Kyankwanzi residents live in fear of evictions

Residents in several villages of Kyankwanzi district are living in fear of eviction. This prompted women activists to demand for action from the district authorities.

Several people in different parts of the district claim they have received eviction notices from land fraudsters or landlords who act in total violation of the land legal frame work. Others have since been evicted without or inadequate compensation.

Bananywa, Gayaza, Nsambya, Nkandwa and Kitabona sub-counties are the most hit by land conflicts and the Kyankwanzi Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Deo Kasumba, partly blamed this to the upsurge of immigrants from as far as Rwanda into the district.

"As a district, we lack clear data on land conflicts since most of them are handled by the sub-county area land committees, courts, police and the office of the Resident District Commissioner RDC," he said.

In Bananywa sub-county in the villages of Lwengo, Kasubi, Ntonzi, Sindula and Kachungiro, according to Butemba county MP, Innocent Kamusiime Pentagon, several residents were displaced when an investor, Kyankwanzi Sugar Works Limited was granted a lease for over three square miles of land by the district.

Despite the fact that about 45 families have been compensated, Pentagon is concerned with the meager compensation rates of sh1m for each acre.

"We are engaged in negotiations with Premier Distillers Limited who bought the land from Kyankwanzi Sugar Works Limited to adequately compensate about 45 remaining families," he said.

In Gayaza sub-county, several women including widows have complained that some local authorities and the Police are conspiring with land grabbers to steal their land.

At a meeting with women activists from a local organization, Action for Rural Women Empowerment (ARUWE) at Kasubi trading center in Gayaza west village , Rovinah Najuma, 54, faulted the village chairperson, Margate Kalera of conspiring to grab  her 10 acre piece of land.

However, efforts to secure a comment from Margrate Kalera were futile, as phone calls went unanswered to clarify on the matter.

Over six other women among them, Getrude Nakaguliire, Plasteo Zewukisha, one Manyobwa, and Maama Gloria  have registered related complaints.

According to Sylvia Nalubega, ARUWE programmes officer, the suffering inflicted on these women was unacceptable tasking authorities to act.