Court orders govt to pay Lango war claimants

The High Court in Lira has ordered the government to pay billions of shillings as compensation to 5505 war claimants from the Lango sub region.

The court ordered that each claimant is paid Shs5 million as compensation for the arbitrary and unlawful deprivation of the right to a clean and sustainable environment, land that has been rendered infertile.

Justice Alex Mackay Ajiji awarded Shs3 million to the complainants as general damages for suffering since they were deprived of the source of livelihood; they lost relatives out of poverty occasioned by the government.

The court also awarded each of the claimants Shs 500,000 as punitive damages and Shs 4 million to each as the cost of restoring the environment and with interest at 12.5 percent till payment in full.

“Therefore, in this case, the defendant through his agents (in the course of employment) was responsible for the forceful creation of the IDP camps on the land of the plaintiffs hence causing grave damages to the environment as well as grave loss to the plaintiffs,” the judge ruled on Wednesday.

Under their Lango Camp Host Association, the group led by Jackson Oneka petitioned the court in 2016 arguing that the omission and commission of the government to pursue their claim aggrieved them.  

The affected districts in the Lango sub region were; Lira, Otuke, Apac, Oyam, Dokolo, Kole (formerly part of Apac) districts.

Court heard that between 2003 -2007, at the peak of the northern Uganda insurgency, the defendants' agents which included the UPDF Soldiers, central Government officials, Local Government officials and other security agencies, enforced the policy of creation of Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps. This was done throughout northern Uganda including the Lango sub region where the cause of action emanated from.

Through their lawyers, the complainants claimed that the IDP camps were set up on their land thus destroying the soil and crops.

They also claimed that before the invasion by the IDPs, they had planted various crops including orchard of pineapples, bananas, mangoes, avocadoes, oranges and some had planted or maintained eucalyptus, Nsambia, palm, shear nut and other natural trees but they were destroyed and for the case of food all eaten or stolen by the huge population of approximately Shs1,500,000 people at any one time.

Justice Ajiji ruled that the complainants had a cause of action against the government since their right to property and to a clean environment was actually violated by the government hence liable.

The court held that the government was responsible for the forceful creation of the IDP camps on the land of the plaintiffs hence causing grave damages to the environment as well as grave loss to the plaintiffs.