Evicted hesrdsmen appeal for Museveni aid

Dec 28, 2010

HERDSMEN who were evicted from Buliisa district in western Uganda a fortnight ago want to meet President Yoweri Museveni over the matter.

By Pascal Kwesiga

HERDSMEN who were evicted from Buliisa district in western Uganda a fortnight ago want to meet President Yoweri Museveni over the matter.

Addressing a press conference at Waki village in Kigorobya sub-county in Hoima district on Monday, the leader of the pastoralists, Grace Bwororoza, said they intended to meet Museveni before the new year.

“We badly want to meet President Museveni. We want to explain our situation to him because we have nowhere to go,” she said.

Bwororoza added that there were groups of people who had met Museveni, claiming to have been sent by the evicted herdsmen.

“There are people meeting President Museveni and telling him lies. They have told him that I am abusing him and that I am inciting the herdsmen against his government, but this is not true,” she said.

More than 600 pastoralist families and their cattle were evicted from Buliisa following a Supreme Court ruling that they were occupying the land illegally.

The cattle keepers, through their lawyer Mukasa Lugalambi, appealed against the ruling, but their appeal was dismissed in 2010.

Bwororoza maintained that court dismissed their suit on technical grounds, adding that they would sue the Government again if they were not compensated.

“The court said we should have sued the Government instead of suing Kale Kayihura, David Tinyefunza and the Attorney General,” she said.

She added that the cattle keepers had temporarily settled on peoples’ lands in Hoima, Kiboga, Kyankwanzi, Nakaseke and Masindi districts.

Some of them have settled at the banks of river Waki, Kijunjubwa village in Masindi, Kyangwali in Hoima and Bukwiri and Lubiri in Kyankwanzi district.

The pastoralists secured an interim court injunction in Masindi High Court stopping the eviction, but they had already been evicted by a combined force of the army, Police and intelligence officers led by Gen. David Tinyefunza, the coordinator of military intelligence. Court will hear the case in March, 2011.

The pastoralists claimed that they were evicted from land they bought legally from the indigenous people. Land is owned communally in Buliisa district.

“We have lost our animals. Many are selling their cows for as little as sh50,000 because we are being told to leave. We have no place to stay even for the next three days,” she said.

The LC1 chairman for Waki village, Andrew Byarufu, said they had given the cattle keepers three days to vacate the area.

“They (herdsmen) are bathing in the open as our children look on. They are dipping the cows in the water we drink and they have spoilt our water sources,” he said.

Joyce Musasirwa, 14, said they have been sleeping under the trees since they were evicted from Buliisa.

“My mother Murerwa Wadera was arrested during the eviction and I have not seen her again. I am told she is at Masindi Police Station. I want to see her,” she said.



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