German Firm Displaces Over 1,500 In Mubende District

Over 1,500 people in Buwekula, Mubende district, have been displaced by a German company, Kaweri Coffee Plantation Limited and pushed to a forest without food, shelter and medicine reports Josephine Maseruka. Action Aid Uganda, a non-governmental organisation which was on Friday requested by Mr. Pheres Katamba, the Resident District Commissioner, to offer humanitarian services to the displaced who are threatened by disease and starvation has advised the government to resettle the people whose rights have been abused. The displaced had their houses demolished, their food stolen or destroyed by the plantation labourers. three children died last week, two of malaria and another of a snake bite. The displaced are over 10 miles away from the nearest hospital and health centres. Over 500 pupils in the former Kitemba primary school which was within the plantation cannot go to school because the nearest schools are in Mubende town. Wild pigs are a menace and a threat to the children although they are a delicacy to the starving people. There is no clean water and faeces are scattered in the surrounding bushes. contaminated ditches are the only source of drinking water when it rains. Health officials from Kiyinda Catholic Parish, who volunteered to immunise and treat the children despite the shortage of drugs, said an outbreak of cholera, dysentery, malaria and pneumonia were imminent. Volunteers have appealed to the government for drugs and to re-settle the people to places where they can access social and health services because they had lived on the land for long. Ends