuse police of using excessive force to drive them from the disputed land in Kiswaza, in 2002, said that they had filed a suit in Masindi High Court after the proprietors of Hoima Sugar Limited ignored their request to stay on the land.

The Commission seated at the archives and records center in Wandegeya, Kampala heard that the order restraining any development on the disputed land was issued by Justice Simon Byabakama, the then resident judge in Masindi High Court.

Buryahika said during their forceful eviction many people were injured when the police used force in an attempt to evict roughly 397 villagers from eight square miles of disputed land.

He alleged that  the police seem to have been hired by Hoima Sugar Limited, a firm that was trying to develop the area into a sugar plantation.

He said the police and other law enforcement officers went against the court order  issued by Masindi High Court because they had been compromised adding that in Uganda a poor person cannot get justice from  the courts of law.

Buryahika also said the authorities did not help them, but they helped the company adding they suspect that the authority received money from the company to evict them.

"Those police officers got money from Hoima Sugar Limited," he said.

Asaba Muhereza, 57, resident of Kijayo/ Muzirandulu in Hoima district told the Commission that the land was customarily owned by them but in 2002, the late Prince Herbert Rwakiswaza Kimera came with an exparte court order from the Hoima magistrate's court claiming ownership of the land.

"He said he had a land title. He put the announcements on the local radio and came with the police and Kingdom security persons who destroyed our crops and razed down our houses," he said.

Muhereza who now lives in an Internally Displaced People's camp said they petitioned their area leaders including the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) who intervened and resettled them on the land but it was short lived.

"Ten years later, Kimera came back again with the police and evicted us from the land. We decided to form an association and sue him in the high Court," he said and also revealed that to date they are still waiting for the final judgment.

He also said that when Kimera died, Hoima sugar Limited, brought in bulldozers and tractors cleared the remaining property on the land claiming that they had bought the land from Kimera.

"We are now living in the camp where the conditions are deplorable," he said.

The families asked the commission headed by Court of Appeal Judge Catherine Bamugemereire to compel Hoima Sugar Ltd to compensate them and also give them back their land.

When summoned to respond to the allegations, Ramadoss Rajasekaran, the agriculture manager of Hoima Sugar Limited denied having a hand in the evictions and said that they are ready to compensate the families for the loss of their property so long as their claims are genuine.

He said that they bought the land from Kimera who claimed to be the lawful owner and started clearing it for development.

"While developing it, people started infiltrating and laying claims on the land. They even went as far as planting crops. We left them to do so and decided to coexist. Those who later gave up on the land and asked for compensations, we compensated them," he said.

He said that they are ready for negotiations and are ready to compensate whoever has a legitimate claim, stating that a list of 376 claimants has been given to them and they are going to review it and compensate them.

The other commissioners are Robert Ssebunnya, Mary Oduka Ochan, Joyce Gunze Habaasa, Dr Rose Nakayi, Fredrick Ruhindi and George Bagonza. Ebert Byenkya is the lead counsel, while Bosco Suuza is assistant lead counsel.