General defends Masindi evictions
Oct 14, 2006
BISHOP Stanley Ntagali of Masindi-Kitara Diocese (above) has launched an emergency appeal for food supplies to assist over 1,200 people evicted from their land in Masindi.
By Kyetume Kasanga
BISHOP Stanley Ntagali of Masindi-Kitara Diocese (above) has launched an emergency appeal for food supplies to assist over 1,200 people evicted from their land in Masindi.
The people were evicted from the 503-hectare piece of land in Kisuuga village in Miirya sub-county last month.
The Bishop’s Emergency Appeal Fund came after the residents faced famine, one month after their eviction by the UPDF Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Jim Owoyesigyire.
However, owoyesigyire said he bought the land from three individual families and gave a one-year notice to the squatters.
He said he compensated all genuine squatters and facilitated them to vacate, adding that those who were evicted were encroachers.
“I compensated all the six families and even assisted them with transport to go to places of their choice but when I went for a course abroad, other people came and occupied my land,†he said on phone.
“The Church is a voice for the voiceless and we cannot leave things take their own course,†Ntagali said on Wednesday.
Ntagali said the Diocesan Planning and Development Officer, Godfrey Mugisa, would coordinate the fund.
Ntagali was delivering a consignment of food at Kisuuga Church after stray head of cattle destroyed the evictees’ gardens. He said he and the Catholic Church mobilised the relief.
He said the Church could afford only once a week to deliver relief supplies to those affected until the end of this month.
The area LC5 councillor, Ronald Kyomuhendo, said the land had developments including a trading centre, two churches and a school.
Owoyesigyire fenced it off but left out the churches and the school. The institutions have since been closed because the population has moved away.
BISHOP Stanley Ntagali of Masindi-Kitara Diocese (above) has launched an emergency appeal for food supplies to assist over 1,200 people evicted from their land in Masindi.
The people were evicted from the 503-hectare piece of land in Kisuuga village in Miirya sub-county last month.
The Bishop’s Emergency Appeal Fund came after the residents faced famine, one month after their eviction by the UPDF Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Jim Owoyesigyire.
However, owoyesigyire said he bought the land from three individual families and gave a one-year notice to the squatters.
He said he compensated all genuine squatters and facilitated them to vacate, adding that those who were evicted were encroachers.
“I compensated all the six families and even assisted them with transport to go to places of their choice but when I went for a course abroad, other people came and occupied my land,†he said on phone.
“The Church is a voice for the voiceless and we cannot leave things take their own course,†Ntagali said on Wednesday.
Ntagali said the Diocesan Planning and Development Officer, Godfrey Mugisa, would coordinate the fund.
Ntagali was delivering a consignment of food at Kisuuga Church after stray head of cattle destroyed the evictees’ gardens. He said he and the Catholic Church mobilised the relief.
He said the Church could afford only once a week to deliver relief supplies to those affected until the end of this month.
The area LC5 councillor, Ronald Kyomuhendo, said the land had developments including a trading centre, two churches and a school.
Owoyesigyire fenced it off but left out the churches and the school. The institutions have since been closed because the population has moved away.