IGG should investigate the injustice meted on the Ndorobo

Dec 04, 2009

THE Ndorobo were originally a hunter-gatherer community who occupy the Mt. Elgon slopes. When the colonial Uganda government decided to transform the Mt. Elgon forest into a reserve, little did they know that the gazettement would erupt into a problem tha

THE Ndorobo were originally a hunter-gatherer community who occupy the Mt. Elgon slopes. When the colonial Uganda government decided to transform the Mt. Elgon forest into a reserve, little did they know that the gazettement would erupt into a problem that would still be lingering within the indigenous communities more than half a decade later.

The problem was left hanging and was inherited by the present government. During the initial resettlement process initiated in 1983, Government acquired 6,000 hectares of land in the Benet side of Kapchorwa district where the majority of the Ndorobo were relocated, though pockets of them remained dispersed within the protected area.

Yet while this process was presumably done in good faith, the local leaders fraudulently abused the relocation process by incorporating other people and extending the intended boundary by over 1,500 hectares over and above the officially recognised 6000ha! As if that was not bad enough, there was an oversight that to- date continues to be a centre of controversy.

Some eight people rejected the relocation process and stayed abandoned in Kapsekek area, and to date they have multiplied into at least 49 families. They fully established themselves with farmlands, cattle, and semi-permanent homesteads. In an effort to flush these Ndorobo remnants from the protected area, a 2002 Parliamentary Resolution endorsed only the original 6000ha and ordered all those settled above that line to vacate with immediate effect.

The Uganda Land Alliance (ULA) appreciates the need to protect the Mount Elgon eco-system especially given the visible climate changes, but condemns the massive corruption in Government’s resettlement of these indigenous people.

ULA appeals to all Government agencies, including the Uganda Human Rights Commission and the IGG to investigate the human rights violations that have been meted on these innocent people.

Deo K. Tumusiime
Communications Officer
Uganda Land Alliance
Secretariat

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