Fresh fights erupt over Kyalubanga Forest Reserve land

Authorities in Nakasongola District have hastily deployed police to contain violent attacks reportedly orchestrated by a section of residents occupying the eight-square mile Kyalubanga Forest Reserve land scheduled for degazetting under a Presidential directive.

Last Saturday, a house was  torched, property looted and several residents  hurt in an attack that preceded a stakeholder meeting convened by the State Minister for Lands, Mr Sam Mayanja on October 19 at Nabiswera Sub County headquarters.

The conflict pits one group of residents against another over who should remain and who should leave the forestry land.

Nakasongola Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Saleh Kamba, reveals that the deployment of the Police in the area is meant to secure the safety of property and lives following last Saturday violent acts at Kabuye Village in Lwabyata Sub County.

“We have deployed the security as the police investigate the source of violence including the perpetrators of the violent acts,” he said on Monday.

At Kabuye Village where the tenants are settled on the Kyalubanga Forest Reserve land, unidentified groups of people armed with clubs and machetes attacked homes and torched a house belonging to Mr Frank Kamomo last Saturday.

The attackers that only found young children at the home reportedly forced the three children out of the grass thatched house before it was set on fire.

“They asked my children about my whereabouts before they set the fire. They also emphasized that their parents will not relocate to a different area,” he said.

But Mr Sam Yeheyo, who sustained serious bodily injuries in a separate attack at Kabuye Village on the same day when more than six people attacked his father’s home, said the family fought off the attackers that tried to set their house on fire.

“They [attackers] demanded that we relocate from Kyalubanga forest land immediately. They engaged us in a fight before they fled the scene I was hit with a club and sustained a deep cut on my head,” he said.

Mr Robert Kawa, the chairperson of the Kyalubanga Sitting Tenants Association blamed the violence on what he claimed were reckless statements made by a section of local leaders at a meeting convened by Minister Mayanja on October 19.

“We anticipated the attacks after the meeting convened by the state Minister for Lands. When he [minister] made a public statement that the forest reserve land was meant for only the sitting tenants and not the direction the district officials took to allocate land to other people, the violence began the next day,” he said.

The Nakasongola District chairperson, Mr Sam Kigula, accused Mr Mayanja of wrongly interpreting the President’s letter instead suiting his selfish interests. 

“You can now see the outcome of some of the unwise decisions that our leaders make in public. The violence against any group of people settled at Kyalubanga is uncalled for. As the district leadership, we had found it prudent to allow the people displaced by the 2020 Lake Kyoga floods get settled on sections of that land. But some of our leaders harbour selfish interests,” he said.

Kyalubanga land background

In his November 19, 2019 letter copied to the Vice President, Speaker of Parliament, the Prime Minister among other offices, President Museveni directed that the Kyalubanga Forest Reserve land be degazetted and given to the tenants in Nakasongola. 

The President, however, said the right process of degazetting should be followed. The degazetting process is yet to be completed, Mr Kigula revealed on Monday.