Law will be followed on Mabira, says President
Sep 05, 2011
PRESIDENT Museveni has said he will not use an executive order to give away part of Mabira Forest to the Mehta Group to expand their sugar cane plantation and sugar production.
By Vision Reporter
PRESIDENT Museveni has said he will not use an executive order to give away part of Mabira Forest to the Mehta Group to expand their sugar cane plantation and sugar production.
Museveni met activists opposed to the Mabira givea¬way yesterday in Ntungamo.
He said the final decision on the matter would be taken by Parliament.
The activists led by MPs Beatrice Anywar (Kitgum Woman) and Ken Lukyamuzi (Rubaga South) included lawyers, environmentalists and student representatives, according to statement issued by State House.
Mehta Group chairman M.N. Mehta and Sharma Mehta, the managing direc¬tor, also attended.
The activists are opposed to giving part of the forest to the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL).
Museveni says he only wants the degraded part of the forest given to SCOUL
Museveni explained that his interest is to boost economic transformation alongside environmental protection through rationalis¬ing land use.
“This is not an executive order, it will be a parliamen¬tary decision. If they do not accept my proposal, at least I will be on the record. I cannot be part of a histori¬cal mistake of not showing Ugandans the way forward,†he said. Museveni said his interest was not in shrinking Mabira but to rationalise its use by expanding parts of it in over 10 years, while at the same time expanding the fac¬tory, develop Sango Bay and Amuru to meet the current sugar demand.
“My obsession with facto¬ries is that not only will they give us new capacity, I can’t just throw them away. It is us who need that factory, it is our factory. It is part of our GDP. We should not accept misinformation and mali¬cious attitude to this issue,†he said.
“While we can have honey and hotels in Mabira, we can also have industries,†he argued.
Sharma said the company needed to expand to be vi¬able. “When we heard about the offer from Kabaka in the newspapers, we went to the Buganda Land Board and wrote letters to them three times, but we did not receive any reply to date.â€
“The church in Mukono said they had also offered us 40,000 hectares. We wrote to them, sent people there, but there was no response. Nobody has responded since 2007. The land which is there is occupied by bibanja hold¬ers,†Sharma said.
He said they had planted over one million trees on 1,500 hectares.
According to the statement, the President and the activ¬ists agreed on the expansion of SCOUL. They agreed to have a study to gauge the rationality of the issue and also look at alternatives.
The legalities of the matter will be handled after advice from the Attorney General.
PRESIDENT Museveni has said he will not use an executive order to give away part of Mabira Forest to the Mehta Group to expand their sugar cane plantation and sugar production.
Museveni met activists opposed to the Mabira givea¬way yesterday in Ntungamo.
He said the final decision on the matter would be taken by Parliament.
The activists led by MPs Beatrice Anywar (Kitgum Woman) and Ken Lukyamuzi (Rubaga South) included lawyers, environmentalists and student representatives, according to statement issued by State House.
Mehta Group chairman M.N. Mehta and Sharma Mehta, the managing direc¬tor, also attended.
The activists are opposed to giving part of the forest to the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL).
Museveni says he only wants the degraded part of the forest given to SCOUL
Museveni explained that his interest is to boost economic transformation alongside environmental protection through rationalis¬ing land use.
“This is not an executive order, it will be a parliamen¬tary decision. If they do not accept my proposal, at least I will be on the record. I cannot be part of a histori¬cal mistake of not showing Ugandans the way forward,†he said. Museveni said his interest was not in shrinking Mabira but to rationalise its use by expanding parts of it in over 10 years, while at the same time expanding the fac¬tory, develop Sango Bay and Amuru to meet the current sugar demand.
“My obsession with facto¬ries is that not only will they give us new capacity, I can’t just throw them away. It is us who need that factory, it is our factory. It is part of our GDP. We should not accept misinformation and mali¬cious attitude to this issue,†he said.
“While we can have honey and hotels in Mabira, we can also have industries,†he argued.
Sharma said the company needed to expand to be vi¬able. “When we heard about the offer from Kabaka in the newspapers, we went to the Buganda Land Board and wrote letters to them three times, but we did not receive any reply to date.â€
“The church in Mukono said they had also offered us 40,000 hectares. We wrote to them, sent people there, but there was no response. Nobody has responded since 2007. The land which is there is occupied by bibanja hold¬ers,†Sharma said.
He said they had planted over one million trees on 1,500 hectares.
According to the statement, the President and the activ¬ists agreed on the expansion of SCOUL. They agreed to have a study to gauge the rationality of the issue and also look at alternatives.
The legalities of the matter will be handled after advice from the Attorney General.