Amuriat to degazette forests to resettle landless citizens

Mr Amuriat said degazetting forests to resettle landless citizens would be part of the solution to the rampant land conflicts in the country. 

“We shall start good programme of afforestation, but we shall degazette some of the central forest so that some people permanently settle there. Museveni is evicting people from the forests without clear resettlement plans and yet many of our people depend on these forests,” Mr Amuriat said.

“The dictatorship has, in many instances, disregarded the citizens’ right to land and facilitated or looked the other way as Ugandans lost their [bibanja] to land grabbers who are, in many cases, well connected within the system,”  he added.

Mr Amuriat told residents that security of land tenure in the country is threatened by greed and land grabbing aided by the state machinery.

Mr Amuriat said thousands of Ugandans are landless, and the government promise of resettlement never comes. 

He cited the Benet people of Sebei Sub-region, who were evicted from Mt Elgon National Park in 2008 and have since then lived in sub-human conditions in camps between Kween and Bukwo districts. 

“We have to decisively deal with historical distortions of land ownership, use, and transfer that cripple Ugandans from fighting their way into prosperity. The process of acquiring land must be made quick and transparent,” Mr Amuriat said. 

“We will establish well-planned settlements for rural and urban communities and supplied with basic utilities like running water, power, paved roads, schools, health facilities, decent housing and recreation grounds. That will free more land for modernised large scale commercial farming in the country,” he added. 

Some of the residents in Namisindwa and Manafwa districts told Daily Monitor that while Mr Amuriat’s plan is good on paper, their priorities are different. 
Mr Robert Nabie, a resident of Bobutu Town Council said many of them have land, but lack capital to procure inputs for commercial farming.

Locals speak out
“I want Amuriat to make sure we are provided with tools and very good quality ones. Our second challenge is poor roads, and this increases the cost of transport, so he must make sure he makes for us good roads,” Mr Nabie said.

Mr Boniface Namale, another resident in the same area said: “We need change and Museveni must go. He has caused us problems because we are educated but we cannot get jobs. He evicted many people from mountain Elgon, but when you go and see the condition of those people, it is horrible.” 

Mr Jackson Mabenga, a candidate for LC3 chairperson for Bobutu town council said: “Our land is fertile but people are still poor and stuck with subsistence farming. Government gives us poor quality seeds and weak implements. We need government assistance t9o fight poverty and unemployment. All we need from is for Amuriat’s government to support us and we develop ourselves.”

FDC manifesto
His latest promise, however, conflicts with the Forum for the Democratic Change (FDC)’s 2021-2016 manifesto which gives emphasis to protection of forests and other ecological features in the country.  

The FDC manifesto reads on page 51: “Rampant deforestation led to the decline of forest cover from 24 per cent  in 1990 to the current 8 per cent. Uganda loses 2 per cent of its natural forest annually, the highest rate in the world. This is a dangerous and worrying trend...[FDC will] expedite the cancellation of illegal land titles in wetlands and forests across the country and without exceptions.”

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